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Vermont Nuclear Plant to close while lawsuit continues

Judge denies Entergy’s injunction request; trial set to begin on Sept. 12, By Randolph T. Holhut/The Commons,18 july 11,BRATTLEBORO—Entergy Corp. has lost its bid for a preliminary injunction to keep the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant open while a lawsuit about its long-term future winds its way through the federal court system. Continue reading →

July 19, 2011 Posted by | Legal, USA | Leave a comment

Deterioration in Seabrook nuclear plant stalls licence renewal

Nuclear plant concerns stall license renewal, By Shir Haberman,Issues raised over deterioration of concrete .seacoastonline.com July19, 2011NRC inspectors reviewing Seabrook Station for its fitness to have its license extended noted the deterioration, which was discovered by the plant’s staff, and noted it in an inspection report dated May 23.

SEABROOK — The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission confirmed Friday that the discovery of deteriorating concrete in below-ground-level structures at the Seabrook Station nuclear power plant made public earlier this year could delay the granting of a license extension that would allow the plant to operate until 20     ….

“The walk-down inspections discovered the following plant material conditions; (a) large amount of groundwater infiltration, (b) large amount of calcium carbonate deposits, (c) corroded steel supports, base plates and piping, (d) corroded anchor bolts, (e) pooling of water and (f) cracking and spalling of concrete,” the NRC report indicated. “The inspection further noted that the below-grade, exterior walls in the Control Building B Electrical Tunnel … have random cracking and for several years have been saturated by groundwater infiltration……

typically, the license extension approval process takes 30 months when opponents call for a public hearing on the merits of that extension. Several nuclear safety organizations, including the Portsmouth-based Seacoast Anti-Pollution League, have been granted intervener status in the Seabrook license extension process creating the need for such a hearing.

“This ongoing groundwater infiltration and weakening of the plant foundations doesn’t sound good, considering that it is only about one-third of the way through its prospective life,” said Doug Bogen, executive director of SAPL after the May 23 report was issued. “This is exactly the kind of problem we’re concerned about as the plant enters its middle and old age, and it doesn’t bode well for future safety and reliability if the problem worsens in coming years.”…

http://www.seacoastonline.com/articles/20110719-NEWS-107190336

July 19, 2011 Posted by | safety, USA | Leave a comment

USA govt backs big solar and wind projects

Big Solar, Wind Projects Backed By U.S.  Earth Techling, by Pete Danko, July 18th, 2011 @…All told, the projects will provide 550 megawatts (MW) of new electrical generation capacity, enough juice to power 185,000 to 380,000 homes, DOI said. The deparment also promoted the job-creating benefits the projects will yield: more than 1,300 construction jobs.

Continuing the Obama administration’s push for big renewable energy development, U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) Secretary Ken Salazar has approved a batch of projects on public lands –  two utility-scale solar power plants in California, a wind energy plant in Oregon, and a transmission line in Southern California that’s needed to tie nine planned solar plants to the grid…..http://www.earthtechling.com/2011/07/big-solar-wind-projects-backed-by-u-s/

 


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July 19, 2011 Posted by | renewable, USA | Leave a comment

USA Nuclear Regulatory Commission might be forced to get out of bed with the nuclear industry

 the days of uncontested, rubber-stamp relicensing may be drawing to an end. A new generation of legal warriors, armed with scheduled appeals and hotly debated contentions, have slowed some relicensing procedures to a glacial pace.   Today, relicensing applicants may encounter committed opposition in high places they didn’t bargain for…..

The End of the NRC Rubber Stamp?   OpEd News, By Abby Luby  16 July 11 On Friday, a major victory by New York State upset the Nuclear RegulatoryCommission’s rubber stamp process to relicense the Indian Point Nuclear Power Plant. The historical decision by the Atomic Safety and Licensing Board ruled in favor of a petition served by New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman that argued the NRC’s environmental review violated the law.

This was the first successful motion of its kind and it heralds the growing trend to battle “business as usual’ when it comes to relicensing aging nuclear power plants who want to stay in business past their 40-year life expectancy. Continue reading →

July 16, 2011 Posted by | Legal, USA | Leave a comment

On health and safety grounds, Indian Point Nuclear Plant should be closed

First, to the cancer risk. Even the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission — an agency that services the industry it is supposed to regulate, if there ever was one — has bowed to growing evidence and backed away from its decades of insisting that nuclear power plants do not cause cancer. …

The Radiation and Public Health Project, a nonprofit anti-nuclear group, has found increasing levels of Strontium 90, a carcinogen that exists only as a byproduct of nuclear fission, in teeth from babies living close to nuclear plants, including Indian Point…the safety record, plus evidence that the facility already is slowly, steadily poisoning the region, makes clear that it’s time to close Indian Point.

It’s time to close Indian Point, ctpost.com, July 15, 2011 “……….But Hearst Newspapers‘ investigative reporter Bill Cummings in today’s paper presents a hard-to-dismiss examination of the plant closest to us.    More than 17 million people live within a 50-mile radius of New York’s Indian Point Energy Center in Buchanan, N.Y., just south of Peekskill.

And incidence of cancer near the center, including in Fairfield County, is higher than the national average, and grow higher still as you get closer. Continue reading →

July 16, 2011 Posted by | health, USA | Leave a comment

Prospects improving for renewable energy in USA

Renewable Energy Funds Boosted as House Passes Energy Funding Bill, Science Insider, by Eli Kintisch ,  16 July 11, An amendment to bring proposed 2012 funding for ARPA-E, the blue-sky research arm of the Department of Energy, up to the current year level of $180 million passed the House today by a vote of 214-213. That level is far lower than the $550 million that the Obama Administration requested. But it does suggest that the likely worst-case scenario for the agency is a flat budget next year, as the Democratic-controlled Senate, which takes up the legislation next, generally supports increases for energy research. The amendment added $80 million to the $100 million approved by the House appropriations panel.

Meanwhile, a number of amendments in the House of Representatives sought to cut the renewable energy and energy efficiency research program at the Department of Energy, but they all failed. So, too, did a number of proposals to boost research into renewables or fossil fuel energy. An amendment to add $10 million to the solar energy research program passed, however, by a close vote of 212-210. ..http://news.sciencemag.org/scienceinsider/2011/07/renewable-energy-funds-boosted-a.html

July 16, 2011 Posted by | renewable, USA | Leave a comment

USA taxpayers paying up for nuclear companies’ radioactive wastes

NPPD gets $61M to pay for storing nuclear waste, BLOOMBERG, 16 JULY 11BROWNVILLE, NEB., The Nebraska Public Power District has received nearly $61 million from the federal Energy Department to help pay for the cost of storing spent fuel at Cooper nuclear power plant.

The Columbus-based utility says it also reached an agreement with federal officials about how future fuel storage costs will be handled, so its lawsuit against the Energy Department has been dismissed.

The initial payment covers about 90 percent of NPPD’s storage costs from 2007 through 2009. NPPD says it had to build a facility to store spent fuel at Cooper because the federal government never set up the promised national repository for radioactive waste…..http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D9OG8UCG2.htm

July 16, 2011 Posted by | USA, wastes | Leave a comment

US Defense Dept supportive of renewable energy projects

Pentagon clears Kansas wind projects,  July 15, 2011, BLOOMBERG, TOPEKA, KAN., The Defense Department says a half-dozen wind energy projects planned in Kansas would have little or no effect on military missions.

The Pentagon issued a report Thursday on its review of 249 renewable energy projects in 35 states and Puerto Rico. The department found no problems with 229 of the projects.The report cleared all six of the Kansas wind projects reviewed. They’re located in Cimarron, El Dorado, Ensign, Lakin, Pratt and Ulysses.

Defense officials also said in the report that renewable projects will help the U.S. maintain its energy security.http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D9OG64T00.htm

July 16, 2011 Posted by | renewable, USA | Leave a comment

Two patients still irradiated months after medical scans

The agency said it recently became aware of two patients who underwent PET imaging scans with CardioGen-82 and were later found to have detectable levels of radiation several months after their PET scans. Both patients were crossing the border to or from the United States when radiation detectors identified radiation originating from them.

The FDA said the scans had been performed 2 and 4 months earlier.

FDA Investigating Exposure To Excess Radiation From Certain Heart Scans, WSJ, By Jennifer Corbett Dooren, WASHINGTON (Dow Jones) 16 July 11–-The Food and Drug Administration Friday warned about the potential for excess radiation exposure in patients who underwent heart scans involving a radioactive drug called CardioGen-82. Continue reading →

July 16, 2011 Posted by | health, USA | Leave a comment

Radioactive water leak closes New Jersey nuclear plant

NJ nuclear plant taken offline due to water leak  , LOWER ALLOWAYS CREEK TOWNSHIP, N.J. 16 JULY 11, The Salem 2 nuclear plant in southern New Jersey has been taken offline after a leak of low-level radioactive water developed during routine testing of an emergency cooling system…. it’s not known when the plant will return to service….http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D9OGD6UG0.htm

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July 16, 2011 Posted by | safety, USA | Leave a comment

USA Republicans use budget Bill to promote Grand Canyon uranium mining

The Interior spending bill now goes to the full House for approval. If it passes — as expected, on a largely party-line vote — the Senate should make certain that none of the anti-environmental provisions survive in the final appropriations bill. And President Obama should veto any legislation that includes them.

EDITORIAL: Protect the Grand Canyon, House Republicans target a mining moratorium, Register Guard,  July 14, Congressional Republicans are continuing their assault on the nation’s environmental safeguards with a proposal to reverse a recently imposed 20-year ban on mining 1 million acres bordering the Grand Canyon.

Democrats were unable to strip this rapacious proposal from an Interior spending bill that was approved Tuesday by the House Appropriations Committee. Never mind that 3,500 mining claims have been filed in the Grand Canyon area alone. Never mind that uranium mining would generate toxic wastes that would pollute the Colorado River, on which millions of Americans rely for drinking water. Continue reading →

July 15, 2011 Posted by | politics, Uranium, USA | 2 Comments

$20 million budget for NRC to review licensing application for Yucca Mt as radioactive waste repositary

House increases money for nuclear waste review, Fuel Fix, July 14, WASHINGTON — The House has approved more money to review an application to store nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain in Nevada, deviating from the Barack Obama administration effort to kill the project.

The 297-130 vote on an amendment to an energy spending bill doubles from $10 million to $20 million the budget for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to review a licensing application for the Yucca operation.

Some $15 billion has been spent over the past several decades to prepare Yucca Mountain as the central burying point for the nation’s nuclear waste, but Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada has long opposed the project and Obama has followed through on a campaign promise to shut down the project. His administration has sought to withdraw the government application to build the dump……http://fuelfix.com/blog/2011/07/14/house-increases-money-for-nuclear-waste-review/


July 15, 2011 Posted by | USA, wastes | Leave a comment

USA govt to pay up for victims of Hanford Nuclear radiation

The government indemnified the contractors, E.I. du Pont de Nemours and Co. and General Electric Co., and is on the hook for their legal fees (which now total about $60 million), and damages. …..Plaintiffs contend that the radiation caused cancer and other illnesses, including hypothyroidism, 

 After Two Decades of Litigation, Energy Department Settles 139 Hanford Radiation Claims, BLT – THE BLOG OF LEGAL TIMES, JULY 13, 2011 The Department of Energy has tentatively agreed to settle 139 suits brought by people who claim that radiation from the now-shuttered Hanford Nuclear Reservation gave them thyroid disease. Continue reading →

July 14, 2011 Posted by | Legal, USA | 1 Comment

Changes needed in USA nuclear reactors, says govt panel

Govt panel: Changes needed at U.S. nuclear plants. Salon.com, BY DINA CAPPIELLO, 14 July 11 Calling the Japan nuclear disaster “unacceptable,” an expert task force convened by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission has concluded that nuclear power plants in the U.S. need better protections for rare, catastrophic events.

Nuclear Regulatory Commission recommends 12 changes at domestic reactors to help prevent Fukushima repeat

The series of recommendations, included in portions of a 90-page report obtained Tuesday by The Associated Press, will reset the level of protection at the nation’s 104 nuclear reactors after the worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl by making them better prepared for incidents that they were not initially designed to handle.

The report will be formally presented to the full commission next week. NRC staff will continue to examine the safety of nuclear power in the U.S. as part of a six-month investigation.

The panel will tell the commission that nuclear plant operators should be ordered to re-evaluate their earthquake and flood risk, add equipment to address simultaneous damage to multiple reactors and make sure electrical power and instruments are in place to monitor and cool spent fuel pools after a disaster……http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2011/07/14/us_japan_nuclear_safety_report

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July 14, 2011 Posted by | safety, USA | Leave a comment

USA’s Aerial Radiological Survey – testing radiation levels in the atmosphere

Now You Know: That Thing in the Sky is Testing for Radiation, Seattlest 13 July 11  If you’ve recently spied a startlingly low-flying beast in the sky, don’t worry–it’s not Google trying to get a more recent photo of your back yard, and it’s not a search party looking for bad guys in your neighborhood. It’s just trying to get a read on how much radiation you might exposed to.

Yesterday, the Washington State Department of Health launched the Aerial Radiological Survey for King and Piece Counties. The survey, which is being conducted by a helicopter that flies in a grid pattern at about 300 feet above the ground, will last until July 28. It is being funded by the Department of Homeland Security, and can “detect the presence of radioactive materials that emit gamma radiation such as cesium and radioactive iodine.” The goal of the project is to establish a radiation baseline–that is, how much radiation each area is exposed to right now, in a time of normal levels.

The project, says the DOH, has been in the works since 2009. But, we imagine, since the Fukushima nuclear disaster across the pond in Japan, the information being gathered is more critical than they could have predicted. Having a baseline for what is “normal” will be massively helpful in the future, when determining what is dangerous, and what is abnormal….http://seattlest.com/2011/07/12/now_you_know_that_thing_in_the_sky.php

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July 13, 2011 Posted by | environment, technology, USA | 1 Comment

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