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Illinois sets up new nuke task force

Found in the Lake County News-Sun: State Senator Michael Bond recently announced the adoption of a resolution to create a new task force on nuclear power issues in Illinois.

Senate Joint Resolution 101 creates the Nuclear Power Issues Task Force to study key concerns related to nuclear power use in Illinois, including the state's ban on the construction of new nuclear reactors.

The task force will focus on the following issues related to nuclear power use in Illinois: The decommissioning of existing and retired nuclear plants, waste storage and disposal issues (including any economic potential) and the reprocessing of spent nuclear fuel.

"With the very real threat of global climate change, and existing issues with air quality and public health, we must act now to develop alternative sources of energy that are safe, clean and economically viable," Bond said. "The expansion of the nuclear power industry holds tremendous benefits, but first we need to resolve safety and security issues."

Fancy Californian hike?  Well, thanks to David Sneed, writing for The Tribune/Mercury News, there’s an unusual one for you to try out.

Hikers now have access to three miles of coastline north of Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant. Pacific Gas and Electric Co., which owns the plant and surrounding property, opened the entire length of the Point Buchon Trail to the public in June.

The trail, which is open from 8 am to 5pm Thursday to Monday, goes from the southern boundary of Montana de Oro State Park to Crowbar Canyon, a point just north of Diablo Canyon Power Plant. Hikers must sign in but do not need to be accompanied by docents (that’s volunteer guides to you and me).

The California Coastal Commission required that PG&E build the trail (which winds through part of a security buffer zone around the plant) in exchange for permission to install an above-ground storage facility for the plant's highly radioactive used reactor fuel. This is the first time the public has had access to this part of the Californian coastline in years. So, still fancy this, do we??

Thanks goes to Alissa Rubin and Campbell Robertson, reporting for the New York Times for this.

American and Iraqi officials have completed nearly the last chapter in dismantling Saddam Hussein’s nuclear program with the removal of hundreds of tons of natural uranium from the country’s main nuclear site.

American military personnel helped move about 600 tons of uranium in the form called yellowcake. It had been stored at Tuwaitha, an installation 12 miles south of Baghdad. It apparently arrived in Canada over the weekend.

Although the material cannot be used in its current form for a nuclear weapon or even a so-called dirty bomb, officials decided that in Iraq’s unstable environment, it was important to make sure it did not fall into the wrong hands.

Images: Saurabh Das (Associated Press) / ENS Newswire

Our thanks a second time around to Frank Munger and the Knoxnews web pages for yet another little gem featuring the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. In separate incidents barely a week apart in April, nuclear warhead parts were dropped at the complex, but a plant spokesman said there was no threat of a nuclear explosion.

“There was no danger to the public,” Bill Wilburn said. “There was never any danger of explosion. There was nothing associated with this work that could cause an explosion.”

Both of the drops occurred at Y-12’s Assembly/Disassembly Building, where workers build and dismantle warhead components containing enriched uranium.

According to a report: “The part fell approximately seven inches onto an inspection stand causing minor damage to the part,” “Neither the visible nor audible loss-of-vacuum alarms activated during this event.” In other words, there were no criticality concerns…

Here’s a rather scary tale for a Monday morning, thanks to Agence France-Presse (AFP). Most European air force bases that house US nuclear bombs are failing to meet security requirements to protect the weapons, according to an internal US Air Force investigation.

The air bases, including those in Belgium, Germany, Holland and Italy, often fall short of US Defence Department (DOD) standards, with fencing, lighting and buildings in need of repair and security guards lacking sufficient training and experience. At some bases, military conscripts with less than a year of active duty experience were assigned the task of guarding the weapons against theft.

As a result of the security concerns, the United States may decide to consolidate the nuclear weapons at fewer bases in Europe. Consolidating the storage of the weapons would "minimize variances and reduce vulnerabilities at overseas locations."

Images: CBS / Theodora.com

Here’s a recent report from Allison Miles, writing for the Victoria Advocate in Texas. More than half of area residents surveyed favour a proposed nuclear energy plant coming to Victoria County, according to a recent Nuclear Energy for Texans poll.

The organization, a group dedicated to raising awareness about nuclear energy’s benefits, found 52% of the 601 respondents favoured a build in the area. In December, Exelon Nuclear selected Victoria County as the primary site for a proposed nuclear plant. The company is researching an area, but has not made a decision to build.

18% of respondents who favoured the plant said it was because of economical issues. Others cited the need for energy, environmental issues and efficiency.

Towards the end of the survey, the public received bits of information regarding the specifics of Victoria’s proposed plant, such as waste storage, safety records and inspections. They were asked to gauge their opinions, based on the information.

Tom Forbes, NET’s president, said: “ As respondents’ knowledge increased, their support also increased. ”

The following comes from Kyle Marksteiner, reporting for the Current-Argus web pages recently.  A transuranic waste drum with prohibited levels of liquid has been removed from the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant 27 miles east of Carlsbad, New Mexico, and returned to Los Alamos National Laboratory.

The drum, packaged with other drums in a standard waste box, was shipped to Carlsbad in May and was nine rows back at the underground repository when the mistake was discovered. The drum had been tagged as not conforming to the standards required for shipment to WIPP, but it was mistakenly placed in the waste box and shipped anyway.

An official letter contained the following conclusion: “Even though the drum was identified to have a prohibited amount of liquid, this condition was indirectly and subsequently remediated when it was overpacked with three other drums for container integrity issues," and noting that the total amount of liquid in the container was less than 1% which made it compliant with WIPP's permits.

Robert Knox, writing for the Boston web pages brings us the following. Next month's closing of a nuclear waste storage facility in South Carolina means the Pilgrim nuclear power station will be forced to store low-level waste for what federal regulators call an ‘extended interim period.’

Although the waste - including resin and filters from cleaning the water used by the reactor - is far less radioactive than the used nuclear fuel already stored inside nuclear power plants, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission has issued a renewed warning to power plants on storing it safely.

The closing of the low-level storage facility in Barnwell, S.C., where reactors have sent waste for decades, comes as the Bush administration announced its determination to pursue a remote Nevada site as the ultimate repository for nuclear waste (Yep, Yucca - again)

David Tarantino, a Pilgrim spokesman, said that Pilgrim is prepared to store the low-level waste in strong concrete containers for at least 10 years, and that the arrangement poses no threat to public safety.

We’ve recently had a ‘we don’t want to worry you’ story – now we have a definite ‘head for the bunkers, people’ report, thanks to Ian Traynor’s recent report on the Hindu.com’s web site. Nuclear bomb blueprints and manuals on how to manufacture weapons-grade uranium for warheads are feared to be circulating on the international black market, according to investigators tracking the world’s most infamous nuclear smuggling racket (You didn't think we'd put real blueprints on this page, did you?)

Alarm about the sale of nuclear know-how follows the disclosure that the Swiss government, allegedly acting under U.S. pressure, secretly destroyed documents from a massive nuclear smuggling investigation. The information was seized from the home and computers of Urs Tinner, a 43-year-old Swiss engineer who has been in custody for almost four years as a key suspect in the nuclear smuggling ring run by Abdul Qadeer Khan.

“We know that copies were made,” said Mark Fitzpatrick, an expert on the illicit networks at the International Institute of Strategic Studies (IISS). “Both U.S. intelligence and the IAEA have been pursuing this with great urgency and diligence. It is worrisome that there are other plans floating around somewhere out there,” he said.

Slovenia apologised yesterday (Thursday) to its European neighbours after wrongly informing them that an incident at a nuclear power plant was an exercise, according Agence France-Presse (AFP).

Slovenian Environment Minister Janez Podobnik told other EU environment ministers he was sorry for the mistaken alert, triggered after a leak in a primary cooling system at the country's only nuclear reactor.

Speaking as he arrived for a meeting, which he chaired, Podobnik said Slovenia's nuclear agency had "used the wrong form. It used a form that had 'exercise' on it. It was a mistake that was a genuine human error."

He said the error following the coolant leak on Wednesday at the Krsko nuclear plant, which has been shut down, was spotted "in a few minutes" and corrected.

Neighbouring Austria’s Environment Minister Josef Proell, whose country is deeply opposed to nuclear power, was furious about the mix-up. "It's not okay to set off an alarm in Europe and inform Austria, Italy and Hungary that it's only an exercise," he said.

The following definitely comes under the ‘We don’t want to worry you, but we’re going to’ banner and  is, frankly, quite worrying (but not surprising given the number of similar stories out there). It comes with grateful thanks to Michael Hoffman reporting for the Air Force News web pages. The 5th Bomb Wing at Minot Air Force Base, North Dakota, failed its much-anticipated defence nuclear surety inspection recently, according to a Defence Threat Reduction Agency report.

Inspectors gave the wing an “unsatisfactory” grade after uncovering many crucial mistakes during the weeklong inspection. Security broke down on multiple levels during simulated attacks across the base: at one point, inspectors observed a forces’ security guard playing games on his mobile phone, whilst supposedly on duty at a restricted area perimeter.

The lapses are baffling, given the high-level focus on Minot since last August, when 5th Bomb Wing airmen mistakenly loaded six nuclear-tipped cruise missiles onto a B-52 Stratofortress and flew them to Barksdale Air Force Base, Louisiana, where the plane sat on the flight line, unattended, for hours. That incident not only embarrassed the Air Force, but also raised concerns worldwide about the deterioration in U.S. nuclear safety standards.

We usually try to keep away from politics at anythingradioactive (especially US politics) but we thought what the heck - we’d include this item from the editorial pages of the TriCity Herald web site anyway!

We'd like to know a great deal more than we do about the specifics of the presidential candidates' views on nuclear power. The three major hopefuls have differing views on a possible future role for nuclear. Their level of commitment varies quite a bit.

Asked about nuclear power at a political forum, Senator McCain answered: "If we're really going to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, my friend, nuclear power has to be part of the solution."

Senator Clinton is the most restrained in her views on nuclear power. She told the Nuclear Energy Institute she is "agnostic about nuclear. I am very sceptical that nuclear could become acceptable in most regions of the country, and I am doubtful that we have yet figured out how to deal with the waste.”

Senator Obama, was reported by Reuters  as believing that nuclear energy is part of the solution to climate change. However, his answer to a recent questioner was: "I don't think nuclear is the best option because we don't know how to store the waste effectively.”

Our thanks to Steve Blankinship, writing for Kentucky’s Red Orbit news pages for this one.

Kentucky legislators are considering lifting a state ban on nuclear plants imposed more than 20 years ago. The move would clear the way to potentially diversify the state's power generation mix. Sponsors of a state senate bill to lift the ban cited improved ability to safely store nuclear waste on- site at nuclear plants.

Kentucky's current stance, say backers of the proposed repeal measure, is keeping the state from competing for nuclear power projects. Under the state's moratorium, no nuclear power plant can be built until a long-term federal disposal site has become operational.

The state is also a domestic source of uranium in addition to coal. Rob Ervin of the United Steel Workers, which has hundreds of members working in the uranium enrichment field near Paducah, said the safety of nuclear power has come a long way. "Exploring our options and giving us a chance to capitalize on the rebirth of an industry is what this bill is all about."

Once again, here at anythingradioactive, we prove that we are on the ball when it comes to bringing you up-to-date news reports and items on all things nuclear.

Here is a classic case in point with the following found on the pages of Scotland’s Sunday Herald web pages, written by Rob Edwards. Radioactive pollution of a Scottish military firing range by depleted uranium (DU) has risen to the highest level for more than 10 years, according to a survey for the Ministry of Defence.

Soil on parts of the Kirkcudbright Training Area on the Solway coast is so contaminated that it breaches agreed safety limits, more so as the contamination is spreading, due to the corrosion of fragments from shells misfired in the past.

Scottish Environment Minister, Michael Russell said: "The Scottish government was not adequately consulted on the test firing of DU shells at Kirkcudbright," he said. "I have stated in the past that I am strongly opposed to the testing of such weapons on Scottish soil and this remains the case."

More than 6000 DU shells were fired at the range near Dundrennan in Dumfries and Galloway between 1982 and 2004. Controversy flared again last month when the MoD test-fired another 20 DU rounds over two days.

This ‘we don’t want to worry you, but..’ story comes from the Financial Express web pages: China and Pakistan plan to set up a corporation to build nuclear and coal-based power plants in Pakistan, and Beijing has agreed to expedite the delivery of six atomic power plants of 300 MW each.

The decision to form the China-Pakistan Power Plant Corporation was made during President Pervez Musharraf's visit to China in April. China has also promised to help Pakistan achieve its target of generating 8,800 MW of nuclear power by 2030 by speeding up the delivery of the six nuclear plants.

Pakistan is also building a US $1.2 billion facility to develop the capability to manufacture full-cycle nuclear fuel and power plants, as well as setting up the Pakistan Nuclear Power Fuel Complex to manufacture pressurised water reactors and nuclear power plants.

Our grateful thanks goes to Lenita Powers, reporting for the Reno Gazette-Journal, for this gem: Members of two National Guard Civil Support Teams and the Reno Fire Department are in Reno this week, training with the city’s Hazardous Materials Response Team.

The 92nd and 95th Weapons of Mass Destruction Civil Support Team, from Hayward, California and Las Vegas, respectively, are training how to deal with chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear events. This will hopefully prepare them for any emergencies enabling them to assist local emergency services in the less-populated areas of their home states.

Here are some facts and figures: Each Civil Support Team has seven officers and 15 enlisted members. The emergency vehicles include a command vehicle, operations van, a communications vehicle that has satellite communication capabilities and an Analytical Laboratory System van that can detect more than 84,000 organic chemicals, toxic industrial chemicals, explosives, biological agents and other hazardous materials. Impressive, or what?

Here’s a bit of UK news that may have passed you by, thanks to Alex Ross, writing for the Gazette Series web pages. The town of Oldbury, in the West Midlands, could be the site for a new £2.8billion nuclear reactor.

America-based Energy Solutions has teamed up with Japanese company Toshiba-Westinghouse to table a bid to construct and operate the power station.

It comes after the government announced its support for the nuclear option to meet Britain's future power needs and is said to be welcoming bids from private energy companies.

The choice to build a new power station at Oldbury, however, has come as a surprise after it was ranked 11th in a list of 14 preferred sites: independent consultants felt that the local communities had become accustomed to having a nuclear site as a neighbour. Well, that’s okay then!

The following was filed by Mary Orndorff, writing for the Birmingham News/al.com web pages recently. New government-sponsored research into recycling spent nuclear fuel will be done in the Tennessee Valley under an agreement announced by the U.S. Department of Energy.

The deal between the Tennessee Valley Authority and the energy department will explore ways to reprocess fuel that leaves less waste with lower levels of radioactivity. The announcement also prompted Senator Jeff Sessions, a nuclear power advocate, to prepare legislation that would encourage the construction of the nation's first reprocessing facility.

The research agreement was announced by Assistant Secretary for Nuclear Energy, Dennis Spurgeon and TVA Chief Operating Officer William McCollum. TVA operates six nuclear reactors, including the recently restarted unit at Browns Ferry. 

As our thoughts turn to what to pack for our Summer hols (bucket and spade, bikini, Geiger counter) here’s a little gem courtesy of Expatica’s web pages in Spain.

Two ditches containing radioactive material dug 42 years ago during the clean-up operation after two US air force planes collided midair in 1966, spilling their nuclear payloads over southern Spain have been found, according to Teresa Mendizábal of the government-run environmental studies agency Ciemat.

"Two ditches have appeared, each 1,000 cubic metres in size, which have radioactive material that the US army left behind at the last moment and which appear in confidential reports of the [US] Department of Energy," said Mendizábal.


The US army said then that it had cleaned up the sites, claiming to have shipped 1.6 million tons of radioactive soil to the United States. Mendizábal said that while hundreds of US soldiers camped at the sites during the clean-up operation, they had left nuclear waste behind.

There is a lot of traffic about the following incident at the moment, so we thought we’d join in. Our thanks, therefore, go to Martin Roberts, reporting for the Guardian’s web pages, for picking this up via Reuters.

Up to 800 people are being examined for contamination after a leak of radioactive material at a nuclear plant in northeast Spain last November, the nuclear watchdog said on recently.

The Nuclear Safety Council (CSN) said it had so far examined 579 out of between 700 and 800 people who had been through the Asco I nuclear plant in Tarragona since the leak and none had   been contaminated. The CSN said it was considering sanctions against the plant's operators for not providing it with enough information about the leak, which it considered to be more serious than originally classified.

The CSN was not advised until April 4 of the leak, which occurred during refuelling at the 1,000 megawatt Endesa-owned Plant and was first made public by environmental group Greenpeace on April 5. CSN confirmed this shortly afterwards and sent inspectors to the site. In a statement the CSN said it had raised its rating of the leak to 2 on the International Nuclear Event Scale (INES)

Thanks goes to the Desert News web pages for this gem. Hill Air Force Base in northern Utah recently reported it had learned that materials it sent to the burn plant in Layton contained small amounts of depleted uranium. Hill sent what it called "classified components" to the Wasatch Integrated Waste Management District as part of its process of demilitarising materials, or rendering them unusable for military purposes.

The quantity of the radioactive material is described as "less than the amount found in one household smoke detector," according to Col. Linda Medler, 75th Air Base Wing commander, but the Utah Department of Environmental Quality has asked the Air Force to come up with a worst-case scenario on possible adverse health effects.

DEQ officials said the Air Force had made local notifications about the depleted-uranium-containing material, but that the state has not yet heard from the base about the maximum possible dosage of radioactive materials that could have been released when the military items were burned.

Pip Hinman has filed the following report on the Green Left Weekly web pages in Australia. The federal ALP government intends to proceed with plans to extend uranium mining. The Uranium Industry Framework (UIF), which was set up by the previous government of John Howard and has never been disbanded, has been given a new lease of life. Resources minister Martin Ferguson was quoted in the April 2 Age newspaper as saying: “Some countries see nuclear as part of their commitment to reduce greenhouse gas emissions”.

The following article was found on the Tallahassee Democrat web pages recently and filed by Bruce Ritchie.

Florida's energy future, as envisioned by Gov. Charlie Crist and put forward in sweeping House and Senate energy bills, means more nuclear power plants and more power lines across state conservation lands.  For environmental advocates it represents a trade-off: the earth-friendly ends are important enough that some are willing to accept the means to get there.

Environmental opposition has been muted after Crist came out against proposed coal-fired power plants in 2007 and made climate change fixes a state priority. But some groups say Florida should do much more to conserve energy before heading into a nuclear future.

Crist signed executive orders last summer directing Florida to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Along with using solar panels to produce electricity and hybrid cars to save gasoline, Crist says nuclear energy will play a key role in reducing the emissions linked to climate change. After all, 'You have to have juice', he said…

Here’s yet another ‘Duck & Cover’ story thanks to Rory Sweeney writing for the Times Leader web pages in Pennsylvania.  I know, I know, but I like these kinds of stories!  Residents of the 27 municipalities surrounding the Susquehanna nuclear plant in Salem Township will have to endure more rounds of siren testing now that a new system is replacing a faulty one, plant owner PPL Corp. announced recently.

A system of 76 sirens in the 10-mile-radius emergency planning zone around the plant was installed in 2006 replacing a 112-siren system built with the plant a quarter-century ago.

That system, however, failed to meet reliability requirements, and PPL sued the responsible companies, seeking in excess of $75,000. That case is still being litigated, according to plant spokesman Joe Scopelliti.

Each siren will be tested when installed, and the entire system will receive a three-minute test after installation is completed, which is expected sometime during the summer. He also added that the public would be notified before the full test – glad to hear it, Joe!!

This is a follow-on to Friday’s nugget, found whilst searching for images of Turkey Point. It's a shame not to share this with you especially as it is Easter and if you think nuclear power is a bad thing.

Florida Power & Light's (FPL's) Turkey Point nuclear power plant has played a crucial role in saving the endangered American crocodile (crocodylus acutus). The plant, thanks to its cooling system, has become the main breeding ground for the crocodiles, which were on the brink of extinction 30 years ago. The plant's cooling system, consisting of over 100 km of canals, has created the ideal breeding environment for the animals, which can grow up to 14 feet (4.25 m) long and live for 50-60 years. The reptiles prefer the plant's cooling water canals because the constant water level within the system eliminates the problem of nest flooding and protects the nest from predators. Turkey Point has become home to one-quarter of the USA's entire population of American crocodiles.

Florida regulators have approved Florida Power & Light Co.’s petition to build two new nuclear plants at its Turkey Point facility, according to a recent report found on South Florida’s Business Journal web pages.

The state Public Service Commission determined that there is a need for the additional power. Turkey Point, located south of Miami, currently has nuclear units, two gas and oil units, and one natural gas unit. The two new nuclear units (which are still awaiting federal approval) would come online in 2018 and 2020, and contribute between 2,200 megawatts and 3,000 megawatts of new generation.

"Trends indicate there will be a substantial need for more power in FP&L's service territory, and these new nuclear units can help meet that need," PSC Chairman Matthew M. Carter II said in a news release. "The nuclear units will provide a clean, non-carbon-emitting source of base-load power to meet Florida's growing energy needs."

Here’s something that may have passed you by, brought to you courtesy of Frank Munger writing for the Knoxnews web pages. Oak Ridge, Tennessee: New Scientist magazine is reporting that problems with a super-secret material manufactured at the Y-12 nuclear weapons plant are holding up efforts to refurbish W76 warheads, which are deployed on Trident missiles.

According to the magazine's report by Rob Edwards, the material is code-named "Fogbank" and is extremely hazardous. It is reportedly produced at Y-12's new Purification Facility, a $50 million facility that was completed in mid-2005. Oak Ridge officials have repeatedly refused to discuss details of the "technical issues" holding up the program to extend the life of the W76 warheads and, at one point, denied that it was a materials problem.

The W76 is considered a critically important part of the nuclear arsenal, not only in the United States but in the United Kingdom as well – bet you didn’t know that…

Grateful thanks go to Anika Bourleyand, Chris Story and Cumbria’s News and Star web pages. In an announcement made on Thursday it was revealed that the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority is marketing its sites in West Cumbria to developers who could secure the sprawling atomic complex’s future.

The creation of a new power station forms the backbone of the Britain’s Energy Coast Masterplan – a bid to use £2bn of public and private sector cash to transform the west Cumbrian economy by £800 million and create 16,000 jobs.

Agencies charged with revitalising the area’s economy believe it is a major move towards attracting firms interested in creating a new station in west Cumbria – fuelled by waste already stored there.

NDA officials have started a process to gauge interest from firms interested in developing its land, including Sellafield, Calder Hall, Windscale and the low level waste repository at Drigg (above).

Found on the Christian Science Monitor’s web pages and filed by Mike Clayton. The US federal government is considering a Utah company's request to import large amounts of low-level radioactive waste from Italy – a step critics, such as Friends of the Earth, say could lead the United States to become a nuclear garbage dump for the world.

If approved, the company would ship up to 20,000 tons of metal piping, sludge, wood, contaminated clothing, and other mildly radioactive material from Italian nuclear-power plants to Tennessee, process most of it, then dispose of the remainder in Utah. It would be by far America's largest import of nuclear waste.

Tom Clements, Southeast nuclear campaign coordinator for Friends of the Earth in Washington, said: "The NRC (Nuclear Regulatory Commission) has an obligation to deal with the waste generated in this country first and not accept foreign waste that fills up existing sites."

Grateful thanks go to Pete Harrison for filing this report with Reuters.

Britain has started consulting on the best way for nuclear operators to handle costs from disposing of radioactive waste from a new generation of reactors.

The government gave the go-ahead to a new generation of nuclear power stations last month, setting no limits on nuclear expansion and adding momentum to atomic energy's worldwide renaissance.

According to Business Secretary John Hutton: "Funds will be sufficient, secure and independent; it will be a criminal offence not to comply with the approved arrangements, and we are taking powers to guard against unforeseen shortfalls.”

The ruling Labour government says it will help Britain meet its climate change goals and avoid over - dependence on imported energy amid dwindling North Sea supplies.

Found, courtesy of the WQAD / News Channel 8 web pages, serving Iowa & Illinois and filed by Amy Barrilleaux. This year marks the 30th anniversary of the closing of a radioactive waste dump in Bureau County, Illinois. But in those three decades, concern over the dump has not gone away.

The facility opened in 1967 just three miles outside the small town of Sheffield, Illinois and in 1978 the state shut it down after Tritium leaked from the site. Now some people who grew up in the area claim the dump is to blame for what they believe is an outbreak of cancer.

Former resident Jean Roberson said: "We used to joke around, Don't drink the water. It'll make you glow," but added that the jokes ended in the 80’s when her family started to get sick.

"My sister has cancer now my father has had cancer and my mother passed away of cancer. So (that’s) 3 out of 5…”

Here’s an interesting report found via the Magic Valley web pages, part of the Times News group based in Twin Falls, Idaho.

A Canadian company's request to drill 21 exploratory cores on 2 acres of central Idaho's Salmon River Mountains to search for uranium (originally submitted in 2007) has been approved by the U.S. Forest Service.

The Yankee Fork Ranger District of the Salmon-Challis National Forest last month approved the Big Hank Exploration Project proposed by Vancouver, British Columbia-based Magnum Minerals USA Corp., a scaled-back version of the 3.5-square-mile, 71 holes the company had originally requested.

The exploration northeast of Stanley in central Idaho was approved as a "categorical exclusion" under the National Environmental Policy Act, meaning no thorough environmental study will be required.

Yankee Fork District Ranger, Ralph Rau said the drilling would not harm federally listed species, or cause harm to riparian areas, road-free areas, natural areas, or culturally significant sites. Friends of the West, an environmental group based downstream on the Salmon River in Clayton, called the proposal "totally irresponsible."

An IAEA-based international nuclear emergency response network has become operational through receipt of its first pledges of assistance from four Member States. Finland, Mexico, Sri Lanka and the United States have stepped forward to make the initial commitments to the Response Assistance Network (RANET), a global response arrangement designed to coordinate international assistance in case of a radiation incident or emergency.

Warren Stern, Head of the Incident & Emergency Centre said: "With these initial registrations, we have successfully launched the first phase of RANET. When designing the system, we worked with a group of countries to make sure that RANET was interoperable and responsive to a State´s needs in the event of an emergency.”

The backbone of RANET´s capabilities consists of technology and trained experts which could be made available for on-site emergency response assistance.

With thanks to Platts' web pages for this one. The recent series of severe storms and tornados that ripped through Arkansas, Tennessee and Kentucky this week knocked down four structures carrying a 500-kV transmission line from the Entergy Arkansas' Arkansas-1 nuclear power plant, the utility's parent company said Wednesday. Three other transmission towers sustained significant damage, the utility added.

In a notice on Entergy's transmission web site, the company said that while it has inspected the damage from the air, it has been unable to get crew on the ground because of difficult terrain. The loss of the line forced the nuclear plants to cut its output to 37% of normal capacity. Entergy expects it will take about two weeks to restore the damage.

A while ago we featured a story about a new siren system put into effect at Brown’s Ferry nuclear power plant, alerting residents of any impending disasters and being tested on a regular basis.  Well, it seems that a similar plan for a new system to be put in place at the Indian Point plant in New York state has failed to materialise!

According to Newsday’s web pages, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission issued a notice of violation and proposed a $650,000 fine over Entergy's failure to implement the new siren system.

"The NRC will consider additional enforcement in the future if Entergy does not resolve the issues and make their new emergency notification system operable in a timely manner," said NRC Executive Director for Operations Luis Reyes.

Robyn Bentley, a spokeswoman for Entergy, which operates the plant in Westchester County, said the company will respond to the NRC's order within the mandated 30 days. She added that public health and safety are not in jeopardy.

With thanks to Martin Croucher, writing for the Epoch Times for this one.

Families of British veterans used as human guinea pigs in 1950s nuclear experiments in the Pacific are likely to suffer genetic defects for generations to come. The results of a parliamentary inquiry come as 700 surviving veterans are preparing to take the Ministry of Defence to court for compensation.

Between 1952 and 1967, more than 22,000 servicemen from Britain, Australia and New Zealand witnessed hundreds of nuclear explosions in the Pacific and Indian oceans – most were contaminated to some degree or another by radiation.

The inquiry acknowledged that the veterans' health problems had been caused by the nuclear tests and recommended an interim compensation pay out. The government, however, has denied that there is a link between the veterans’ health problems, while the MOD claims that there was no exposure – and even if there was, it wasn’t the cause of the injuries and diseases the veterans suffered…

With thanks to the Associated Press for this one.  Foreign Minister Stephen Smith of Australia's new Labour government has told Indian envoy Shyam Saran that it will not sell uranium to his country while it is not a member of the global non-proliferation treaty.

The comments uphold a policy that would scuttle the previous government's plans to start negotiating a uranium trade with India to fuel the country's skyrocketing demand for electricity. Smith later told reporters: "We went into the election with a strong policy commitment (that) we would not export uranium to nation-states who are not members of the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty."

A former member of India's National Security Council later said:  "Australia has one of the largest reserves of uranium but there are other nations which also have it."

This report was filed by Lisa  Mascaro, writing for the Las Vegas Sun. The mbeleaguered Yucca Mountain  - yes, again - nuclear waste dump project now has a chain-link fence blocking the entrance to the tunnel that leads inside.

The US Energy Department’s contractor says daily operations at the nation’s planned nuclear waste repository are being put “on standby” in the face of massive budget cuts and all on-site jobs, save for a few sentries’, are being eliminated and more layoffs are on the way.

As Nevadans constantly seek signs that Yucca Mountain is really dead, is a 6-foot barrier blocking entry to the tunnel significant? Spokesman Jon Summers said: "It’s clear the dump is dying. This is one of the most significant moves we’ve seen to signal the end of the dump. They closed the tunnel ... "

Cleanup is due to begin on a dangerous burial ground just a mile north of Richland, Washington sate, according to a report found on the KNDO web site.

The US Department of Energy says this site poses the usual radioactive risks, but in this case, they also think the buried materials may spontaneously ignite once they're exposed to the air. Alicia Boyd, spokesperson for the EPA said: "It's good for the environment to go ahead and move this stuff to someplace we can have a better feel for where it is and that it's in a safe and secure location."

Records show workers could encounter pyrophoric chips of uranium.  That means flammable, in case you were wondering…