Entergy and Indian Point  indulge in some fish preservation

Abby Luby writing for the NY Daily News goes for a spot of fishing.

The owner of the Indian Point Nuclear Power Plant is angling for another chance to save Hudson River fish.

The utility company Entergy has been under the gun since the state charged it violated water quality standards by flushing heated water into the river, killing a billion fish a year. The Department of Environmental Conservation has mandated that Entergy install a new cooling system or shut down in 2015.

In the first of many DEC hearings this week to overturn its ruling, Entergy argued that a less costly "wedgewire" screen system would keep fish alive.

"We want the DEC to allow us to argue the merits of wedgewire over cooling towers," said Entergy spokesman Jim Steets. "Cooling towers would have very significant negative impacts."Others argued that Hudson River fish are thriving and Indian Point doesn't need to replace their cooling system.

Indian Point sucks in 2.5 billion gallons of river water daily to cool its two reactors. Entergy has paid for studies that show minimal impact on Hudson River aquatic life. Critics like Robert Kennedy Jr.'s Riverkeeper have said wedgewire screens would still trap small fish and wouldn't lessen thermal impact on the river.(26/7/10)

Uranium mine in New Mexico causes bother with Native neighbours

Daniel Nasaw, reporting for the BBC’s web pages visits New Mexico.

Thousands of feet under a hot patch of sand and brush is buried a deposit of uranium so rich it could revive a hardscrabble New Mexico town pocked with vacant lots and shuttered buildings.

The mining industry and those residents of the area who are eager for an influx of jobs see the plateau around Mount Taylor near the town of Grants in the northwest corner of New Mexico as an irresistible opportunity for economic gain.

But to local Native Americans whose ancestors lived in the area centuries before European settlement, Mount Taylor is a central part of their culture and religion. They are fighting to ensure that archaeological sites, their cultural heritage and water supply be protected.

Some are opposed outright to new excavation and have watched helplessly as mining projects move ahead. While state and national agencies recognise their cultural claim to the land, the law gives them virtually no power to halt mining.

"As an Indian nation, we're taught to respect mother earth, and [when] you see somebody doing that, it's like somebody putting a knife in you," said Albert Riley, a Laguna Pueblo tribal official and religious leader.(21/7/10)

Thinking of holidaying in Cumbria? Don't forget to pack the Geiger Counter!

The News and Star web site reports on trouble brewing in Cumbria. Anti-nuclear protesters have reacted angrily to a report suggesting that the burial of nuclear waste is the only safe method of disposal. The Nuclear Decommissioning Authority wants communities to volunteer to host underground repositories in return for investment in community projects.

Copeland council, Allerdale council, Cumbria County Council and the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority are discussing the possibility of having a geological waste facility, which would provide long-term storage for highly-active nuclear waste from across the UK, in Copeland or Allerdale.

The authorities have argued that, due to the existing economic and environmental impacts on the region, it is vital west Cumbria is involved in the process that decides what happens. But members of Radiation Free Lakeland, an activist group run by Marianne Birkby, have branded a potential site “the worst possible option” for the region.

Ms Birkby said: “The government really needs to listen to advice of independent experts not from the Department of Energy and Climate Change. A storage facility in Copeland or Allerdale is the worst possible option, the risks are huge.”

She went on to say: “There is no telling on the impact of a site in 10 years, let alone 10,000 – which is how long it would be there. The government is desperate to get the waste out of sight and out of mind so they can push ahead and create a nuclear new-build. We are being coerced into accepting a geological waste facility.”(14/7/10)

Radon at Balmoral? One doesn't think so...

One was going to run a different story today, but one thought this was better, thanks to The Daily Telegraph. The Queen's Deeside home is in an area exposed to potentially harmful levels of radon gas. She is among 3,000 residents in parts of Aberdeenshire to be offered the free tests.

The highest numbers of homes affected are in Aberdeenshire - followed by the Highlands, Orkney and the Borders. A risk map shows that the Balmoral estate is in an area where the percentage of homes at or above the action level is between 10 and 30, the second highest category.

A spokesman for the Health Protection Agency (HPA) said Balmoral was in the area of properties to be offered the free tests - but declined to say on confidentiality grounds if it had accepted the offer. But so far one in three homes that received the offer in letters sent last month have accepted.

The naturally-occurring radioactive gas is known to increase the lifetime risk of lung cancer and is particularly prevalent in Deeside, from Banchory all the way out to Ballater. (7/7/10)

We're slightly shaken up in Vermont, but everyone says that everything is fine - so that's okay..

A case of shake, rattle and roll in Vermont last week – courtesy of the Battleboro Reformer.

Computer monitors on desks at Central Vermont Public Service Corp. in Rutland shuddered Wednesday afternoon moving from side to side, thanks to a magnitude-5.0 earthquake in Canada at about 2:30 p.m. that shook a region stretching as far west as Michigan and into New England.

Vermont Yankee nuclear plant in Vernon reported an "unusual event," the lowest of four levels of emergency classification. U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission spokesman Neil Sheehan said the earthquake wasn't felt in the control room but was in other parts of the site; Yankee officials said there was no evidence of damage to the plant. Vermont Emergency Management spokesman Mark Bosma said no reports of damage had been reported.(30/6/10)

Time to leave oil dependency behind? Debate rages on in Sweden

Bruno Waterfield reporting for The Daily Telegraph brings us this.

After a debate in which Sweden's need for climate friendly, low carbon energy clashed with environmental concerns over atomic energy, Swedish MPs narrowly voted to build new nuclear reactors on Thursday night.

"A few months ago, the climate threat dominated the environmental debate. Now it is the oil disaster in the Mexican Gulf that is sparking the world's interest and horror," said Andreas Carlgren, the Swedish environment minister during a heated debate. “Both are really two sides of the same coin, namely, we must leave the dependency on oil and fossil energy behind."

Construction will begin next year to replace the 10 ageing reactors that still produce 40 per cent of Sweden's electricity.

But Sweden's centre-Left opposition, currently running neck and neck with the government in opinion polls ahead of elections is September, have vowed to reinstate the ban. "We will tear it up," said Tomas Eneroth, a Swedish Social Democrat spokesman.

In 1980, Swedes voted in a referendum to phase out existing reactors by 2010 and fears of nuclear power were heightened by the 1986 Chernobyl disaster.(21/6/10)

Not so much fly fishing - more fly ash down at Oak Ridge

As we aren’t around for a couple of days this week, we thought we’d leave you this fishy tale from our good friend Frank Munger who writes for the Knoxville News Sentinel – hi, Frank!!

The fish in the Clinch and Emory rivers exposed to fly ash from the massive spill in December 2008 appear to be generally healthy - so far. That's the early assessment from researchers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory who've been studying the fish since soon after the spill, which dumped more than 5 million cubic yards into the Emory and the embayment adjacent to the Kingston Fossil Plant.

Immediately after the spill, some areas of the waterways were essentially lost because of the enormous amount of fly ash. Those results were largely due to the physical impact of the fly ash, not because of the exposure to contaminants.

Some effects of toxic pollutants associated with the fly ash - such as selenium - may not be easily evaluated in the near term, according to the ORNL information. Selenium is known to cause reproductive problems in fish, especially young fish. In order to look more closely at that, ORNL researchers have started a project at their Aquatic Ecology Lab, where fish embryos and larvae will be exposed to TVA's fly ash and evaluated.(14/6/10)

Tennant Creek argument triggers Federal Court legal challenge

Things are turning nasty at Tennant Creek, as Lindsay Murdoch Darwin reports for the Brisbane Times. Aboriginal traditional owners have initiated a Federal Court legal challenge to plans by the federal government to build Australia's first national radioactive waste dump near Tennant Creek, in the Northern Territory. Mark Lane Jangala, a senior elder of the Ngapa clan, says he and many other senior elders were not consulted about the nomination of their land.

The traditional owners have instructed a legal team that includes the lawyers George Newhouse and Julian Burnside, QC, and lawyers from Maurice Blackburn to begin proceedings challenging the government and the Northern Land Council, which nominated the site on behalf of one Ngapa clan group.

The offer of the land in return for one clan receiving A$12 million in cash and other benefits has bitterly divided Aboriginal family groups in the Tennant Creek region. The government and the land council have refused to make public an anthropological report the land council says shows that one clan owns the nominated 1.2 square kilometre site 120 kilometres north of Tennant Creek.

However, the court action will centre on a finding by the Aboriginal Land Commissioner in 2001 that five owner groups have joint and overlapping traditional ownership of the land. The Maurice Blackburn senior associate Martin Hyde said most traditional owners were not given the opportunity to make an informed decision. 'If you are going to take away people's land in perpetuity and fill it with radioactive waste, you have a legal and moral obligation to ask the owners first and seek their informed consent.' (9/6/10)

Is there anywhere in the USA where you can drink the water??

David O Williams writing for the Colorado Independent, brings us another American clean-up report.

Environmentalists and local politicians cheered a Colorado Division of Reclamation Mining and Safety order late Thursday directing Denver-based Cotter Corp. to begin curtailing drinking water contamination from an inactive Jefferson County uranium mine this summer.

Uranium pollution revealed to be more than 13 times state standards was contaminating Ralston Creek, and the state rejected a cleanup plan proposed by Cotter, which owns the Cotter Mill uranium processing facility near Canon City and several uranium mines around the state.

The mining division required Cotter to begin water treatment at its Schwartzwalder uranium mine west of Arvada by July 31. “The mining division took bold and decisive action to protect our drinking water,” Jefferson County Commissioner Kathy Hartman said in a release. “I am pleased to see immediate action to protect Ralston Reservoir.”

“Thousands of people depend on clean water from Ralston Reservoir, and we can’t afford for Cotter to drag its feet cleaning up their mess,” said Matt Garrington, program advocate with Environment Colorado and a Jefferson County resident. “The mining division deserves praise for taking strong action.”

Uranium levels at the mine itself exceeded 1,400 times Colorado water quality standards.(26/5/10)

Dodgy radioactive water hits south New Jersey's water aquifiers

Thanks to the Associated Press for this one. Radioactive water that leaked from the nation's oldest nuclear power plant has now reached a major underground aquifer that supplies drinking water to much of southern New Jersey, the state's environmental chief said Friday. The state Department of Environmental Protection has ordered the Oyster Creek Nuclear Generating Station to halt the spread of contaminated water underground, even as it said there was no imminent threat to drinking water supplies.

The department launched a new investigation Friday into the April 2009 spill and said the actions of plant owner Exelon Corp. have not been sufficient to contain water contaminated with tritium.

Tritium is found naturally in tiny amounts and is a product of nuclear fission. It has been linked to cancer if ingested, inhaled or absorbed through the skin in large amounts. "There is a problem here," said environmental Commissioner Bob Martin. "I am worried about the continuing spread of the tritium into the groundwater and its gradual moving toward wells in the area. This is not something that can wait. That would be unacceptable."

The tritium leaked from underground pipes at the plant on April 9, 2009, and has been slowly spreading underground at 1 to 3 feet a day. At the current rate, it would be 14 or 15 years before the tainted water reaches the nearest private or commercial drinking water wells. But the mere fact that the radioactive water — at concentrations 50 times higher than those allowed by law — has reached southern New Jersey's main source of drinking water calls for urgent action, Martin said. (10/5/10)

Bats in the belfry? Nope, try an old uranium mine, maybe...

Mike Gorrell and the Salt Lake Tribune go slightly batty in Utah.

Bats are unlikely to find abandoned uranium mines as desirable places to roost, but if they do, two state agencies have established a procedure for dealing with them.

The state Division of Wildlife Resources, which is charged with managing bats in Utah, and the Division of Oil, Gas and Mining (DOGM), which is responsible for reclaiming abandoned mines, have signed an agreement that lays out ways in which DOGM can seal old mines dangerous to people without hurting any bat populations found inside.

In cases where surveys find bats living in an abandoned uranium mine, the agreement specifies that the divisions will confer on an acceptable approach, with Wildlife Resources' officials having the final say. In many cases, the agreement will allow Oil, Gas and Mining officials to use grates to keep people out but let bats enter and exit.

If a bat survey confirms a mine is not being used by bats, said Luci Malin, administrator of DOGM's abandoned mine program, "we may close it using the method we think best protects the public. Wildlife Resources' willingness to provide us this flexibility will enable us to work more efficiently in protecting unwary adventurers from the dangers of an abandoned mine." (28/4/10)

Spent Swedish waste destined for bedrock caves under the Baltic Sea

John Tagliabue, reporting for The Scotsman turns his sights on Sweden.

The seaside town of Osthammar is competing for the right to become Sweden's permanent storage site for radioactive waste. Eighty per cent of the town's 21,000 inhabitants are in favour of the facility and Osthammar is one of two finalists among Swedish communities vying for the right to host the nuclear waste dump.

Sweden would seem an unlikely setting for such a competition as the country turned its back on nuclear power in the 1980s after less than 20 per cent approved of it in a referendum. But it has reversed course recently and is now planning to begin building new nuclear reactors, adding to the ten it already operates.

Legislation requires that before any new plants are built, the Swedish Nuclear Fuel and Waste Management Company, SKB, must create permanent storage space for the radioactive waste the reactors produce. SKB found 18 of 20 possible towns near proposed sites intrigued by their proposition. Then it had to whittle the list down to two, Osthammar and Oskarshamn, both already the sites of nuclear plants.

SKB plans an elaborate, expensive system for storing the spent fuel, encasing it in steel blocks that will then be covered by solid copper and deposited in caves carved into bedrock about 1,500ft under the Baltic Sea.(16/4/10)

Muckaty's nuclear plans divides traditional owners

Found on the web pages of the Sydney Morning Herald.

Traditional owners of land that could house a nuclear waste dump have protested against the plan, saying they were excluded from the process.

The federal government is considering Muckaty Station, near Tennant Creek in the Northern Territory, for a facility that would store low and intermediate level radioactive waste. The land was nominated by the Ngapa traditional owners, one of five family groups who are custodians of the land: however, others oppose the dump.

About 250 people including traditional owners and anti-nuclear campaigners marched in Tennant Creek on Saturday, directing their anger at both Resources Minister Martin Ferguson and the Northern Land Council (NLC) - who they say overlooked them. Australian Conservation Foundation nuclear campaigner Dave Sweeney told AAP the deal was far from done, with the traditional owners who oppose the plan examining legal avenues.

"There's no way the NLC or Minister Ferguson can say with any conviction or confidence that there is consent for this plan," Mr Sweeney said. "These people have profound connections with this land and the government's position is becoming increasingly untenable."

The government's National Radioactive Waste Management Bill 2010, which underpins the planning process for the dump, is being examined by a Senate committee. The committee will sit in Darwin on April 12.(7/4/10)

Haverigg wind farm under threat from new nuke build

Michelle May, reporting for Sky News reports on the fate of a wind farm in the Lake District.

Situated just 100 metres from the Lake District border, the small community-owned Haverigg wind farm in Kirksanton is one of the most efficient in the country.

The land has made the Government shortlist of 10 sites judged potentially suitable for new nuclear build.

Wind farm co-owner, Colin Palmer, told Sky News the turbines would have to be demolished if the plans go ahead because of underground cables. Mr Palmer said: "There are very few wind farms like Haverigg. It's a very windy and productive site that's much favoured locally. "It contributes to Government targets for renewabl

e energy so it makes no sense to lose it."

The Government wants new nuclear power in place in Britain by the end of 2025 as part of the transition to getting more of our energy from low carbon sources. Energy companies were invited to nominate sites by March 2009 and a shortlist of 10 sites was announced last November.The company proposing the power station denies the fate of Haverigg wind farm is set.

A spokesman for RWE said: "Our plans for nuclear development in Cumbria are at an early stage. "Should we go ahead with a planning application for a new station, we'd first carry out an exhaustive process of detailed studies and full consultation with everyone affected."(24/3/10)

Lithuania's protest over Belarus new nuke build near Vilnius

The following is from a (very long) report by Andrei Ozharovsky, reporting for the pages of Bellona and translated by Maria Kaminskaya

At a public hearing that took place in Vilnius on March 2 to discuss the potential environmental impact of the Ostrovets Nuclear Power Plant under planning in Belarus, participants voiced a strong opposition to the idea of having a new nuclear site just 50 kilometres from the Lithuanian capital. They followed with a request that the Lithuanian Ministry of Environment make an official notation of their disapproval of the experimental Russian project in the meeting’s record.

The new nuclear power plant in the town of Ostrovets in Belarus’ Grodno Region has, for some time, been touted aggressively by Belarusian authorities. The idea has sparked grave concerns both among the Belarusian population and across the border in Lithuania. The new site’s mere proximity to the Lithuanian capital, however, is not the only reason why Lithuanians felt compelled to gather a public hearing. Both countries are parties to the 1991 Convention on Environmental Impact Assessment in a Transboundary Context. Since the new plant is projected to be built just 23 kilometres off the Belarusian-Lithuanian border, it stands to reason that any harmful potential impact it may have will also extend on the environment and well-being of the population of Lithuania.

Some twenty representatives from Belarusian ministries and other governmental entities came to attend the hearing in Vilnius. The authors of the official environmental impact statement were also among the participants. The delegation was brandishing the same old Preliminary Report to try and convince the Lithuanians of the project’s safety.(15/3/10)

Radon found in school

We were going to run a different nugget today, but this came to our attention in a round about way.  So thanks to Gerry Duffy reporting for The Scottish Sun. Here it is in its entirity...

A school was closed after experts found high levels of a killer nuclear gas in classrooms. All four pupils were moved from Cabrach Primary in Moray after the discovery of colourless radon.

Last night one source said of the find: "It's scary to think that so much of this gas was in a school - the parents must be terrified."

The school will be closed until the Easter holidays next month while an underground pump is built to safely release the gas into the atmosphere. Staff and kids will stay at another primary until then

Radon, which is used in nuclear power, occurs naturally in all rocks and soils. Exposure can lead to lung cancer in severe cases. A Moray Council spokesman said: "We are working closely with the Health Protection Agency and Health and Safety Executive to carry out remediation work."(10/3/10)

Watch out for those gulls - they may be radioactive!

The North-West Evening Mail brings us this unusual environmental tale. Seagull eggs are being destroyed at Sellafield to control the bird population amid radiation fears. A specialist company is pricking the eggs in a bid to keep the numbers down.

A Sellafield spokesman said the strategy is working so other methods, such as culling with poisoned bait, are not being looked at for the immediate future. The last time birds were poisoned on site was in 2008 when 39 birds were killed.

It was reported in national newspapers this week that an intensive culling programme was being considered at the site as bosses were struggling to tackle the ever-increasing numbers of seagulls. But that was strongly denied by the Sellafield spokesman. He said there has been a 30 to 40 per cent year-on-year reduction in the number of gulls on the site and that proves egg-pricking is working. He added that if the company needs to look at further culling methods in the future, it will do.

“There are concerns that they have been swimming in open ponds containing plutonium and radioactive waste, some of which dates back to Britain’s atomic weapons programme of the 1950s and 1960s.” Gulls flying around the site can become contaminated with radioactivity – such as when they fly into open fuel storage ponds.

But the spokesman stressed any contamination is so low it would not threaten public health. He said: “We are aware of the potential for gulls to become contaminated with low levels of radioactivity as a result of the operations at Sellafield.” (3/3/10)

US 'engaged in economic racism towards Native Americans'

‘Earth Talk’, reporting for Health News Digest, brings us this.

Native tribes across the American West have been, and continue to be, subjected to significant amounts of radioactive and otherwise hazardous waste as a result of living near nuclear test sites, uranium mines, power plants and toxic waste dumps.

In some cases tribes are actually hosting hazardous waste on their sovereign reservations - which are not subject to the same environmental and health standards as U.S. land - in order to generate revenues. Native American advocates argue that siting such waste on or near reservations is an “environmental justice” problem, given that twice as many Native families live below the poverty line than other sectors of U.S. society and often have few if any options for generating income.

“In the quest to dispose of nuclear waste, the government and private companies have disregarded and broken treaties, blurred the definition of Native American sovereignty, and directly engaged in a form of economic racism akin to bribery,” says Bayley Lopez of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation. He cites example after example of the government and private companies taking advantage of the “overwhelming poverty on native reservations by offering them millions of dollars to host nuclear waste storage sites.” (22/2/10)

New cooling towers needed at Oyster Crerek - Exelon not happy

Kirk Moore writing for the pages of the Ashbury Park Press goes fishing.

Screening and diverting devices that save fish from the Oyster Creek nuclear plant's cooling water intake are "about as good as it can get" in modern techniques, and the reactor's major impact on Barnegat Bay is with the tiny organisms that get sucked in and destroyed, a top state environmental official told a state Senate committee Monday.

Local fishermen and environmental groups have insisted for years the power plant is reducing numbers of clams and fish in the bay.

"Technically, the issue is more entrainment than impingement," said Nancy Wittenberg, an assistant commissioner in the state Department of Environmental Protection, referring to the intake of fish eggs and larvae. A system of fish ladders and chutes — what "I like to call an amusement ride for fish" — screen out and bypass the larger animals, releasing them back into the plant's canal that flows to Oyster Creek, Wittenberg said.

But the only way to reduce the entrainment losses of tiny life stages is to reduce the daily needs for water by constructing cooling towers, she told the state Senate Environment and Energy Committee.The DEP has proposed a new permit for the plant discharge that would require cooling towers; Oyster Creek operator Exelon Corp. has warned it will close the plant if it is forced to build the towers, saying that expense would make the reactor uneconomical. (10/2/10)

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Local authorities say no to nuclear dumps in Spain

Emma Pinedo, writing for those nice people at Reuters, sets her sights on Spain. At least seven small Spanish towns had submitted bids to build a nuclear waste dump, but opposition from regional authorities cast doubt over the long-delayed project.

About a dozen towns in all have bid for the dump, most with populations of 500 or less, all hoping the 700 million euro (£615 million) plan will bring much-needed jobs in a country with some of the longest dole queues in Europe. Spanish voters generally shun nuclear power and regional authorities, wary of the project, have substantial autonomy from the central government and some have announced their opposition.

"I am willing to take every political, social and legal measure, whatever it takes, to stop the nuclear dump being built in Castilla-La Mancha," said Jose Maria Barreda, who is government head in the central-southern region. He has ordered his legal team to study the legality of lodging an appeal against two small councils in his region who tendered bids this week.

Barreda's counterpart in northeastern Catalonia, Jose Montilla, opposes a bid by the town of Asco (pictured) home to two of Spain's eight nuclear power stations."Catalan power stations produce 40 percent of all of Spain's power. We've done our bit," he said. (5/2/10)

Minnesota mad at non-collection of waste

Don Davis, reporting for the Pierce County Herald web pages has a slight clean up problem.

Minnesota cities hosting nuclear power plants and some legislators are tired of federal officials' refusal to pick up the waste as they promised decades ago.

"If you had a garbage man who didn't show up for 28 years, would you continue to pay the bill?" Rep. Joe Atkins, DFL-Inver Grove Heights, asked, as he told members of his Minnesota House Commerce and Labor Committee about his proposal to divert money now going to the federal government for nuclear waste storage and use it in Minnesota instead.

Atkins' plan would take the nearly $14 million Xcel Energy now sends the federal government annually for nuclear storage and divide it two ways. Half would be saved for cleanup when nuclear waste no longer is stored in Minnesota; the other half would fund a new commission to manage nuclear waste and help local communities pay for power plants' public safety needs.

Minnesota's nuclear power plants are near Red Wing and Monticello, with radioactive waste being stored near the reactors. Red Wing and the adjoining Prairie Island Indian Community are the most affected by nuclear waste, with 625 tons stored next to two reactors now.  2,450 tons of radioactive waste may be stored there by 2045.

City Council member Lisa Bayley said that Red Wing is not prepared to become a long-term nuclear waste storage site. "We need a plan to deal with the storage and protection of that waste.”(1/2/10)

Maralinga test site returned to former owners

Our thanks to The Economist for this environmental report. Maralinga looks much like the rest of Australia’s outback: Up close, there are differences. Its long, quiet airstrip recalls a time when this was an unlikely epicentre of the cold war. The desert is still littered with radioactive plutonium and other fragments of atomic weapons that Britain exploded more than 50 years ago.

Once teeming with nuclear scientists and British and Australian servicemen, Maralinga fell into eerie silence when the tests ended, in the early 1960s. Then just before Christmas 2009, it returned to life. Dignitaries flew in as guests of the Maralinga Tjarutja aborigines, a group that had been pushed aside when their homeland was chosen as a test site. Keith Peters, one of its leaders, presided over a ceremony to mark the end of his people’s long battle to reclaim their traditional lands.

After Australia agreed to its request for a test site, Britain exploded its first atomic device off north-west Australia in 1952. Maralinga (an aboriginal word meaning “place of thunder”), near the transcontinental railway in the state of South Australia, was chosen later as a better site. Altogether, Britain conducted 12 atmospheric atomic tests in Australia, including seven at Maralinga, up to 1957. The worst contamination came from the so-called “minor trials” of weapons components that took place for another six years. Tests at a site called Taranaki left plutonium, uranium and beryllium dispersed across the range. (20/1/10)

Some like it hot in Utah - but not the HEAL group..

Judy Fahys, reporting for The Salt Lake Tribune, brings us this. A Utah environmental group has scheduled a meeting with Gov. Gary Herbert to press its case that more testing is needed to make sure depleted uranium coming to Utah is not too hot.

HEAL says it reviewed shipping papers for some Savannah River, S.C., cleanup waste already in Utah and discovered that the DU, as depleted uranium is often called, contains reactor waste in concentrations that might top the radiological hazard limit set in state law. But, according to the group, it's hard to say for sure because the U.S. Energy Department has sampled too few of the DU drums from its Savannah River cleanup in South Carolina - just 33 of 33,000.

At least 5,408 drums of Savannah River DU are already buried at EnergySolutions Inc.'s low-level radioactive waste disposal site in Tooele County. Another 5,000 drums are at the site awaiting additional disposal requirements before burial, and two more Utah-bound train shipments are on standby in South Carolina.

EnergySolutions President Val Christensen, said his company "is providing a letter to the Governor correcting HEAL's technical mischaracterizations."(13/1/10)

There's an awful lot of landslides in Brazil - best close down Angra I & II

Today we visit Brazil, courtesy of the BBC’s web pages. Two nuclear power stations near a city in southern Brazil hit by deadly landslides may be temporarily shut down, the mayor has said.

Mayor Tuca Jordao, of Angra dos Reis, said main roads had been blocked by landslides and could obstruct any evacuation in the case of an emergency. He said the plants - Angra I and Angra II - were not damaged or threatened but should be shut down as a precaution.

Mr Jordao said that with roads blocked there was no way to quickly evacuate the city's inhabitants in case of a catastrophe at the nuclear plants.

"There are no operational problems at Angra I and Angra II... but if landslides persist in the hills, we'll need to shut them down," said Mr Jordao. (8/1/10)

Time to decide, Canada..

The provincial government of Saskatchewan in Canada is expected to indicate soon whether the province is open for business to nuclear power, according to a report by Angela Hall on the pages of the Leader Post.

"We want to clearly send a signal to the people of the province what the government's thoughts are on the whole uranium development going forward (and) on the power generation," said Energy and Resources Minister Bill Boyd.

Boyd said the government will formally respond to a report from the Uranium Development Partnership that said the province should consider nuclear power generation.

The government's response is expected to offer a more definitive answer as to whether nuclear power is currently seen as a viable option to pursue. The Ontario-based company Bruce Power has been considering building nuclear reactors in Saskatchewan and Alberta.

The Alberta Conservative government this week stated it was open to receiving private sector nuclear power proposals. But the Saskatchewan Party government has seemed to cool to nuclear power in recent months, citing concerns over costs.

New Cumbrian waste site 'First of its kind', apparently..

We were going to run this next week:  oh, well... Found on the pages of Materials Handling World web site. Detailed plans for the creation of a low-level radioactive waste disposal site in west Cumbria have been submitted to planners.

Endecom UK Ltd, a wholly-owned subsidiary of recycling and resource management company SITA UK, handed the application to Cumbria County Council following extensive public engagement, including public exhibitions, presentations, leaflets and posters. The company proposes to establish a purpose-built and expertly engineered disposal facility on the derelict former coal quarry for the safe and secure storage of low and very low level radioactive waste. The material will be made up of primarily construction and demolition waste, which will mostly result from the decommissioning of Sellafield.

Development Manager Phil Holland said: "Our proposals for the Keekle Head site have now been submitted following almost two years of extensive research, planning, discussion and consultation. "It will be the first of its kind in the UK and we are therefore delighted to have enlisted the support of leading French radioactive waste management experts ANDRA, which has offered to provide design and peer review to our plans. Having operated its facility very successfully in recent years, it is well-placed to provide international experience and expertise to the Keekle Head team."

If given the go-ahead, the site would be operated to the highest European standards and best practise, ensuring no detrimental impact to health, the environment or the community. It would also be regularly monitored by the Environment Agency.

Red Wing & Monticello emergency services want a fistfull of dollars

Mike Kaszuba, reporting for the StarTribune web site in Minnesota, brings us this controversial environmental tale.

Thirty times in the past four years, Red Wing police and fire fighters responded to emergency calls at the Prairie Island nuclear plant and in Monticello, a fire department designed for a town of 11,000 people stood at the ready when a 13-ton valve box controlling steam pressure collapsed at the nuclear power plant three years ago, shutting it down for days.

Now, with Xcel Energy winning approval to store more radioactive waste at the plants, officials in Red Wing and Monticello say the added safety risks they manage as homes to the state's two nuclear power plants are increasing. In a move already drawing criticism, the two cities are asking that $13 million currently sent each year by Xcel Energy to the federal government for radioactive waste disposal instead be kept in Minnesota so that state and local officials can start planning for how to manage the risk of a nuclear crisis.

The proposal is stirring familiar passions over nuclear energy, pitting those who worry that there is still no long-term solution on nuclear waste storage against those who see nuclear power as an underused energy source with a long, mostly safe, track record.

Volunteers needed to house Canadian waste in New Brunswick - interested?

Colin Woodard, writing for The Christian Science Monitor scans the ‘Wanted’ ads..

If they were to take out a classified ad, it would read something like this: "Wanted: safe, willing home for 40,000 metric tons of nuclear waste. Must be Canadian. Phone for details."

That's what's on offer from Canada's Nuclear Waste Management Organization, the entity charged with finding a site for the spent fuel produced by Canada’s 22 nuclear reactors. While they don't advertise in newspapers, NWMO officials were in New Brunswick province last month holding a public presentation to make communities aware that they're looking for appropriate candidates to be considered as hosts for the radioactive materials.

Canada, like the United States, is seeking a long-term solution for storing spent nuclear fuel, which will remain toxic for more than 10,000 years. But the Canadian approach to finding a central depository site has fundamental differences, most strikingly that potential host communities must volunteer.

Canada's plan aims to avoid local resistance by requiring communities to ask to be considered as hosts for an underground repository. Volunteers will be given extensive information on the ecological risks and economic benefits of the repository, which is expected to cost between $16 billion and $24 billion. After public endorsement via referendum or other means, the community would become a candidate for extensive technical review.

Looking for somewhere to dump some nuclear waste (again)? Head north, guv, to Lancashire

This was found on the pages of Lep News this week. Concerns have been raised that radioactive rubbish from across the UK will be dumped on the outskirts of a Lancashire city. SITA UK wants permission for waste from more companies to be disposed of at Clifton Marsh. Local councillors are worried this will mean nuclear rubbish from all over the country being buried in Lancashire. If approved, the application will allow more companies to use the landfill site for "very low level radioactive waste" (VLLW) and "low level radioactive waste" (LLW).

Colin Hardman, nuclear regulator for the Environment Agency, said permission would need to be given before waste was transported to Clifton and said: "The volumes are too small to justify anything other than road transport. To some degree, waste can be shipped abroad for treatment, but that is a very expensive operation."

He said radioactive waste arrived at the site in special containers and was buried under a metre and a half of refuse. He said there were no concerns about anything arriving at Clifton Marsh "covertly" because everything was labelled and said: "The radiation levels are generally not a problem."

The Environment Agency is expected to make a decision on the application next year.

Mark Jaffe and the Denver Post get set for some ecological restoration. Buried in the $33 million cleanup of the radioactive Shattuck Chemical site in Denver, along South Bannock Street, was a $250,000 settlement for ecological restoration.

That settlement, with some regional cooperation, has quadrupled to $1 million that will help refurbish Overland Pond Park and restore wetlands along the lower South Platte River. "By partnering with local governments and community groups, we've been able to use that settlement for some ambitious plans," said Laura Archuleta, an environmental contaminants specialist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

The Shattuck Chemical Co., which salvaged uranium from defective fuel rods, closed in 1982, leaving its 6-acre site contaminated with radioactivity. The site was officially cleaned up under the federal Superfund program in 2006.

Because the site is in the South Platte River watershed, the restoration efforts are broad. About 280 acres of wetlands on the Eastern Plains will be restored at a cost of $818,000, based on an initial $75,000 from the Shattuck settlement. Adding funds and services to the project are government agencies, private businesses and landowners, said Fish and Wildlife Service biologist Matt Filsinger.

Among those participating are Ducks Unlimited, the Colorado Division of Wildlife, the Lower South Platte Water Conservancy District, the Harmony Ditch Co. and Drakeland Farms.

Things get rather dusty in France - 39kg plutonium dusts-worth actually...

Peggy Hollinger, reporting for the Financial Times, reports from France for this one.

Andre-Claude Lacoste, the head of France’s Nuclear Safety Authority (ASN), was taken aback when French politicians demanded a public inquiry into the country’s nuclear industry a few weeks ago. He could not understand why his joint letter with two other European regulators demanding design changes to a new-generation EPR reactor being built in France, Finland and soon in the UK, should have prompted a storm in a country traditionally supportive of nuclear power.

The letter came in the wake of a series of recent incidents in France, not least the discovery of 39kg of plutonium dust that had built up over 40 years in fuel-making facilities run by the Atomic Energy Commission, the state nuclear research body. The incidents prompted a call from Greenpeace for the “immediate halt of work on the EPRs in Finland and France”.

France’s independent watchdog insists there is no reason to worry about safety in the country’s nuclear installations. The ASN records roughly 1,000 incidents a year and Mr Lacoste says he does not have the impression that there has been an “unusual accumulation of incidents” this year.

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921 nuke warhead detonations cause underground water contamination

Ralph Vartabedian, reporting for the LA Times web pages heads to Nevada for this one.

A sea of ancient water tainted by the Cold War is creeping deep under the volcanic peaks, dry lake-beds and pine forests covering a vast tract of Nevada.

Over 41 years, the federal government detonated 921 nuclear warheads underground at the Nevada Test Site, 75 miles northeast of Las Vegas. Each explosion deposited a toxic load of radioactivity into the ground and, in some cases, directly into aquifers. When testing ended in 1992, the Energy Department estimated that more than 300 million curies of radiation had been left behind, making the site one of the most radioactively contaminated places in the USA.

They have successfully pressured federal officials for a fresh environmental assessment of the 1,375-square-mile test site, a step toward a potential demand for monetary compensation, replacement of the lost water or a massive cleanup.

In a study for Nye County, where the nuclear test site lies, it’s estimated that the underground tests polluted 1.6 trillion gallons of water. That is as much water as Nevada is allowed to withdraw from the Colorado River in 16 years - enough to fill a lake 300 miles long, a mile wide and 25 feet deep.

Researcher puts his/her foot in it at Montana State - No? How about: What have you stepped in?

Robert Meeder, reporting for the Komu web pages brings us this cautionary tale: always look where you are walking! A researcher at Montana State University accidentally tracked phosphorus from a lab to a few areas across campus recently.

An unidentified lab researcher accidentally spilled phosphorus-32, a radioactive isotope, at a Schlundt Annex laboratory. The researcher then walked outside, unaware that the chemical spilled onto his or her shoes.

Department workers used Geiger counters to locate radiation patches. Most of the radiation was in a dirt filled area, at a corner outside Schlundt Annex, the biochemistry building. The radioactive dirt will be stored for up to six months before it can be disposed. Most of the researcher's footprints have been sealed with black paint to stop any possible contamination from spreading.

The risk of airborne exposure to phosphorus-32 is minimal, but it is very dangerous if ingested. The MU Environmental Health and Safety Department and biochemistry students and teachers declined interviews. After the cleanup, an investigation will determine if disciplinary action is necessary.

It's yet another 'best bring your geiger counter tale': this time we're heading west to Devon

Considering a holiday in Devon? Best take a Geiger counter with you after reading this little gem brought to us by those nice people at Ekklesia.  Campaigners were expected to rally in Plymouth at the weekend to demonstrate against plans for a nuclear waste plant in the city centre. It is thought that if the plans go ahead, the plant would store dismantled reactor components from the UK's nuclear submarines, possibly for several decades until a long-term disposal site can be constructed.

People are particularly concerned that the site is only 400 metres from a primary school. There is also concern that both businesses and tourists could be driven away if Plymouth is identified with the dumping of nuclear waste, thus affecting the city's economy.

“This will be risky work never undertaken before in the UK,” explained Dave Webb, Vice-Chair of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND). “The submarines certainly need to be dismantled - however this should not be in the middle of a city.” He suggested that, “Instead of blighting Plymouth with the reputation of being Britain's only city-centre nuclear dump, the government should invest in a green regeneration strategy for the city, providing long-term sustainable jobs."

I was going to say 'water, water everywhere - best bring your geiger counter'; but I won't...

Mary Manning, reporting for the Las Vegas Sun, brings us this environmental report from the Nevada Test Site.

Scientists have found radioactive tritium from nuclear tests in Nevada contaminating groundwater off the Nevada Test Site for the first time. However, state and federal studies indicated it would leave the nuclear site within 50 years.

A groundwater sample taken in a new well drilled on Air Force land contained tritium at about 12,500 picocuries per litre below the federal Environmental Protection Agency Safe Drinking Water Act limit of 20,000 picocuries per litre. A picocurie is a measure of radiation in liquid.

The Energy Department predicted in February that groundwater contamination would leave the Test Site boundary near Pahute Mesa, in the northwest corner of the sprawling site about 85 miles northwest of Las Vegas.

Tritium occurred naturally in lakes, rivers and public water supplies at between 5 and 25 picocuries per liter before nuclear weapons testing began in 1945 in New Mexico. Tritium is formed in nature from cosmic rays striking hydrogen. It is produced in nuclear explosions as well.

Current plans are to drill six more test wells, at a cost of U$ 5m each, on and near Pahute Mesa over the next two to three years, said Darwin Morgan, a spokesman for the National Nuclear Security Administration, which operates the Test Site for the Energy Department.

EPA to search for uranium 'hot spots' in Arizona

Cyndy Cole, reporting on the pages of the Arizona Daily Sun brings us this disturbing environmental tale.

A dump near Tuba City that has been leaching low levels of radioactive waste into the shallow aquifer finally is getting some federal attention, if not an actual cleanup yet.

The Environmental Protection Agency plans to fence off a remaining section of an old dump, near two Hopi villages, and test for hot spots of radioactivity close by. This includes one area where the agency says uranium levels in the water exceed what's federally considered safe for drinking water by eight times. Local villagers who believe their downstream springs are threatened have long sought a total excavation of the dump.

Uranium-related waste found in the testing will be removed with heavy equipment beginning in October, and 263 new testing holes will be dug to search for more. "We're looking for a uranium source in the dump," said Leah Butler, project manager for the EPA.

The dump, which operated uncontrolled and unlined from the 1950s to 1997, is located a few miles from a former uranium mill. Altogether, eight test wells at the former Tuba City dump show uranium levels exceeding what the EPA considers safe for drinking water.

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Green Party uncover leaks at Aldermaston

Robert Warlow, reporting for the pages of Newbury Today, goes to Aldermaston for this tale. Campaigners  have called for more transparency after details emerged of a radiation leak at the Atomic Weapons Establishment (AWE), Aldermaston.

Research by Reading Green Party revealed that radioactive contamination was found in a building at the site on June 29. Although radioactive material is not believed to have spread beyond the site boundary, the Nuclear Installations Inspectorate (NII) and the Environment Agency were informed of the incident, but the details were not disclosed to the press and the public.

The party’s prospective parliamentary candidate for Reading East, Rob White, said: “AWE does not appear to have learnt any lessons following the July 2007 flood that crippled the Burghfield nuclear warhead assembly plant. The company’s instinctive reaction was to cover up the incident and this incident appears to be more of the same with it not keeping people informed.” He added: “This creates concerns and we are asking them to be more upfront and honest about what risks are posed to the public.”

AWE spokeswoman Rachel Whybrow said: “This minor event took place during routine decommissioning work in a building on the AWE Aldermaston site. When an internal contamination alarm sounded, monitoring of staff and a survey of the area was carried out, which confirmed the event posed no threat to staff or the wider public.

Possibility of uranium mine close to Grand Canyon upsets locals

Here’s something that I bet you didn’t know – nope, me neither! So thanks to the Associated Press and the web pages of KSWT 13 in, I believe, Yuma.

Environmental groups on Tuesday filed a 60-day notice that they intend to sue the federal Bureau of Land Management over its decision to allow a uranium mine to reopen north of the Grand Canyon.

Canadian mining firm Denison Mines Corp. says it could reopen its Arizona 1 Mine about 20 miles from the canyon's northern border by the end of the year. Dennison received the final state permit needed to move forward last week.

The BLM says Denison has an approved mine plan and should be allowed to resume operations. The mine closed about 20 years ago.

But the Centre for Biological Diversity, Grand Canyon Trust and the Sierra Club argue that the BLM failed to consider potential impacts to endangered species. They also say the agency is relying on an outdated and inadequate environmental analysis.

Government plans upset residents of West Cumbria

The following is taken from an article on the BBC’s web pages, written by Rachael Howorth for Radio 4’s Open Country. Eleven potential sites for a new generation of nuclear power stations have been short-listed by the government for development. Nine are next to existing reactors; just two are green-field sites in West Cumbria.

The prospect of skilled jobs coming to this isolated region appeals to some in the area, but many of those running small businesses fear for their future.

Carl Carter is the researcher for local Labour MP Jamie Reid. He is convinced that the power station is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for this area to become economically sustainable. If the power station were to go ahead there would be the opportunity for well-paid, highly-skilled jobs.

However, he suggests that the Kirksanton site is really a fallback option to be used only if the site of the existing nuclear facilities at Sellafield, 20 miles up the coast, proves impossible to build on.

For the sake of U$1bn, would you build a nuclear plant here? Progress Energy would..

The following is an editorial for the Tampa Bay Tribune we found on the pages of Tampa Bay Online. Gov. Charlie Crist and the Florida Cabinet's approval of a proposal to build a nuclear plant in Levy County will cause some environmentalists to howl. But the plant will produce clean energy and reduce the nation's dependence on oil.

Indeed, those conservationists rightly calling for Florida to develop alternative energy sources should applaud the addition of the nuclear facility, which will replace two coal-fired plants. Progress Energy's Levy County facility will include two 1,100 mega-watt nuclear-powered units. Florida needs to develop wind, solar, wave and other renewable energy sources. It also needs to put far more emphasis on conservation, which offers enormous opportunities for energy savings at little cost.

But nuclear must be part of the energy inventory if Florida is to seriously reduce carbon emissions yet still meet the needs of some 18 million residents. And Florida Progress officials say nuclear power is far cheaper to generate than power from other sources. They say the Levy plant will save ratepayers $1 billion a year.

This is the first nuclear power plant to be approved in Florida in 33 years. Consider how much more energy self-sufficient and how much cleaner the state would be had not irrational fears of nuclear power halted its utilization.

All packed up and ready to go to Utah - 14,800 drums of waste waiting to be moved

Thanks to the Augusta Chronicle for the following. Nearly 15,000 drums of depleted uranium oxide will be shipped from South Carolina for disposal in Utah under a contract awarded by the Department of Energy.

The 14,800 drums of Savannah River Site (pictured) waste will be disposed of at EnergySolutions’ facility about 70 miles west of Salt Lake City. The shipments will take place over 14 months, although it was unclear last week when they would start. The announcement, made by the Energy Department in mid-July, comes as EnergySolutions fights an effort to place a moratorium on the disposal of depleted uranium in Utah.

Depleted uranium is classified as the least dangerous type of low-level radioactive waste and has been disposed of for 18 years at the EnergySolutions' facility. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has acknowledged, however, that the material is different than other low-level waste because it becomes more radioactive over time for hundreds of thousands of years. The NRC is now studying whether new rules are needed for its disposal.

Spokesman Mark Walker said EnergySolutions could also receive depleted uranium from facilities in Oak Ridge, Paducah and Portsmouth over the next five years.

Hawaii 5-0 it’s not: more like Hawaii Oh no thanks to ‘migrating’ uranium

Found this via Honolulu’s Star Bulletin web pages

A preliminary study has concluded the public is not at risk from depleted uranium at the Pohakuloa Training Area on Hawaii’s Big Island, the military said.

The Army conducted the study as part of its licensing application to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission for a site-specific environmental radiation - monitoring plan.

According to the report, only three pieces of the radioactive material have been found at Pohakuloa (right) and the remainder, if any, likely fell into cracks in the lava. The July 8 report says, "If any significant quantity of DU was fired at PTA, it is expected to have quickly migrated through the pahoehoe (smooth ropy lava) and a'a basalt (a type of rocky cinder) flows and is no longer detectable at the surface."

The migration theory "made me giggle," said Mike Reimer, a Big Island resident who served 10 years as head of research at the Colorado School of Mines after a 25-year stint on a uranium project with the U.S. Geological Survey. "On the basis of that study, they can't come to that conclusion," Reimer said. "That document they sent to the NRC, I think, was extremely superficial and often contradictory."

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How much salt would you like with your Tritium sir?

Michael Scott Moore, writing for the pages of Miller McCune, goes down the mines for this report. Rock salt, at least while it's underground, has two main properties: It can be soft and easy to mine, and it can form a watertight seal. This helps explain why the West German government started fork-lifting thousands of metal drums of "low-to-medium" radioactive waste into an abandoned salt mine called Asse II during the 1960s.

The mine plunges deep into the hills near Braunschweig (aka Brunswick), in the centre of Germany, and politicians in Bonn regarded it during the Cold War as a test site for storage of nuclear waste. An overhead layer of rock salt would shield the mine from groundwater, and the shifting salt itself, over centuries, would seal up any fractures and finally pack the nuclear waste in a safe geological bed.

But that's not what's happening. Around 12,000 liters of groundwater leak into the mine every day. Some of it mixes with the radioactive waste. A few weeks ago, the Federal Office for Radiation Protection (BfS) finally admitted that some brine collected in Asse II had traces of tritium and caesium 137.

But last year the German public learned that the group in charge of maintaining Asse II at the time had known about the accumulation of suspect water since 2005 — and even tried to mitigate the threat to its employees by pumping it to a deeper level of the mine. Heinz-Jörg Haury, spokesman for the Hemholtz Institute for Scientific Research, tried to explain in mid-2008 why Helmholtz had made no public announcement. "We believed no one was in danger, inside or outside the mine," he said.

Thinking of going to the 2010 Olympics? Better take a Geiger Counter with you, then.

Ted Jeory and David Jarvis, reporting for yesterday’s Sunday Express, bring us this (if true) rather scary Olympic tale.

Thousands of tonnes of radioactive waste is to be buried in a “nuclear bunker” next to the Olympic stadium under construction in London. Contaminated soil found around old industrial works on the site will be sealed in a radiation -proof concrete container just 400 yards from the athletics track and 250 yards from Stratford International rail station. The massive bunker, the size of half a football pitch, will be built under an approach ramp to a bridge across the River Lee inside the Olympic Park and next to a site where new homes will be built after the 2012 games

A total of 7,300 tonnes of toxic soil will be buried in the “disposal cell” between the stadium, the station and the River Lee which drains into the Thames. It will be lined with a plastic membrane and capped with 4ft of clay.

Liberal Democrat Olympic spokesman Don Foster MP called on the Olympic Delivery Authority to reveal scientific proof that the site would be safe for future generations.

A report from radiological consultants Nuvia told the ODA the overall risk to site workers and future visitors was “negligible” and within safety standards. But it warned any future housing “would need to be designed to minimise radon intrusion”. And it added: “Water should not be abstracted from below the disposal site to water vegetables, etc.”

Perhaps we should put this one under 'Environmental Stuff You Didn't Know'

Linda Gunter, writing for the Ventura County Star web pages brings us something we definitely didn’t know and I bet you didn’t, either.

July 16, 1979, just 14 weeks after the Three Mile Island reactor accident, and 34 years to the day after the Trinity atomic test, the small community of Church Rock, N.M., became the scene of another nuclear tragedy.

90 million gallons of liquid radioactive waste and 1,100 tons of solid mill wastes burst through a broken dam wall at the Church Rock uranium mill facility, creating a flood of deadly effluents that permanently contaminated the Rio Puerco River.

Five weeks after the spill occurred, the mine and mill operator, United Nuclear Corp., were back in business at Church Rock as if nothing had happened.  Why is the Church Rock spill - that washed into gullies, contaminated fields and the animals that grazed there, and made drinking water deadly - so anonymous in the annals of our nuclear history? Perhaps the answer lies in where it took place and whom it affected.

Church Rock was a small farming community of Native Americans, mainly Navajo, eking out a subsistence living off the arid South-Western land. Nearby, several-hundred-million gallons of liquid uranium mill tailings were sitting in a pond waiting for evaporation to leave behind solid tailings for storage. The long-term effects of this enormous level of radioactive contamination are not yet known, given that health effects resulting from radiation exposure can take decades to appear and can affect future generations.

Obama cancels recycling plans - but don't say anything...

Geoff Brumfiel, writing for Nature.com’s web pages brings us this. Earlier this week, the administration of President Barack Obama quietly cancelled plans for a large-scale facility to recycle nuclear fuel. The move may prove a fatal blow to the Global Nuclear Energy Partnership (GNEP) set up by previous president George W. Bush.

The US Department of Energy (DoE) set up GNEP in early 2006 to tackle the problems of nuclear proliferation and nuclear waste. As nuclear power spreads, some nations will want the ability to produce their own uranium fuel through enrichment  - a process that can also be used to create material for nuclear weapons. The Bush administration hoped to limit proliferation of enrichment technologies by creating a guaranteed fuel supply for non-nuclear weapons states. Through GNEP, countries with enrichment plants, including France, Russia, and the United States, will guarantee a supply of fuel to countries that agree not to develop their own enrichment capabilities.

Once the fuel is used, the supplying nations will take it back and 'reprocess' it for use in their own commercial reactors. Plutonium and unused uranium isotopes can be chemically extracted and put into new fuel pellets that in turn can be used in specially designed reactors. France, Japan, the United Kingdom and Russia already reprocess fuel for commercial use, although the United States hasn't done so since the 1970s.

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Looks lovely, doesn't it? Wrong - there's plutonium in them thar hills!

LeRoy Moore, reporting for the Daily Camera’s web pages, tells a chilling environmental tale. The most contentious issue regarding the Rocky Flats National Wildlife Refuge in Colorado is the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) plan to open the refuge for hiking, biking, picnicking, school field trips and other activities. Before public access is allowed at the refuge, the surface soil needs to be sampled for plutonium content. This type of sampling, which has never been done at the Rocky Flats site, will demonstrate whether or not plutonium is present in breathable particles - its most dangerous form.

Newcomers to the Denver-Boulder area may not be aware that for almost four decades the Rocky Flats nuclear bomb factory located about eight miles south of Boulder produced the explosive plutonium "pit" at the core of every nuclear warhead in the U.S. arsenal. Routine operations as well as major fires and accidents released very fine particles of plutonium to the environment both on and off the plant site.

Inhaling or ingesting plutonium or taking tiny particles into the body through an open wound can result in cancer, disruption of the immune system, or harm to the gene pool. Because plutonium has a half-life of 24,110 years, its presence in the environment in particles so small they can attach to dust poses a permanent danger.

Production was halted in 1989 after the FBI raided the plant to collect evidence of environmental lawbreaking. Plutonium pit production ended permanently in 1992 when the Rocky Flats mission was changed from production to cleanup of a badly contaminated site.

Duck & cover - those 'muddy' wasps have left radioactive nests laying around Hanford

Shanon Dininny, reporting for the Associated Press brings you, my fellow wasp haters, a tale to chill the blood! If workers cleaning up the nation's most contaminated nuclear site at Hanford didn't have enough to worry about, now they've got to deal with radioactive wasp nests.

Mud dauber wasps built the nests, which have been largely abandoned by their flighty owners, in holes at south-central Washington's Hanford nuclear reservation in 2003. That's when workers finished covering cleaned-up waste sites with fresh topsoil, native plants and straw to help the plants grow — inadvertently creating perfect ground cover for the insects to build their nests. Nearby cleanup work also provided a steady supply of mud, which the wasps used as building material.

Today, the nests, which could number in the thousands, are "fairly highly contaminated" with radioactive isotopes, such as cesium and cobalt, but don't pose a significant threat to workers digging them up. "You don't know what you're going to run into, and this is probably one of the more unusual situations," said Todd Nelson, spokesman for Washington Closure Hanford, the contractor hired to clean up the area under the oversight of the U.S. Department of Energy.

The wasps largely built their nests in a 75-acre area around H reactor, pulling the mud from the bottom of a storage basin that once held irradiated nuclear fuel. (15/06/09)

Erm, we've just spilt some Tritium - but, not to worry, it didn't go anywhere

Kim Janssen, writing for Chicago Breaking News, brings us a rather non-story – but worrying nevertheless.  A radioactive leak at Exelon's Dresden nuclear power plant has been contained and isn't a risk to public health, authorities said recently. Leaked tritium  (a radioactive by-product of nuclear reaction that can cause cancer and birth defects) was found Saturday during routine tests at the Grundy County plant, according to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

The leak is not believed to have left the 1,700-acre plant site. Exelon officials said leaked tritium has not entered the public water supply. But the company hasn't found the cause or source of the leak, which was discovered in a monitoring well and storm sewers at the 37-year-old plant, the oldest privately-financed nuclear reactor in the United States and not far from the Kankakee and Des Plaines Rivers.

Workers were digging in the "general area" where a waste pipe is believed to have failed and are testing other wells at the plant, Exelon spokeswoman Krista Lopykinski said. "There's no danger to public or staff safety.”

But Paul Gunther, of anti-nuclear campaign group Beyond Nuclear, said Exelon has a history of "trivializing uncontrolled and unmonitored" tritium leaks. "Where is that contaminated water going to be 10 years from now?" Gunther said. "Groundwater can move and its movement is hard to predict."(12/6/09)

Where do we store spent fuel? NIMBY row rumbles on in the US

Lynn Edward Weaver, reporting for the Ledger’s web pages in Lakeland, Florida, brings us this. The U.S. has already committed $24 billion to build an underground repository for nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain in Nevada, according to the US Department of Energy.

Florida alone has forked over $743 million. Unfortunately, the Obama administration has submitted a budget to Congress that would sharply curtail funding for the repository project, and indications are that its future is very much in doubt.

The administration's decision to cancel a DOE program aimed at reviving the recycling of spent-nuclear fuel has confused matters further. The real question is not "is there a better site for a repository?" but rather "why not leave the spent fuel where it is and compensate utilities for keeping it?"

About 60,000 metric tons of spent fuel - often mistakenly called nuclear waste - is stored at nuclear power plant sites in 35 states, mainly in concrete-and-steel dry casks. The spent fuel is safe-and-secure, and it could remain where it is for another few decades at least. Or until the spent fuel can be reprocessed to produce more electricity, as is being done successfully and safely in other countries, such as France, Great Britain and Japan.

License delays in Levy County put building works on hold

Our thanks to Reuters for this update. Progress Energy's  Florida utility will delay the construction timeline for its U$14 billion nuclear plant in Levy County and scale back early charges to pay for the plant, the company said recently.

Florida's second-largest utility said a 20-month delay in the construction schedule for two 1,105-megawatt, AP1000 reactors will push commercial operation of the first unit to 2018, rather than 2016 as currently envisioned. A second reactor at the site could begin operation about 2020.

The schedule change follows a ruling by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission that prevents certain excavation and foundation work until Progress receives a license to construct and operate the plant, the utility said in a statement.

Progress had hoped to proceed with the foundation work ahead of the issuance of a license, expected by early 2012.

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New storage plans at Sequoyah upset residents in Oklahoma

Sally Maxwell, Managing Editor at the Sequoyah County Times, brings us this clean-up tale. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has approved Sequoyah Fuels’ plan to dispose of contaminated materials in an on-site cell, a plan opposed by some residents near the Gore-area plant in Oklahoma. John Ellis, Sequoyah Fuels president, said the NRC approved the plant’s on-site disposal site Monday, “after 16 years and two months.”

The plant, which at one time processed uranium to use in fuel rods for nuclear power plants, was closed in 1993 after it was found that portions of the plant and groundwater were contaminated.

Sequoyah Fuels and its parent company, General Atomics, have been working to meet the requirements to close the plant ever since. Last week, Ellis said that the proposed on-site disposal cell will cover about 11 acres in the centre of the property, which is about 60 acres now. The completed cell will cover about 17 acres, including its slopped sides, and will be about 50 feet tall.

The disposal is expected to cost General Atomics about $28 million and the NRC has approved the five-year disposal plan for financial reasons, so that the disposal may be paid for over that time period.

Get the map out, we're changing direction at Eagle Rock

This comes from  World Nuclear News’ web pages. Areva Enrichment Services (AES) has submitted a "roadmap" to US regulators defining changes it plans to make to its licence application in order to double the capacity of the Eagle Rock Enrichment Facility (EREF).

AES submitted its licence application for the centrifuge uranium enrichment plant to be built at Bonneville County, Idaho, at the end of 2008. On 31 March 2009 the company informed the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) that it intended to revise the application to double the capacity of the plant from the originally planned 3.3 million SWU (separative work units, the unit of measurement for uranium enrichment) to 6.6 million SWU per year.

AES said that it had decided to revise the application to give it the flexibility to build a bigger plant if market conditions warrant but confirmed that it does not have any firm plans to do so. "In recent months, AES' confidence has increased regarding the construction of new reactors both in the United States and other countries," the company told NRC in its letter forewarning them of the revision.

Not a very good start to Earth Day, Oyster Creek

Todd B Bates brings us this environmental tale. Exelon is investigating whether a storage tank or piping may be the "leak source" responsible for an elevated level of radioactive tritium found in water at the Oyster Creek nuclear power plant , according to a federal official.

Exelon owns the plant, which received a 20-year license renewal from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission last week. Workers detected 102,000 picocuries of tritium per litre - five times the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency standard for drinking water - in water in a concrete vault. A picocurie (in case you didn’t know) is a measure of radioactivity.

"Based on sampling and analysis of ground water monitoring wells in the vicinity, Exelon is investigating the potential that the leak source may be the condensate storage tank or associated piping," according to Neil A. Sheehan, an NRC spokesman.

Sellafield's B30 is contender for Europe's most contaminated buildings list

Robin McKie, reporting for The Observer, brings us this worrying tale from Sellafield. Last week the government announced plans for a new generation of nuclear plants. But Britain is still dealing with the legacy of its first atomic installation at Sellafield - a toxic waste dump in one of the most contaminated buildings in Europe.

Building B30 is a large, stained, concrete edifice that stands at the centre of Sellafield.  Surrounded by a three-metre-high fence that is topped with razor wire, encased in scaffolding and riddled with a maze of sagging pipes and cabling, it would never be a contender to win an architectural prize. Yet B30 has a powerful claim to fame, albeit a disturbing one: It is the most hazardous industrial building in Western Europe.

Piles of old nuclear reactor parts and decaying fuel rods, much of them of unknown provenance and age, line the murky, radioactive waters of the cooling pond in the centre of B30. Down there, pieces of contaminated metal have dissolved into sludge that emits heavy and potentially lethal doses of radiation.  It is an unsettling place, though B30 is certainly not unique. There is Building B38 next door, for example - the second most hazardous industrial building in Europe.

Shake, rattle and roll - Hanford hit by earthquake 'swarm'

Eric Mortenson, reporting for The Oregonian, gets all shook up with reports of multiple quakes at Hanford

It's been a jittery week at eastern Washington's Hanford Nuclear Reservation, where more than 100 small earthquakes have been detected in the past seven days.

The quakes are part of an earthquake "swarm" that has puzzled scientists since it began at the first of the year. As of Friday, monitors at Hanford had detected more than 700 earthquakes since Jan. 4, said Alan Rohay, senior scientist and seismologist with Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, which operates at Hanford.

The quakes haven't disturbed the extensive stores of radioactive waste at Hanford or interfered with cleanup operations there. The plant processed plutonium for nuclear weapons during World War II and the Cold War. Highly contaminated liquid material is stored in underground tanks that have a history of leaks, and critics are wary of leaks or spills that could migrate to the nearby Columbia River.

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There's plenty of fish in the sea - but not at Dounreay

Just in case you were thinking about a spot of fishing in Scotland, John Ross, reporting for the Scotsman has this cautionary (fishy) tale.

A ban on seafood coming from an area near the Dounreay nuclear site is to stay in place, following a Food Standards Agency review. The restriction, preventing the removal of fish and shellfish from a 2km exclusion zone, was imposed in 1997 after the discovery of radioactive particles on the seabed.

The order, under the Food and Environment Protection Act, was to ensure any seafood contaminated by irradiated nuclear fuel did not enter the food chain.

Last year, Dounreay began work using remotely operated vehicles to remove the worst of the particles that have caused concern for more than quarter of a century. Up to £25 million will be spent on covering an area the size of 60 football pitches and on monitoring up to the 2020s.

The FSA examined the existing ban in light of the work, but concluded that the restricted area should remain in place while the work on the seabed is going on and be reviewed once it is complete. The agency said that, with the restrictions in place, the risk to food safety remains extremely small.

Vermont Yankee clean? Vermonters don't think so...

The following environmental report comes courtesy of Julie Elmore, reporting for the Burlington Free Press web pages recently. Vermonters have been witnessing their own magic show on the energy stage in Vermont recently, with the Legislature and ratepayers as its audience. Throughout the past year, Gov. Douglas, utilities, Entergy and corporate special interest groups have presented a steady supply of smoke and mirrors to create an illusion -- the illusion that Vermont Yankee is cheap, clean, green and reliable, and still critical to Vermont's energy portfolio for the next two decades.

Cue the smoke: Vermont utilities continually publicize their efforts to increase renewable energy and conservation as part of their future energy plans. Yet, their plans show a small increased investment in renewable energy over a 25-year time span and continued reliance on Vermont Yankee during this same 25-year period.

Cue the mirrors: Vermonters are told we receive cheap and clean energy due in large part to the cost of purchasing power from Vermont Yankee. In fact, this claim is based on an old contract and doesn't account for the fact that Vermont Yankee will cost a lot more after 2012. Nor does it account for the dangers and cost of cleaning up nuclear waste along the Connecticut River. Nor does it reflect the intensively high CO2 emissions from uranium mining. Where compared to renewable alternatives, energy generated from the entire nuclear fuel cycle releases four to five times more CO2 and is the most polluting energy source, bar none.

Now, where did we dispose of that Cesium, Cobolt...? It's here somewhere

David Gutierrez, staff writer for Natural News brings us this. Hospitals have become a major source of nuclear waste in the United States, producing and storing millions of radioactive materials each year with no long-term disposal plan. Experts increasingly fear that such waste could pose health hazards or be stolen by terrorists and used to build dirty bombs.

"Instead of safely secured in one place, it's stored in thousands of places in urban locations all over the United States," said nuclear waste consultant Rick Jacobi.

Hospitals and other health facilities use radioactive material for a variety of functions. For example, radiation from cobalt and powdered cesium is used to sterilize blood and medical equipment, while cobalt is also used to kill diseased brain tissue.

The federal government has long had a policy that individual states should build sites where radioactive waste produced in that state can be stored and disposed of, but failed to create penalties for states that did not comply. As a consequence, only three such radioactive waste facilities exist in the United States.

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