July 6, 2016 – CNBC – How the Department of Energy became a major taxpayer liability – If you were to guess which government agency has had to pay out the most in court in recent years, the Department of Energy probably wouldn’t come to mind. Yet the DOE is among the most prominent defendants requiring payment from the Judgment Fund, which pays for claims against the government. The department paid out more in legal claims than any other agency last year and the year before, according to the fund’s records — more than $5 billion over the last decade. And according to the department itself, the bloodletting as far from over. The DOE has failed to make good on some of its most important contractual obligations for years, and its private partners have been collecting billions in damages.

July 6, 2016 – WeAreTheCity.com – Inspirational Quotes: Marie Curie, Nobel Prize winning scientist – Marie Curie, born 1867, was a Polish physicist and chemist who was famous for her work in radioactivity. Throughout her life, Curie had many notable achievements. She was the first women to win a Nobel Prize; the first person and only woman to win the award twice; and the only person to win twice in multiple sciences. She also founded the Curie Institutes, leading research centres, in Paris and Warsaw. During the First World War, Curie established the first military field radiological centres, meaning that mobile x-rays could be taken. Curie died in 1934, aged 66 due to radiation poisoning from carrying around test tubes of radium in her pockets and coming into contact with radiation from x-ray machines. Below you will find the best inspirational quotes from Marie Curie herself.

July 6, 2016 – CBS4 Denver – Radioactive Sludge Removed From Water Treatment Plant – Low level radioactive sludge is being removed from a water treatment plant in Englewood, following a CBS4 investigation. Some workers believe the sludge at the Allen Water Treatment Facility at Windermere Street and Layton Avenue may have given them cancer. Linda Black’s husband Jim worked at that water treatment plant for 20 years until he died. “I believe he strongly felt the sludge was the reason for the number of employees who had cancer,” she told CBS4. Three employees have died from cancer. Others may have cancer, like Ken Kloewer.

July 6, 2016 – Asahi Shimbun – Koizumi appeals for help for U.S. vets who assisted in Fukushima – Former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi is calling for donations to the relief fund he founded for U.S. veterans who claim their health problems resulted from radioactive fallout after the 2011 nuclear disaster. Speaking at a news conference on July 5 alongside another former prime minister, Morihiro Hosokawa, Koizumi said of the U.S. veterans: “They went so far to do their utmost to help Japan. It is not the kind of issue we can dismiss with just sympathy.” More than 400 veterans who were part of the Operation Tomodachi mission to provide humanitarian relief after the Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami have filed a mass lawsuit in California against Tokyo Electric Power Co., operator of the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant. They are seeking compensation and an explanation for their health problems. However, in a 2014 report released by the U.S. Defense Department, no link was established between radiation exposure and their ill health. The reason cited was that only a low level of radiation exposure occurred.

July 6, 2016 – info-europa.com – Why are Africans afraid of nuclear energy, asks Molefe – Africa should use nuclear energy to move forward, said Eskom CEO Brian Molefe. Speaking at the power utility’s integrated results at Megawatt Park on Tuesday, Molefe shared some of the things he learnt from an Massachusetts Institute of Technology nuclear programme, which he recently completed in the US. The programme took Molefe through the basics of chemistry, physics and mathematics to understand nuclear reactions and plant infrastructure. What struck Molefe is that MIT has a nuclear reactor on its campus in Cambridge, Massachusetts, close to the public. “My curiosity was aroused and I wanted to learn what your fears are about nuclear,” he said.

July 6, 2016 – WBFO 88.7 – Investigative Post: Radioactive hotspots dot Niagara County – The driveway that John Grace uses for his home on Upper Mountain Road in Lewiston is hot, but not in a way that he can use as a marketing pitch to sell his home. Government surveys almost four decades ago found sections of the driveway contaminated with radioactive waste in excess of 70 times what people are naturally exposed to in the area. He watched as a radiation detector located the hotspots that triggers the device. Grace first found out three years ago that the driveway, which he does not actually own, was contaminated. That’s when Environmental Protection Agency officials dug holes into the driveway and a vacant lot next door to pinpoint the hotspots. “I just said, ‘You’ve got to be kidding me.’ This is Lewiston, where the dead come from. But they said it was all around,” said Grace. “They said it was all around Niagara County.”

July 6, 2016 – Las Vegas Sun – Shame on Nevada leaders who sell out on Yucca Mountain – Some politicians in Congress are grasping at the fantasy of gaining control of Yucca Mountain so their states’ expended-but-still-lethally radioactive nuclear power plant fuel rods can be dumped in Nevada. Their strategy, which will be aired during a congressional hearing Thursday on Capitol Hill, is to persuade Nevada politicians to betray their constituents and allow the use of Yucca Mountain’s frail geology as a tomb for the most deadly material known to man. This, in exchange for a bag of gold coins. More specifically, they are once again floating the notion that if Nevada politicians green-light the use of Yucca Mountain as a nuclear waste repository — something we have fought for 30 years — they’ll give us something in return: a north-south interstate highway, perhaps, or research money for UNLV. Offering political payola to get Nevada to take it in the gut is despicable, and shame on any public officials from Nevada who would be seduced by such a conniving tactic. At stake is nothing less than the safety and welfare of the people who elected the Nevada officials to office, and the economic security of Las Vegas, which depends on visitors feeling relaxed, comfortable and safe, versus looking over their shoulders at a nuclear waste dump 90 miles up the highway.

July 6, 2016 – Modern Building Services – Hargreaves wins ductwork contract for Chernobyl – Hargreaves has been selected to supply over 6000 m of high-integrity ductwork to one of the largest engineering projects in the world — at the Chernobyl nuclear site in the Ukraine. The company says it is the only UK subcontractor working on the Chernobyl New Safe Confinement (NSC) project, having secured a multi-million contract with Novarka, a joint venture between Vinci Construction Grands Projects and Bouygues Travaux Publics. The contract involves delivering a complete bespoke ventilation and containment solution to the NSC project — including consultation, detail design, manufacture and engineering services, as well as managing the procurement process. A 108 m-high arch is being constructed to prevent the release of radioactive materials from within the Chernobyl nuclear reactor for at least 100 years.

July 6, 2016 – Nerdist.com – FALLOUT 4’s Nuka-World Expansion Will Be the Final One – It’s all over for Fallout 4 DLC after the Nuka-World hits next month. From the moment it was first teased, and subsequently announced, Fallout 4 has been the one game absolutely everyone has been talking about. It’s no mystery why; there was plenty to do in the vast wasteland of the base game alone. When official mods and downloadable content came along (including the recent Far Harbor expansion and Contraptions Workshop), tons of hours and depth were added to the game. So, it comes as no surprise that Bethesda will be done crafting DLC once Nuka-World hits PC and consoles in August. The content is set to launch next month, with the Vault-Tec Workshop add-on hitting this month. If you’re worried about running out of Fallout content, don’t fret—Nuka-World will keep you more than busy. The $20 expansion is jam packed with quests, weapons, and radioactive fun. By the description alone, it sounds like we’re in for a treat.

July 6, 2016 – Reuters – Shortage of stress-test dye leads to more invasive heart procedures – Due to shortages of a radioactive substance used in exercise stress tests, more heart patients have needed complex invasive procedures, new research shows. Doctors inject the harmless radioactive substance, called a tracer, to help them diagnose or rule out coronary artery disease. Not every patient needs the injection. But for those who do, not being able to get it means the only other way for doctors to get the same information is for the patient to undergo a cardiac catheterization. The current worldwide shortage of a radioisotope known as technetium Tc 99m, which is commonly used during stress testing, appears to have led to a nearly 10 percent increase in heart catheterizations after stress tests, Dr. Venkatesh L. Murthy from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor told Reuters Health.

July 6, 2016 – KIIItv.com – TSA Testing C.T. Scanners for Luggage – Your wait at the airport could get shorter this summer. The T.S.A. says it is conducting a pilot program at the Phoenix International Airport using C.T. scanners to inspect carry-on’s. The scanners are already used to screen checked bags. They would eliminate the need for x-ray screeners and let you leave liquids and laptops in your bag. The process will cut the time you spend in line by nearly 30-percent.

July 6, 2016 – Symmetry Magazine – Incredible hulking facts about gamma rays – From lightning to the death of electrons, the highest-energy form of light is everywhere. Gamma rays are the most energetic type of light, packing a punch strong enough to pierce through metal or concrete barriers. More energetic than X-rays, they are born in the chaos of exploding stars, the annihilation of electrons and the decay of radioactive atoms. And today, medical scientists have a fine enough control of them to use them for surgery. Here are seven amazing facts about these powerful photons.

July 6, 2016 – The Telegraph – Merrimack firm helps NASA mission – At seven minutes before midnight on the Fourth of July, NASA’s Juno spacecraft entered into orbit about 3,000 miles above the planet Jupiter with a little connection to the Granite State. Nanocomp Technologies, a Merrimack-based nanotechnology firm, developed a material known as Miralon to protect critical spacecraft components from the ambient radiation surrounding Jupiter. It has been connected to the spacecraft since its launch in August 2011.

July 6, 2016 – Renal & Urology News – Hypofractionated RT Noninferior for Localized Prostate Cancer – Hypofractionated radiotherapy at a dose of 60 Gy in fractions is non-inferior to conventional radiotherapy using 74 Gy in 37 fractions for the treatment of patients with localized prostate cancer after 5 years’ follow-up, a study published in the journal The Lancet Oncology has shown. Because prostate cancer might have high radiation-fraction sensitivity that gives a therapeutic advantage to hypofractionated therapy, researchers compared the efficacy and safety of conventional radiotherapy with hypofractionated therapy.

July 6, 2016 – Sputnik International – Germany May Wait Over a Hundred Years to Bury Nuclear Waste – After two years of research, the repository commission presented its 682-page report to the parliament on Tuesday where it called into question an on-time solution to the problem of radioactive storage. “The German Bundestag is due, according to current estimates, to start searching for an optimal secure place in 2017. Decades will pass before the waste can be buried and possibly more than a century before this process ends,” the report predicted.

July 6, 2016 – KWOS 950AM – Callaway Plant is full of nuclear waste – Did you that there’s 30 – years worth of nuclear waste stored just miles up the road from your house? All the spent nuclear fuel rods from the Callaway Plant have stayed on – site … Callaway County Representative Travis Fitzwater says the plan has always been for that spent fuel to be transferred to the Yucca Mountain site in Nevada. But that site has never opened due to politicians who don’t want it in their state.

July 6, 2016 – ITV.com – Sellafield confirms new anti-terror tactics – Sellafield has confirmed it is using new tactics to protect the nuclear complex from a terrorist attack. The Civil Nuclear Constabulary says there is no direct threat to the site in West Cumbria. But officers have warned that they cannot afford to be complacent when it comes to security. People living in the area are also being urged to report any suspicious behaviour.

July 6, 2016 – Nuclear Street – AREVA’s Cavitation Peening Used At Byron NPP – AREVA NP said this week that the company had employed an innovative maintenance technique for the first time on the reactor vessel closure head at Unit 2 of Exelon’s Byron Generating Station in Illinois. Byron NPPThe process called cavitation peening is process of surface mitigation used for key reactor components in the primary system – reactor vessel head nozzle penetrations, bottom mounted nozzle instrumentation penetrations and reactor vessel primary nozzles, according to the AREVA web site. These are systems that are highly susceptible to primary water stress corrosion cracking. Captivation peening uses “submerged, ultra-high pressure water jets to work the surface of reactor components,” by use of vapor bubbles that collapse on the component’s surface. As this occurs, shock waves travel through the material creating compressive residual stresses. This, in effect, replaces random fractures in the component’s surface with controlled compression peening, which prevents the start to random surface cracking.

July 6, 2016 – Manila Times – Reactor fuels Russia bid for atomic lead – The new No. 6 reactor at Russia’s Novovoronezh atomic power station is not just about generating power, but re-launching Russia’s ambitions to become a major player in the nuclear industry. The new design comes 30 years after the Chernobyl disaster in the Soviet republic of Ukraine dealt a body blow to reputation of the Soviet Union’s nuclear industry and five years after the Fukushima disaster in Japan sowed fresh doubts over safety. Russia’s nuclear power corporation Rosatom is presenting the new VVER-1200 reactor that is entering service here as not only the most powerful in the world, but the safest. The 1,200-megawatt reactor with a service life of 60 years includes innovative security features that operate equally well on commands from the staff or without human action, including cooling systems that work without electricity, it says.

July 6, 2016 – Nuclear Street – Dominion Power Signs Order For 75 NUHOMS EOS Canisters – Dominion Virginia Power has signed a contract with AREVA TN for provision of 75 NUHOMS EOS dry shielded canisters designed to store used nuclear fuel at two of the company’s operating facilities though 2038. NUHOMS CanisterThe EOS canisters will be manufactured at AREVA TN’s Columbiana Hi Tech facility in Kernersville, N.C. AREVA TN expects to begin delivery of the canisters in 2019. The two companies held a ceremonial contract signing event at the World Nuclear Exhibition in Paris. The “high capacity, high-burnup and high-heat load” AREVA TN system provides dry fuel storage for pressurized and boiling water reactors. “The EOS 37TH and EOS 89BTH baskets are constructed using alloy steel, aluminum and metal matrix composite plates configured into an egg crate design, allowing for more cost-effective fabrication,” according to a company Web site.

July 6, 2016 – Forbes – Can The Modern Environmental Movement Save Nuclear Energy In California? – Could the protests held against nuclear energy in the 1970s be giving way to the current marches in favor of the carbon-free power source? With the announced closure of Northern California’s Diablo Canyon, the modern environmental movement has sent its foot soldiers to battle. But can they win? Ever since Pacific Gas & Electric Co. agreed last to close the state’s one remaining nuclear power plant, there has been a backlash against those environmental groups that have forced the shutdown that would occur in nine years — a facility that now cranks out 2,160 megawatts of clean energy.

July 6, 2016 – Natural Resources Defense Council – Regulating Tritium Leaks and Spills – Tritium is a radioactive isotope of hydrogen. It is continuously released to the environment from both natural and human sources. The major natural source of tritium is the result of several interactions of cosmic rays with gases in the upper atmosphere, existing principally in the form of water vapor which precipitates as rain and snow. Human sources of tritium are due to the manufacture and testing of nuclear weapons, as well as the operation of nuclear power reactors. The radioactive half-life of tritium (indicating the rate at which the nucleus disintegrates) is 12.3 years. Thus tritium is classified as a long half-life radionuclide. However, because of the low energy of the radiation given off by the beta-decay of tritium, and subsequently this radiation’s low ability to penetrate materials, tritium’s decay radiation can be completely absorbed by sheets of plastic, paper, glass or metal, and tritium’s decay radiation cannot penetrate the top-most, dead layer of skin in humans or animals. Nevertheless, tritium exposure can pose a health risk if it is ingested in drinking water or food, or inhaled or absorbed by the skin or by other biological tissue.

July 6, 2016 – Popular Mechanics – The Tests That Showed the World the Horrifying Power of Nuclear Weapons – In the summer of 1946, just a year after World War II ended, the U.S. Navy conducted two atmospheric nuclear bomb tests at Bikini Atoll (the name would be immortalized in the two-piece bikini swimsuit). Here, the United States learned horrifying lessons about the newest weapon to enter its arsenal, confirming nukes as truly the worst weapon ever devised. The tests were dubbed Operation Crossroads, and the purpose to determine the effectiveness of nuclear bombs against navy ships. Ninety-five obsolete and decommissioned navy ships, including four battleships, two aircraft carriers, two cruisers, and dozens of destroyers, replenishment ships, amphibious ships, and even captured German and Japanese navy ships were towed to the middle of Bikini Atoll to simulate a fleet at anchorage. Around 42,000 U.S. military personnel were on hand to support the exercise.

July 6, 2016 – Cape Cod Times – NRC: Pilgrim let safety gear lapse – Electrical relays at Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station, relied on to shut safety valves in the reactor building should an accident occur, had long exceeded their shelf life when checked by federal inspectors last week. The role of the relays is to close so-called containment isolation valves to prevent a release of radioactivity into the environment. Federal inspectors found the relays were 22 years old. According to the product vendors, those relays are supposed to be switched out every 10 years. After the discovery, plant owner Entergy Corp. declared the relays inoperable because their age did not “provide reasonable assurance” that they would work if called upon, said Neil Sheehan, spokesman for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

July 6, 2016 – St. George Spectrum – Documentary on nuclear testing victim gets DOCUTAH nod – A documentary film crew determined to tell the story of a now-deceased veteran and his widow’s efforts to obtain compensation after his exposure to radioactivity during Nevada Cold War bomb tests announced this week that the film will be one of those screened at this year’s DOCUTAH film festival. “Perfect day to announce ‘Radioactive Veteran’ … has been accepted to @DOCUTAH,” producer Bradley Bethel tweeted via social media Monday – the Fourth of July. Festival founder and director Phil Tuckett confirmed Tuesday that the film is one of the 65 films that will be shown at this year’s festival, which is presented as a Dixie State University product.

July 6, 2016 – Sputnik International – Don’t Say Meltdown: Japan’s Coverup and US’ ‘Radioactive Russian Roulette’ – Japan finds itself in the midst of a fresh scandal, as the president of the Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) has publicly admitted that the company staged a cover-up during the disastrous Fukushima nuclear meltdown in March of 2011. Radio Sputnik’s Loud & Clear spoke with Kevin Kamps, from Beyond Nuclear, about the coverup and its possible implications for the US. Kamps documented how TEPCO knew about the meltdown from the beginning, and understated the true extent of the damage. “They clearly did conceal the three meltdowns for two months,” he said. “They [TEPCO] knew really within the first day or two that they had a meltdown, and they simply covered it up for as long as they could.” Kamps pointed out a recent report in which the company attempted to dodge responsibility for their duplicity. “What’s interesting now is this panel report is trying to shift the blame from Tokyo Electric to the serving government at the time, which was the Democratic Party of Japan. They’re trying to blame Prime Minister [Naoto] Kan and his chief spokesman Yukio Edano, both of whom have really come out swinging against this report, saying it’s preposterous [and that] they made no order to TEPCO to not use the word ‘meltdown,’ but that’s what TEPCO’s trying to say, that’s it’s the government’s fault.”

July 6, 2016 – WRVO Public Media – Group asks Cuomo to oppose nuclear plant subsidies – More than 100 organizations across New York and the country are sending a letter to Gov. Andrew Cuomo asking the state not to subsidize nuclear power plants. The New York Public Service Commission is considering passing a nuclear tax credit plan this summer that would aid the financially struggling nuclear plants in upstate, as Cuomo asked them to do earlier this year. It’s part of his “Reforming Our Energy Vision” plan that aims to double the amount of renewable energy the state uses to 50 percent by 2030. The plan calls for zero-emission credits would reward the plants for producing carbon dioxide-free electricity, similar to how New York subsidizes renewable energy sources like wind and solar. Supporters of the credits say the plants can help New York meet its green energy goals because they produce carbon-free electricity, but those who signed the letter, like Sierra Club member Linda DeStefano, say nuclear plants are too dangerous to keep around.

July 6, 2016 – New York Times – Nuclear Power, to Tide Us Over – You seem to believe that intermittent wind and solar can power America more cleanly than nuclear power. This is not the case. Wind and solar arrays cover vast amounts of territory, often destroying pristine wilderness areas that were home to many animal and plant species. The energy provided to the grid is weak and intermittent. Base-load energy — energy that can be supplied around the clock — is necessary to keep electricity continuously flowing in our homes and factories and hospitals. Today, that means burning coal and natural gas and running nuclear plants. Fossil fuels must be reduced and eventually abandoned for cleaner and safer power. The only course is to back up intermittent energy from renewables with clean nuclear power. Nuclear plants are capable of running for decades. Yes, repairs and replacements are required from time to time, as is the case with any energy provider. But Diablo Canyon and Indian Point can keep running far into the future.

July 6, 2016 – Hollywood Reporter – ‘Indian Point’: Film Review – In her first feature doc since examining the espionage case against her grandparents, Ethel and Julius Rosenberg (in Heir to an Execution), Ivy Meeropol looks at a still-unfolding piece of history, the battle over the Indian Point nuclear plant in New York state. An activist-friendly film which nevertheless strives for an evenhanded stance amid much controversy, Indian Point naturally investigates not just this facility, but the issue of nukes in general. As such it has long-term value to our ongoing debates over how the world gets its energy, but nothing here demands a trip to theaters before the movie arrives soon on video. Situated just 35 miles north of New York City on the Hudson River, the plant is within 50 miles of six percent of the U.S. population. So it was already of great interest to those wary of nuclear dangers before the 2011 tragedy at Fukushima. Starting her film after that incident, Meeropol sees how it attracts extra attention to the question of whether nuclear regulators will grant a renewed 20-year license to Entergy, the company operating Indian Point.

July 6, 2016 – Aiken Standard – Nuclear waste acceptance criteria updated for WIPP shipments – Starting today, Savannah River Nuclear Solutions, along with other transuranic waste generating sites across the Department of Energy, will have to follow newly revised packaging and certification criteria that resulted from investigations into a 2014 radiological release at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, or WIPP. WIPP is a geological repository for transuranic waste located near Carlsbad, New Mexico. The site was shut down in 2014 following the radiological release and a salt truck fire, halting shipments from facilities like Savannah River Site. Materials sent to the site are typically things like gloves, tools and other materials that become contaminated during the handling of spent nuclear fuel or plutonium. The materials are packaged into containers like the TRUPACT-III. The new criteria will require those shipments to undergo inspection to ensure compliance with revised safety and content guidelines before being sent on to WIPP. The facility is a permanent disposition facility meant to hold the materials for 10,000 years until the material has effectively decayed.

July 6, 2016 – TC Palm – St. Lucie Nuclear Plant security provider G4S has two black eyes: Mateen, Martin Girls Academy – G4S is notorious on the Treasure Coast for employing mass murderer Omar Mateen and allowing rampant violence at the Martin Girls Academy. Those black marks on the private security company’s record raise questions about how the global giant can be entrusted guarding the reactors and radioactive material at Florida Power & Light Co.’s St. Lucie Nuclear Plant, which theoretically poses the greatest threat to the health and safety of most Treasure Coast residents. Mateen never worked at any of the power company’s facilities, an FPL spokesman said. He declined to answer any more of Treasure Coast Newspapers’ questions. “The alleged Orlando gunman has never worked at any of our facilities, including our nuclear plants in Florida,” said Peter Robbins, a nuclear communications manager with FPL’s parent company, NextEra Energy Inc. “As a matter of policy, we do not comment on the specifics of our security program.”

July 6, 2016 – Los Alamos Monitor – Federal contractors to start cleanup from Manhattan Project near Los Alamos – U.S. Department of Energy contractors are scheduled to start removing contaminated soil leftover in northern New Mexico from the Manhattan Project and early atomic Cold War research. Work is expected to begin this week on the south-facing slopes of Los Alamos Canyon and is part of an agreement between federal and New Mexico officials, the Los Alamos Monitor reports. Officials say the contaminated soils will be temporarily stored at Tech Area 21 at Los Alamos National Laboratory and eventually will be shipped to a permanent area once tested.

July 6, 2016 – Las Vegas Sun News – Nevada’s solar regression appalls overseas champions of renewable energy – Nevada isn’t the only place in the world focused on the use of renewable energy and also the disposal of highly radioactive waste. I recently attended an energy summit in Sweden where European officials and academics gathered to discuss both of those issues in a conference directed at “Ethics in Decisions on Energy.” Making decisions based on ethical sense was certainly a concept to explore for this Nevadan. It’s playing out in Finland, for example, which is on its way to becoming the first European country to willingly provide a repository for irradiated fuel from commercial nuclear power plants. A site was chosen near two of the country’s nuclear power plants, and the conditions for building and operating the repository were worked out with the community, which strongly supports nuclear power plants. The design of the facility is based on one that is underway in Sweden, where a repository is also planned in another reactor-friendly community.

July 5, 2016 – 81 FR 43661-43669 – NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION – Applications and Amendments to Facility Operating Licenses and Combined Licenses Involving Proposed No Significant Hazards Considerations and Containing Sensitive Unclassified Non-Safeguards Information and Order Imposing Procedures for Access to Sensitive Unclassified Non-Safeguards Information – The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) received and is considering approval of four amendment requests. The amendment requests are for the Cooper Nuclear Station (CNS); Duane Arnold Energy Center (DAEC); and Browns Ferry Nuclear Plant (BFN), Units 1, 2, and 3. For each amendment request, the NRC proposes to determine that it involves no significant hazards consideration. In addition, each amendment request contains sensitive unclassified non-safeguards information (SUNSI).

July 5, 2016 – 81 FR 43646-43656 – NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION – Biweekly Notice; Applications and Amendments to Facility Operating Licenses and Combined Licenses Involving No Significant Hazards Considerations – Pursuant to Section 189a. (2) of the Atomic Energy Act of 1954, as amended (the Act), the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is publishing this regular biweekly notice. The Act requires the Commission to publish notice of any amendments issued, or proposed to be issued, and grants the Commission the authority to issue and make immediately effective any amendment to an operating license or combined license, as applicable, upon a determination by the Commission that such amendment involves no significant hazards consideration, notwithstanding the pendency before the Commission of a request for a hearing from any person.

July 5, 2016 – 81 FR 43645-43646 – NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION – Duke Energy Carolinas, LLC; McGuire Nuclear Station, Units 1 and 2; Alternative to the Physical Inventory Requirements for Movable In-Core Detectors – The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is issuing an exemption for Renewed Facility Operating License Nos. NPF-9 and NPF-17, issued to Duke Energy Carolinas, LLC (the licensee) that would allow an alternative to the physical inventory requirements for movable in-core detectors for the McGuire Nuclear Station, Units 1 and 2 (McGuire), located in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina.

July 5, 2016 – 81 FR 43656-43661 – NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION – Tennessee Valley Authority Watts Bar Nuclear Plant, Unit 1 – The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is considering the issuance of an amendment to Facility Operating License No. NFP-90, issued February 7, 1996, and held by the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA, the licensee) for the operation of Watts Bar Nuclear Plant (WBN), Unit 1. The proposed amendment would revise Technical Specification (TS) 4.2.1, “Fuel Assemblies”; TS 3.5.1 “Accumulators”; Surveillance Requirement (SR) 3.5.1.4; TS 3.5.4, “Refueling Water Storage Tank”; and SR 3.5.4.3, to increase the maximum number of tritium producing burnable absorber rods (TPBARs) and to delete outdated information related to the tritium production program. The NRC staff is issuing an environmental assessment (EA) and finding of no significant impact (FONSI) associated with the proposed license amendment.

July 5, 2016 – Reuters – Germany to limit offshore wind power – Germany plans to cap the expansion of offshore wind power at the start of the next decade to ensure the future growth of renewables keeps step with the construction of new power lines, according to a revision to a new energy law seen by Reuters. Between 2021 and 2025 the government plans to limit offshore wind installations to 3.1 gigawatts (GW) of capacity since high-voltage power lines needed to carry green energy from the windy north to the industrial south will not be ready. The reforms to the energy law are aimed at bringing down the costs of Germany’s shift towards renewables sources of energy and away from nuclear power and fossil fuels known as the Energiewende. The rapid expansion of green energy, which now makes up more than 30 percent of the power mix, has pushed up electricity costs in Europe’s biggest economy and placed a strain on its grids.

July 5, 2016 – New York Daily News – Manhattan Project nuke mess cleanup in New Mexico to get underway – Department of Energy contractors are scheduled to start removing toxic contaminated soil in northern New Mexico left over from the Manhattan Project and early atomic Cold War research. Work is expected to begin this week on the south-facing slopes of Los Alamos Canyon, The Los Alamos Monitor reported. The contaminated soils eventually will be shipped to a permanent area once tested, officials said. The Los Alamos Canyon cleanup is one of many included in a consent order signed last month between the New Mexico Environment Department and the U.S. Department of Energy.

July 5, 2016 – Recycling International – Computer discovery could aid nuclear fuel recycling – Using a newly-developed computer model, US scientists have discovered a material that could help to recycle nuclear fuel by capturing gases released during reprocessing. The material, a metal-organic framework (MOF) with the designation SBMOF-1, can remove radioactive krypton and xenon at ambient temperatures. “This is a great example of computer-inspired material discovery,’ comments Praveen Thallapally, one of the researchers and associated with the US Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. ‘Usually, the experimental results are more realistic than computational ones. But this time, the computer modelling showed us something the experiments weren’t telling us.’

July 5, 2016 – Time – Coming of Age in the Shadow of Chernobyl – Thirty years after reactor four at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant suffered a catastrophic meltdown, releasing massive amounts of radioactive particles into the atmosphere, one small town, called Slavutych, carved out of a forest about 25 miles from the plant, seems to be thriving. “I saw around 2010 some news about a project to build a city from scratch in the south of Ukraine. It sounded like a failure in the making,” Niels Ackermann, this year’s recipient of the Ville de Perpignan Rémi Ochlik Award, tells TIME. Since 2012, Ackermann has documented the life of Yulia: a teenager coming of age in Slavutych—from flirts and wild parties, drinks and short relationships to a married life with a job and responsibilities. “Through her life and the life of her friends, I could document intimately this process we all go trough,” Ackermann says.

July 5, 2016 – Aiken Standard – Nuclear waste acceptance criteria updated for WIPP shipments – Starting today, Savannah River Nuclear Solutions, along with other transuranic waste generating sites across the Department of Energy, will have to follow newly revised packaging and certification criteria that resulted from investigations into a 2014 radiological release at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, or WIPP. WIPP is a geological repository for transuranic waste located near Carlsbad, New Mexico. The site was shut down in 2014 following the radiological release and a salt truck fire, halting shipments from facilities like Savannah River Site.

July 5, 2016 – Changrai Times – Chiang Rai Airport to Get Full Body Scanners – President Nitinai Sirismatthakarn Airports of Thailand Plc (AoT) said the agentcy will upgrade screening systems at Chinag Rai’s airport to enhance airport security standards. Walk-through metal detectors will be replaced with full body scanners which will be able to spot both metal and non-metallic objects, weapons and explosives, concealed under clothing. Besides the full body scanners, the current X-ray machines which rely on constant visual supervision to screen carry-on baggage will also be replaced with new detection devices, called Advanced Technology X-ray, which will be able to detect and identify hidden explosive objects.

July 5, 2016 – Quartz – Some so-called clean-energy projects are contaminating millions of gallons of incredibly valuable water – In this election year–notable for concerns both about the US energy future and extreme droughts in parts of the US and around the world–there is a remarkable disconnect between energy policy proposals and concerns about water quality and availability. Yes, awareness is higher about water issues, stemming from the severe drought in Western states and the recent lead contamination crisis in Flint, Mich. But traditionally we view energy and water as separate concerns, when in fact they are inextricably linked. Scientists recognize what is sometimes called the “energy-water nexus.” The nexus pulls resources in both directions. Vast water resources are used in some forms of energy extraction and production, particularly in mining or drilling for fossil fuels used for transportation and electricity generation and in mining and electricity generation using nuclear fuels.

July 5, 2016 – Inhabitat – Uranium extracted from the oceans could power cities for thousands of years – Over four billion tons of uranium present in the ocean could help provide energy for “the next 10,000 years,” according to the U.S. Department of Energy. The element could be used to fuel nuclear power plants, except extraction poses significant challenges. The DoE funded a project involving scientists from laboratories and universities across the United States, and over the last five years they have made strides towards successfully extracting ocean uranium using special adsorbent fibers.

July 5, 2016 – PhysOrg – Transition radiation detectors work in record-high energy fields – Employees of MEPh are the first to develop detectors of transition radiation, able to split hadrons (protons, K-mesons and pi-mesons) in record-high energy fields from 1 to 6 TeV. Transition radiation (TR) is a form of electromagnetic radiation emitted when a charged particle passes through inhomogeneous media, which for the first time was demonstrated theoretically by Ginzburg and Frank in 1946. It was detected experimentally at the Yerevan Physics Institute in 1959. The MEPhI Department of Physics actively participates in international physical experiments including ones connected with the application of transition radiation. A new experimental small angles spectrometer (SAS) is planned separately from the ATLAS experiment at CERN, where MEPhI scientists contribute. A new IP detector is planned for its launch under the supervision of Professor A.S. Romaniuk.

July 5, 2016 – Novinite – CEO of Bulgaria’s Kozloduy Nuclear Plant Replaced – The chief executive of Kozloduy Nuclear Power Plant (NPP), Dimitar Angelov, has been dismissed. The decision was taken by the Board of Directors at the the Bulgarian Energy Holding (BEH), the entity bringing together state-owned energy assets, BEH’s own website says. Ivan Andreev, who was deputy to Angelov, has taken over. BEH cites the fact that Angelov’s term expired on July 03 (the latter assumed office in September 2014). But the development comes days after allegations from Georgi Kadiev, a former socialist lawmaker who recently set up his own party, that Angelov was tangled in corruption practices, inflating prices for repair works at Kozloduy NPP and having set up a Seychelles-based offshore company.

July 5, 2016 – WECT – Brunswick Nuclear Plant sirens to be tested July 13 – Sirens around the Brunswick Nuclear Plant will be tested between 10 a.m. and 11 a.m. on Wednesday, July 13. The 38 sirens located within 10 miles of the plant will be tested at low volume for 10 seconds. Officials said that the test may be repeated to make sure all the sirens are working properly. This quarterly test is performed in coordination with emergency officials from Brunswick and New Hanover counties.

July 5, 2016 – Independent Australia – Chocolates, bananas, ionising radiation and a nuclear waste dump – On the matter of ionising radiation and health, Noel Wauchope rebuts five misleading speakers at the Nuclear Citizens’ Jury hearings on Australia’s nuclear waste importation plan. IN TWO DAYS of 25 Citizens’ Jury sessions in Adelaide (on 25-26 June), about nuclear waste importing, there was minimal coverage of the question of ionising radiation and health. What little there was, was skimpy, superficial and downright deceptive, in 209 pages of transcripts. There was not one mention of the world’s authoritative bodies on the subject — The World Health Organisation, U.S. National Academy of Sciences, Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission or any of the reports on biological effects of ionising radiation. There was no explanation of the “linear no threshold” (LNT) theory on ionising radiation and health, despite the fact that this theory is the one accepted by all the national and international health bodies, including the Ionising Radiation Safety Institute of Australia who, on this topic, quote the Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency (ARPANSA).

July 5, 2016 – Union of Concerned Scientists – Nuclear Plant Accidents: Sodium Reactor Experiment – The best aspect of the defense-in-depth approach to nuclear power safety is that one thing, even one very bad thing, is unlikely to trigger an accident. If offsite power is lost, onsite power from emergency diesel generators will automatically take over. If a pipe ruptures to drain cooling water from the reactor vessel, emergency pumps will automatically start up to supply makeup cooling water. If a pump fails, at least one other pump is ready to step in. And so on. It takes a lot of things to defeat defense-in-depth. Defense-in-depth’s downside is that none of the protective layers is 100% reliable. If any single layer provided absolute reliability, the other layers would not be needed. Instead, defense-in-depth banks on the collective reliability from multiple layers. This commentary begins a series of posts about times when the multiple layers collectively failed to prevent nuclear plant accidents. The good news is that the number of nuclear plant accidents is relatively small. The bad news is that nuclear plant accidents are becoming more severe.

July 5, 2016 – Shanghai Daily – Pacific Ocean radiation levels returning to normal after Fukushima disaster – A new international research has found out that radiation levels across the Pacific Ocean are quickly returning to normal five years after the Fukushima disaster. A review by the Scientific Committee on Oceanic Research, which brought together some of the world’s foremost ocean experts, found radiation levels off the east coast of Japan were fast returning to normal after being tens of millions of times higher than usual following the disaster.

July 5, 2016 – Power Mag – Nuclear Regulatory Commission Down to Three Active Commissioners – Following the end of William C. Ostendorff’s term on June 30, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is now down to only three active commissioners on staff. Ostendorff became a commissioner on April 1, 2010, following a distinguished career as a U.S. naval officer, engineer, lawyer, and policy advisor. His departure adds another vacancy to the one that already exists on the commission (Figure 1). That spot opened when former Chairman Allison Macfarlane left on January 1, 2015, to take a position at George Washington University. President Obama nominated Jessie Hill Roberson on July 15, 2015, to fill the void, but the Senate has not taken action to confirm the pick.

July 5, 2016 – GreenWorld – Michael Mariotte: Counterweight to Nuclear Energy (1952 – 2016) – Let us be clear: without Michael Mariotte’s decision in the mid 1980’s to devote his talents to stopping the nuclear industry, many things would be very different today. Michael could not do what he did without Nuclear Information and Resource Service (NIRS), and the many thousands of people who work with NIRS could not have produced the results they did without Michael at the helm. This is one telling of this story. Dispassionate passion: The smartest one in almost any room… but never resting on his own analysis; always digging, asking the next question, checking the facts. Michael Mariotte was a journalist and an organizer and at bottom it was these talents that made his leadership of the civilian end of the US anti-nuclear community so deft. Michael’s dispassion was sometimes misunderstood as indifference, but he was standing back, watching as the pieces of a puzzle would come together.

July 5, 2016 – Brockton Enterprise – Nuclear safety expert seeks data about Pilgrim incident – A well-known nuclear safety expert is looking for more information from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission regarding a report that both emergency diesel generators at the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station had been out of commission at the same time for a short period in April while the reactor was operating at full power. David Lochbaum, director of the Nuclear Safety Program for the Union of Concerned Scientists, questions how long the plant had been running with no emergency generators, which provide a default power source to safely shut down the reactor, maintain safe shutdown conditions and operate all essential systems if primary and secondary power sources have failed.

July 5, 2016 – Niagara Falls Reporter – Radioactive Waste no Cause for Concern: According to Falls’ Senior Planner, Desantis – Niagara Falls city officials attempted to address concerns this week in the wake of an expose in The Reporter on the creation of a radioactive waste dump on North Avenue here. Approximately 100 tons of radioactive soils was excavated during the construction of the city’s new train station and dumped at the North Ave site which sits about 75 yards from the new train station. How dangerous were the materials stored at the dump? A tall, padlocked chain link fence was built around it, festooned with warning signs. “DANGER HARD HATS, SAFETY GLASSES, SAFETY SHOES REQUIRED IN THIS AREA AT ALL TIMES,” one states. Another advises, “IN CASE OF EMERGENCY CALL 911 FIRE RESCUE POLICE.” A third sign warns of the presence of “RADIOACTIVE MATERIAL” and reads: “Caution Radioactive Materials Area.” Last week, The Reporter visited the site and found that the gate of the fence had fallen down, and that large holes and tears appeared in the plastic safety sheeting used to cover the radioactive waste. In some sections, the plastic sheeting had blown off and the area was soaked with groundwater.

July 5, 2016 – Pittsburgh Tribume-Review – Groundwater testing begins in Parks Township – The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the federal Environmental Protection Agency are conducting routine groundwater testing this week in and near the nuclear waste dump in Parks Township. Officially known as the Shallow Land Disposal Area, the nuclear waste dump received chemical and radioactive material primarily in the 1960s from a former nuclear fuels plant in Apollo owned by the Nuclear Materials and Equipment Corp. (NUMEC) and its successors, the Atlantic Richfield Co. and Babcock & Wilcox, which owns the site. Currently, the Army Corps of Engineers is looking for a contractor to restart a 10-year cleanup estimated to cost $350 million.

July 5, 2016 – Charleston Post & Courier – Judge hears arguments in South Carolina MOX plutonium case – A federal judge is deciding whether to dismiss South Carolina’s case against the Department of Energy in which the state seeks $100 million and the removal of plutonium from the Savannah River Site in Aiken. Judge Michelle Childs heard arguments from both sides Thursday morning in Columbia. She did not indicate when she will rule on the state’s request for summary judgment to avoid prolonging the case, or on the Department of Energy’’s request to throw out the case altogether. The lawsuit, filed by the state earlier this year, stems from a missed deadline at the MOX plutonium recycling plant, housed at the Savannah River Site near Aiken.

July 5, 2016 – Charleston Post & Courier – Santee Cooper authorizes $831M debt sale to fund nuclear project – Santee Cooper will use proceeds from a $831 million bond sale to help pay for its share of escalating construction costs at the V.C. Summer Nuclear Station expansion, the utility said Thursday. During a special meeting, the state-owned power provider’s board also authorized Santee Cooper to secure a fixed-price option on the construction contract for the nuclear plant. The option substantially sets the costs to complete two new reactors at the facility in Jenkinsville. Moncks Corner-based Santee Cooper owns 45 percent of the nuclear plant while South Carolina Electric & Gas, a subsidiary of Cayce-based SCANA Corp., owns the rest. The nuclear project’s price tag has ballooned to about $14 billion because of cost overruns and delays. Santee Cooper’s share of the project would stand at $6.2 billion — 20 percent more than the utility projected in 2012 — if the fixed-price option is adopted.

July 5, 2016 – Chattanooga Times Free Press – TVA asks 3,500 nuclear workers to consider quitting or retiring in cost-cutting move – As it prepares to start up its last remaining unfinished nuclear reactor this summer, the Tennessee Valley Authority is preparing to cut its nuclear power staff to its lowest level since the federal utility launched America’s most ambitious nuclear construction program a half century ago. TVA is offering the 3,500 employees in its nuclear unit incentives to voluntarily quit or retire within the next three months to help pare its staff and operating expenses to meet its fiscal 2017 budget targets. TVA has not announced yet how many jobs it intends to cut. But in a similar company-wide program over the previous three years, TVA eliminated about 2,000 jobs and reduced its overall staff to just over 10,000 employees. At its peak in 1981 when TVA was building nuclear units across its seven-state region, TVA had 51,709 employees.

July 5, 2016 – KWES NewsWest9 – License application for Andrews nuclear waste site missing key safety, security details – Federal regulators declined to review a license application submitted by Waste Control Specialists (WCS) for a high-level nuclear waste facility in Andrews County, records revealed. WCS, a Dallas-based company with a nearly 15,000-acre site in western Andrews County, filed the application with plans to expand its existing low-level radioactive waste site. The proposed facility would house spent fuel rods from nuclear reactors across the country for at least 40 years. However, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) officials determined the company’s license application lacked “sufficient technical information” and safety-related details, according to a letter dated June 22 from the commission to WCS.

July 5, 2016 – Kearney Hub – Cooper Station’s excellent rating its first since 1991 – Nebraska’s largest single-unit nuclear electrical generator, Cooper Nuclear Station, has earned an excellent rating from the Institute of Nuclear Power Operations. The rating comes about three months before a scheduled shutdown at the southeast Nebraska plant. During the outage, NPPD will replace a high-pressure turbine that has been operating at the plant since it opened in 1974. In addition, a variety of other equipment replacements and inspections will take place, and one-third of Cooper’s fuel rods will be replaced. The operation is budgeted to cost $43 million.

July 5, 2016 – Carlsbad Current Argus – DOE renews agreements for safe transportation – The Department of Energy renewed its cooperative agreements with the New Mexico Energy, Minerals and Natural Resources Department and the Western Governors’ Association regarding the safe transportation of waste travelling to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant. The Dept. of Energy’s $6.8 million renewal of the agreement with New Mexico and the $9 million agreement with the Western Governors’ Association (WGA) provide state entities with funds for independent inspection of drivers, reporting bad weather and road conditions, as well as preparation of emergency response plans and procedures, should an accident occur while transuranic waste is in transit to WIPP. According to the WGA, more than 90 percent of existing inventory of transuranic waste is located in western states.

July 5, 2016 – Arizona Business Daily – Arizona Public Service changes leadership team at Palo Verde nuclear site – Arizona Public Service has made changes to its senior leadership team at the Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station near Tonopah. Bob Bement will be executive vice president, nuclear, and will continue reporting to Executive Vice President and Chief Nuclear Officer Randy Edington. Jack Cadogan, presently the vice president of nuclear engineering, will replace Bement as senior vice president of site operations. On Oct. 31, Bement will take over as executive vice president and chief nuclear officer while Edington becomes executive vice president and adviser to the CEO.

July 5, 2016 – San Luis Obispo Tribune – Diablo Canyon closure brings back memories of construction, protests – When I first saw Diablo Canyon back in the 1970s, it was just a hole in the ground. The only sign of development was some archaeologists digging for historical objects and information. They had to do it quickly, as an electric-generating nuclear plant would soon be built there. That plant now produces 9 percent of the electricity produced in California. But plans are now afoot to greatly increase the generation of electricity from other sources, such as wind and sunshine. Diablo Canyon would no longer be needed.

July 5, 2016 – Atomic Insights – PG&E Agreed To Kill Diablo Canyon In Self-Protecting Deal – The first indication I had of the agreement to destroy Diablo Canyon in the prime of its life came from a press release issued by the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC). It stated that they had signed a deal with PG&E, IBEW local 1245, the Coalition of California Utility Employees, Friends of the Earth, Environment California, and the Alliance for Nuclear Responsibility. There is an implied quid pro quo. The groups will support PG&E’s request for an extension from the California Lands Commission of its land use permit that allows access to ocean cooling water at the Commission’s June 28 meeting. In return, PG&E will agree to withdraw its 20-year license extension application at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Instead, it will aim to retire the two-unit site when its current licenses expire in 2024 and 2025.

May 27, 2016 – Plexus-NSD is pleased to announce that we will soon be providing a webinar on packaging and shipping Class 7 (radioactive) material. The training will take place over two or three days, depending on participant desires and schedules, and we anticipate delivery of the first webinar in late summer or early fall. Tuition will be on the order of $275 per student, with price breaks for multiple students from a single facility. Click here to see the topics that will be included in the webinar.

We encourage interested individuals to Contact Plexus-NSD to (1) get onto the waiting list and (2) receive early notification of when registration for the first webinar opens. (Letting us know of your interest does not commit you or others to participate.) We also encourage you to forward a link to this announcement to others that you think may be interested, or that need to have their current DOT training refreshed. We’re confident you will find the Plexus-NSD webinar to be a great way of satisfying the necessary requirements for Class 7 shippers in a cost-effective, non-intrusive, and engaging fashion.

May 2, 2016 – No relevant citations.

April 22, 2016 – On April 5, 2016, Sean Austin, a Certified Health Physicist with more than 29 years of broad-based health physics experience, joined the Plexus-NSD Nuclear Solutions Division, and we are just thrilled!  He has been providing radiation-related consulting and training services to a host of clients around the country, with particular emphasis in license applications, safety planning, program audits, regulatory interactions, radioactive and mixed waste management, and more, so we know he will fit in to our organization nicely.  Sean is known nation-wide for the health physics and operational radiation safety training courses he has developed and delivered (some of our visitors may have seen him in action!), and he is a nationally-recognized expert in the application of Department of Transportation and U. S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission requirements for shipping radioactive materials. Prior to joining Plexus-NSD, Sean was a consultant with Dade Moeller & Associates,  Chief of the Radioactive Materials Control Section at the National Institutes of Health, and a health physicist at the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station. For those of you who know Sean, you can now find him at Plexus-NSD’s Columbia, Maryland office.  Give him a call after he settles in a bit to see how things are going. Welcome, Sean!!!

December 17, 2015 – On this date IEM received notice that our operations were re-certified to the ISO 9001:2008 (without design) International Quality System Standard.  Just a few weeks ago our entire quality system was audited and certified by Smithers Quality Assessments Inc. (SQA) an independent accredited registrar who found that our Nuclear Services Division our Consulting Division our Instrumentation Program and our Corporate Operations meet the requirements for ensuring compliance with customer regulatory and legal requirements.  Their findings also concluded that IEM meets requirements for customer satisfaction by preventing nonconformity at all stages of our work starting with initial proposals and ending with final deliverables.  Since we opened our doors in 1994 IEM’s mission has been to ensure customer satisfaction by providing technically-sound legally-defensible and cost effective consulting and services.  While others in our field may claim similar goals our focus on our quality system the continuous improvements we make in our products and processes and our emphasis on constant innovation has indeed offered value to our customers.  The receipt of our most recent Certification is further proof that IEM continues to meet its objectives.  We are proud to continue saying “IEM’s operations are Certified to the ISO 9001:2008 Standard”.  Soon to come is a merger of the IEM program with our new company, Plexus Scientific Corporation.

September 22, 2015 – Yesterday Mr. Ross Wagner a recent Bloomsburg University graduate with a Bachelor’s degree in Health Physics joined the Nuclear Solutions Division of Plexus Scientific Corporation d.b.a. Plexus-NSD in our Maryland office. In 2014 we were fortunate to have had Ross with us on an internship program.  During his term he was a member of a field team tasked with performing a comprehensive radiological characterization of a tungsten products plant in Cleveland Ohio and his performance was outstanding.  Ross’ energetic and enthusiastic contributions meant the project was completed ahead of schedule and resulted in his receipt of a “Timely Appreciation of Performance” award.  We were thus pretty confident he would make an excellent addition to our staff when he graduated so here he is!  We invite you to give Ross a call to see how things are going how he is liking life as a new Maryland resident and what it feels like to be a practicing health physicist. Welcome Ross!

February 27, 2015 – Books are boxed, desks are emptied, files are packaged, change-of-address cards have been mailed, and the moving van is here.  Today IEM’s Maryland office will magically disappear from beautiful Gaithersburg, Maryland and re-appear in Columbia, Maryland.  Scroll down to the bottom of this page to see the new address and main phone number.  We’ll be up and ready for business on Monday, March 2, 2015.  If you’re in the neighborhood, stop by for a cup of coffee and check the place out!

February 9, 2015 – Just a heads up . . .   At the end of this month, IEM’s Maryland office will move from our current location in Gaithersburg, where we have been since 2001, to a new office building in Columbia, Maryland.  The address will change, but our telephone numbers will remain the same, although we will be adding a main office telephone number, which will make it easier for you to track us down!  Moving day will be on February 27th, and our plan is to be back up and running in the new office on March 2nd.  Change-of-address cards will go into the mail soon, and shortly thereafter we’ll update the contact information on our web site.  Watch this page for more!

January 1, 2015 – The Board of Directors and staff of IEM are pleased to announce that on January 12015 we merged with Plexus Scientific Corporation (Plexus) and we are now doing business as “Plexus-NSD”. Just like us Plexus is a small business and we have been partnering with them on projects for quite a number of years now. In addition Plexus has operations that are certified to the ISO 9001:2008 international quality standard thus we are equally committed to quality and customer service. The former IEM is now a subsidiary of Plexus meaning the personnel licenses services and business approach our clients have relied upon for over 20 years will not change. What will change is that in addition to the radiation-related consulting and services we have always been able to provide we can now offer other environmental capabilities that we previously had to subcontract in order to best serve our client’s needs. For more about the merger please see the Press Release. We look forward to serving our clients as part of this new and exciting organization!

October 2, 2014 – On this date IEM  was awarded a five-year contract to manifest ship and dispose of radioactive and mixed waste for the National Institutes of Standards and Technology (NIST) from its site in Gaithersburg Maryland.  (Yes it is pretty much next door to IEM’s Maryland Office!)  In partnership with our favorite transporters waste processors and disposal sites with whom we have provided this service to NIST in the past we look forward to the timely safe and effective execution of the first campaign and every campaign thereafter.  We are honored to have been selected for this important work.

June 1, 2014 – On June 1, 2014 IEM celebrates its 20th birthday. Since we opened our doors for business in 1994 IEM has provided radiation-related consulting and services to hundreds of clients and we are thankful for every single one of them. Excellent opportunities have come our way as have treasured working and professional relationships. As we kick off our 21st year of service our goal is to continue improving our technical capabilities streamlining our task delivery systems and controlling our costs to the greatest extent practical. We understand now more than ever that in addition to providing solutions that are technically sound and legally defensible our products need to be cost-effective. On behalf of all of us at IEM it has been our pleasure serving the business community and we thank everyone for their interest in IEM.

May 19, 2014 – Today we are particularly pleased to announce that Mr. Jeffrey W. Sumlin an NRRPT-Registered health physics technician with loads of experience in the applied health physics arena re-joined IEM’s Nuclear Services division.  Jeff was a full-fledged IEM employee a number of years ago but the tug of family obligations pulled him to Albuquerque.  We’re now glad he’s back and we’re happy to say he has slipped back into our operations as if he never left.  Jeff is particularly proficient in the areas of decommissioning environmental remediation radioactive waste management radiation measurements site safety applied health physics and ALARA having worked at Oak Ridge National Laboratory Sandia National Laboratory and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Hanford. Most recently he served as a Site Supervisor Quality Assurance Inspector Safety Officer Radiological Controls Supervisor and Decontamination and Demolition Supervisor for Chicago Bridge & Iron (formerly Shaw Environmental and Infrastructure Inc.) He also retired after 15 years with the U. S. Navy’s nuclear propulsion and radiological controls program. If you haven’t touched base with Jeff in a while give him a call or drop him a line and ask him how he is liking life in Gaithersburg so far. Welcome back Jeff!

April 24, 2014 – On this day the City of Gaithersburg issued the following press release: “The City of Gaithersburg joins Commuter Connections and the Washington Area Bicyclist Association in welcoming thousands of area commuters to a celebration of bicycling on Bike to Work Day Friday May 16 2014. Gaithersburg will host one of 79 pit stops throughout the D.C. region ours at the corner of northbound MD Route 119 (Great Seneca Highway) and Orchard Ridge Drive from 7 to 9 a.m. Register in advance then stop by the Gaithersburg pit stop for refreshments entertainment and a chance to win raffle prizes provided by bark! Bike Gaithersburg Bonefish Grill Coal Fire Cold Stone Creamery Giant Integrated Environmental Management Inc. and Pink and Pepe’s Grape Escape. Free t-shirts and water bottles are available for those who register and attend. The League of American Bicyclists began Bike to Work Day as part of Bike Month in 1956. Over the years Bike to Work Day has grown into a widespread event with advocates taking to the streets nationwide to encourage fellow commuters to try bicycling as a healthy and safe alternative to driving alone. In the Metropolitan Washington region Bike to Work Day has grown from just a few hundred participants in 2001 to more than 14000 last year.

April 13, 2014 – On April 13, 1999 Bill Thomas reported to work at IEM’s Ohio office for the first time. Fifteen years have passed since that date and IEM is convinced that one of the smartest things we ever did was to ask Bill to join us. He continues to impress us with his capabilities skills dedication and patience and we particularly appreciate his excellent leadership as Vice President of the corporation and a member of IEM’s Board of Directors. We look forward to spending another 15 years with Bill!

March 10-11, 2014 – The annual meeting of the National Council on Radiation Protection and Measurements (NCRP) takes place on these dates at the Hilton Hotel in Bethesda, Maryland.  The meeting, entitled Achievements of the Past 50 Years and Addressing the Needs for the Future””” includes a session on “Operational & Environmental Radiation Protection” co-chaired by Ruth McBurney of the CRCPD and Carol Berger of IEM’s Maryland office.  Speakers at the session are Kathy Pryor of PNL Dave Allard of the Pennsylvania DEP and Mark Hoover of NIOSH.  Click on this link for an introduction to the speakers and their topics.

March 9, 2014 – Carol Berger of IEM’s Maryland office a member of Program Area Committee 2 (PAC 2) of the National Council on Radiation Protection and Measurements (NCRP) participated in a meeting of the committee in Bethesda Maryland.  The meeting covered radiation safety aspects of nanotechnology and the safety aspects of sealed radiation sources where the PAC 2 members are up to their elbows in drafting new guidance.  PAC 2 which is chaired by Kathy Pryor of PNL then participated in the general PAC session before adjourning for the day.  There is a lot more to come from PAC 2.

January 11, 2016 – 81 FR 1116-1118 – NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION – List of Approved Spent Fuel Storage Casks: Holtec International, HI-STORM Flood/Wind Multipurpose Storage System, Certificate of Compliance No. 1032, Amendment No. 0, Revision 1 – The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is confirming the effective date of April 25, 2016, for the direct final rule that was published in the Federal Register on September 28, 2015. This direct final rule amended the NRC’s spent fuel storage regulations by revising the Holtec International (Holtec), HI-STORM (Holtec International Storage Module) Flood/Wind (FW) Multipurpose Canister Storage (MPC) Storage System listing within the “List of approved spent fuel storage casks” to add Amendment No. 0, Revision 1, to Certificate of Compliance (CoC) No. 1032. This revision corrects the CoC’s expiration date (editorial change), clarifies heat load limits for helium backfill ranges, clarifies the wording for the Limiting Condition for Operation (LCO) on vent blockage, and revises the vacuum drying system heat load.

January 11, 2016 – 81 FR 1234-1238 – NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION – In the Matter of Northern States Power Company, Minnesota – The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) and Northern States Power Company, Minnesota, doing business as Xcel Energy, engaged in mediation as part of the NRC’s Alternative Dispute Resolution Program which resulted in a settlement agreement as reflected in the Confirmatory Order (CO) related to Xcel Energy. The purpose of the CO is to ensure that the licensee restores compliance with NRC regulations.

January 11, 2016 – Yahoo News 7 – The NSW Fire Commissioner has said Australia’s most common smoke alarm should be banned; Other experts have claimed the flawed alarms have failed to save thousands of lives – In the last year more than 4000 NSW homes have caught alight. Now experts are ringing alarm bells about our first line of defence – the smoke alarm. “The ionisation alarm should immediately be banned,” said Adrian Butler from the World Fire Safety Foundation. There are two types of alarm: photoelectric and ionisation.

January 11, 2016 – The Recorder – Deadline near to join Vt. Yankee challenge – The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has given Massachusetts and two neighboring states more time to make the case about why they should be allowed to join Vermont and its largest electric company in challenging how Entergy Nuclear is spending the Vermont Yankee decommissioning trust fund. The NRC gave Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Connecticut until Jan. 15 to respond to counter-challenges filed late last month by Entergy and by extension, NRC staff members. The states say they are worried about nuclear power companies using decommissioning funds to pay normal expenses such as property taxes and legal bills, thus shifting responsibility for radiological cleanup of nuclear power plants to the states and their electric ratepayers.

January 11, 2016 – Agenda.ge – State Security Department: “Criminal group detained for selling of radioactive material” – Georgia’s State Security Department has detained an alleged criminal group for possible illegal handling and selling of radioactive substances. According to the body the criminal group, consisting of three Georgian citizens, was planning to sell nuclear material Cesium 137, worth of $100, 000 USD, and were detained on the fact. The nuclear material has been seized.

January 11, 2016 – AzoOptics.com – Regolith X-ray Imaging Spectrometer Successfully Integrated Onboard NASA’s OSIRIS-REx Spacecraft – Who can say they’ve been to an asteroid and back? In 2023, more than 50 MIT students may claim this feat, at least through the activities of a small, shoebox-sized instrument named REXIS (Regolith X-ray Imaging Spectrometer). The instrument, which was designed and built by students from MIT and Harvard University, will be one of five instruments flying aboard NASA’s OSIRIS-REx (Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security-Regolith Explorer), the first U.S. mission to retrieve and return an asteroid sample to Earth. This week, NASA announced that REXIS was successfully integrated onboard the spacecraft, bringing the mission one step closer to its scheduled launch next September.

January 11, 2016 – medGadget – Atomic Spectroscopy Market Expected to Expand at a Steady CAGR through 2025 – Future-Market-Insights79Study of electromagnetic radiations that is emitted or absorbed by atoms is known as atomic spectroscopy.When electrons are excited, they move from higher valence bond to lower valence bond and emit radiations (emission). However, a relaxed electron moves from lower valence bond to higher valence bond resulting in absorption of energy.

January 11, 2016 – Corvus Business – Scotiabank Analysts Reduce Earnings Estimates for Cameco Co. (CCJ) – Cameco logoCameco Co. (NYSE:CCJ) – Stock analysts at Scotiabank decreased their FY2016 EPS estimates for Cameco in a research report issued to clients and investors on Wednesday, according to Zacks Investment Research. Scotiabank analyst O. Wowkodaw now expects that the firm will earn $1.13 per share for the year, down from their previous forecast of $1.22. The consensus estimate for Cameco’s FY2016 earnings is $1.11 per share. Scotiabank also issued estimates for Cameco’s Q4 2016 earnings at $0.31 EPS, FY2017 earnings at $1.30 EPS and FY2018 earnings at $1.31 EPS.

January 11, 2016 – KUNC – Colorado Doesn’t Require Radon Testing, But You Should Consider It – Only one of the fastest growing counties in Colorado requires new homes to be built with a system to mitigate a cancer causing gas. “Surprisingly the entire state of Colorado is what we call red zone for radon. Typically statewide about 50 percent of homes test above the [Environmental Protection Agency] action level of 4 picocuries per liter, so we’re pretty high risk all around the state,” said Colorado radon program manager Chrystine Kelley. Health officials estimate that about 500 Coloradans die every year from radon induced lung cancer.

January 11, 2016 – Daily Mail – Black hole mystery solved? Stephen Hawking claims ‘soft electric hair’ could explain how information escapes from the abyss – Just when you thought the world of black holes couldn’t get any more bizarre, Professor Hawking has claimed the destructive chasms may contain coatings of what he has called ‘soft electric hair’. Last year, the physicist revealed black holes were not the ‘eternal prisons’ many think them to be, and it is possible for data to escape from the abyss. The 74-year-old has now expanded this theory in a recently published scientific paper, and said the answer lies in the zero-energy particles, or ‘soft hair’, that sit on the black hole’s horizon.

January 11 2016 – PRNewswire – Varian ProBeam Proton Therapy System First to Receive Saudi FDA Authorization – Varian Medical Systems (NYSE: VAR) has announced today its ProBeam® proton therapy system is the first such system to receive Saudi FDA medical devices marketing authorization. “We are pleased to have the opportunity to make life-saving proton therapy treatments available to cancer patients in this region,” said Moataz Karmalawy, general manager of Varian’s particle therapy business. Proton therapy makes it possible to treat certain types of cancer more precisely and with potentially fewer side effects than with conventional radiation therapy. With proton therapy, the risk of damage to healthy tissues is reduced. The method can be applied for many of the most common types of cancer and offers advantages when treating tumors close to radiosensitive tissues. In pediatric patients the risk of developing a new, radiation-induced cancer later in life can be reduced.

January 11, 2016 – Executive.gov – DOE National Lab Seeks to Address CBP Radiation Detectors’ Nuisance Alarms – The Energy Department’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory has developed a new method to help the Department of Homeland Security’s Customs and Border Protection agency reduce the number of nuisance alarms that radiation portal monitors produce at various U.S. ports of entry. PNNL said Jan. 4 the Revised Operational Settings approach works to optimize the settings of RPMs through the use of alarm algorithms that are considered to be selective energy-sensitive. CBP uses RPMs at various ports of entry to screen bags, cargo and mail for threatening radiological materials.

January 11, 2016 – World Nuclear News – IAEA to review Japan’s regulatory system – The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) today started a peer review mission in Japan to assess its regulatory framework for nuclear and radiation safety. The IAEA’s Integrated Regulatory Review Service (IRRS) mission to Japan will take place between 11 and 22 January, the IAEA said in an 8 January statement. At the request of Japanese authorities, the 24-member team meet with staff of Japan’s Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA), observe regulatory activities and visit nuclear-related sites. They will also meet with other Japanese officials. IRRS missions are designed to strengthen the effectiveness of the national radiation safety regulatory infrastructure, while recognizing the responsibility of each member state to ensure nuclear and radiation safety. The missions compare regulatory technical and policy issues with IAEA safety standards and, where appropriate, good practices elsewhere.

January 11, 2016 – Mirror.co.uk – China checking hundreds of people for radiation poisoning after North Korean nuclear bomb tests – China is testing hundreds of people for radiation poisoning following North Korean nuclear bomb tests. More than 500 government examiners were mobilised along the country’s border with Kim Jong-Un’s rogue state. North Korea said it had carried out a fourth nuclear test last week – but so far China has found nothing untoward. The secretive country’s testing angered both the United States and China, which was not given prior notice, though the US government and weapons experts doubt the North’s claim that the device it set off was a hydrogen bomb.

January 11, 2016 – Canadian Broadcasting Corporation – $12.8 billion Darlington nuclear refurbishment to be announced today – Ontario Power Generation will unveil plans today for a $12.8-billion refurbishment of four nuclear reactors at the Darlington generating station east of Toronto. The Canadian Press has learned the Liberal cabinet has given approval to start the rebuild of the first reactor this fall, and OPG will have to come back to the government for approval of each subsequent reactor refurbishment project. Sources familiar with the announcement say the final budget includes a $1.7 billion contingency fund in case of cost-overruns on the $4.5 billion portion of the project done inside the reactor itself — the nuclear science work deemed as “subject to execution risk” versus the fixed contracts for the majority of the supporting infrastructure.

January 11, 2016 – The Independent – Kim Jong-un asks North Korean scientists to make better Nuclear bombs – North Korean leader Kim Jong Un looked Monday to milk his country’s recent nuclear test as a propaganda victory, praising his scientists and vowing more nuclear bombs a day after the U.S. flew a powerful nuclear-capable warplane close to the North in a show of force. A standoff between the rival Koreas has deepened since last week’s test, the North’s fourth. Seoul on Monday continued anti-Pyongyang propaganda broadcasts across the border and announced that it will further limit the entry of South Koreans to a jointly run factory park in North Korea.

January 11, 2016 – GreenTechMedia – After Nuclear Plant Closure, Natural Gas Fills in the Gap: A Worrying Sign of Things to Come? – ISO-New England (the nonprofit independent entity that ensures the reliability of the electric grid in New England) publishes data that shows daily generation by fuel type. That data shows that in 2014 (the last year of Vermont Yankee’s operation), natural-gas-fired generators supplied 43.1% of the energy in New England, while nuclear provided 34%. In 2015 (the first year since 1972 without Vermont Yankee), natural-gas-fired generators supplied 48.6% of the energy in New England, while nuclear provided 29.5%. The bottom line is that without Vermont Yankee, nuclear’s carbon-free contribution to the New England electric grid fell by 5.3 million megawatt-hours in 2015 compared to 2014.

January 11, 2016 – Syracuse.com – Nuclear plants aren’t as ‘green’ as industry claims – It is easy to see the nuclear power industry is desperate. Their latest deception is that running nuclear stations does not contribute to climate change. Increasingly we see commentaries in newspapers from representatives of the industry asserting that nuclear power is some sort of a green energy. This is nonsense. The entire nuclear fuel cycle from mining and milling uranium, transportation of radioactive materials, uranium enrichment, and fuel fabrication, all involve heavy use of fossil fuels. Constructing nuclear stations is also fossil fuel intensive as are stabilizing and cleaning up nuclear catastrophes (Chernobyl and Fukushima). Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s recent directive that the state Public Service Commission should consider treating nuclear power as renewable electricity is ridiculous. Doing so would retard the much-needed transition to increased conservation and energy efficiency. and safe, renewable electricity sources.

January 11, 2016 – WBFO – Ignoring security concerns, nuclear waste shipments will proceed over Peace Bridge – Federal regulators are moving ahead with plans to ship nuclear waste from Canada across the Peace Bridge, drawing outrage from Congressman Brian Higgins. Higgins, a member of the Homeland Security Committee, calls the Department of Energy’s disregard for the potential impact on the Buffalo area “astonishing.” He says the DOE is using outdated information to determine the threat assessment. “In the post-9/11 era the Peace Bridge is high-impact target for potential terrorist activity. And when you’re carrying 150 truck shipments between Canada and the United States of highly enriched uranium it becomes that much bigger of a target,” Higgins said.

January 11, 2016 – Knoxville News-Sentinel – A boost for Oak Ridge cleanup – There’s good news for the Department of Energy’s environmental cleanup program in Oak Ridge. After the dust settled on the federal budget for the rest of Fiscal Year 2016, it looks like Oak Ridge will get a significant boost in funding for cleanup activities. Mike Koentop, executive officer of DOE’s Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management, said the Oak Ridge allotment is $473.8 million. That’s up significantly from the 2015 spending level of around $430 million and way above the Obama administration’s initial request of about $365 million for FY 2016.

January 11, 2016 – Oil Price – Nuclear Power Plants Appear Safe From Flooding In Midwest And South – Heavy rains have brought historic floods to the St. Louis region on the eve of the New Year, causing the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers to overflow. The high water levels are traveling south, potentially bringing major flooding to Mississippi and Louisiana. That raises the question about the safety of the nuclear power plants located in the vicinity of the floods. The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission is closely watching the situation, but the nuclear watchdog said that it does not expect the floods to adversely affect any of the plants. In a January 5 update, the NRC ran through some of the specific reactors located in the flooding zone.

January 11, 2016 – Midwest Energy News – Vote expected next week on lifting Wisconsin nuclear moratorium – NUCLEAR: Wisconsin lawmakers are expected to vote on a bill next week to lift the state’s moratorium on new nuclear plants.

January 13, 2016 – Albuquerque Journal – WIPP to reopen in 2016, DOE official says – An Energy Department official says a southeast nuclear waste repository could reopen by the end of the year. The Waste Isolation Pilot Plant has been shut to waste emplacement since an underground fire and unrelated radiation release in February 2014. WIPP is the final burial ground for certain Cold War era defense nuclear waste. Todd Schrader, manager of DOE’s Carlsbad Field Office, said at a Carlsbad town hall meeting on Thursday that WIPP operations could restart in “late 2016.” Jim Blankenhorn, recovery manager for site contractor Nuclear Waste Partnership, said WIPP plans a “cold start” in February in which employees will practice working under new safety regulations established in the wake of the February 2014 incidents.

January 11, 2016 – Wyoming Business Report – Lance Project makes first uranium delivery – Penninsula Energy’s Lance Projects, an in situ recovery (ISR) uranium operation on the north-east flank of the Powder River Basin, has completed its first delivery of uranium oxide. In-situ uranium recovery operations began from the Ross Permit Area of the Lance Projects after the company received authorization from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) on Dec. 2, 2015. According to a company release, production well flow-rates continue to be very good, uranium is being recovered and a second header house is being commissioned. Phase One full production will see a total of seven header houses in operation. “Penninsula has four significant uranium concentrate sale and purchase agreements in place for a major portion of production over the first five years of operations,” said John (Gus) Simpson, Penninsula’s managing director and CEO.

January 11, 2016 – Idaho Statesman – Former Idaho nuke exec sentenced to 30 months – A Meridian woman was sentenced Thursday to 30 months in federal prison for securities fraud involving an Eagle company that purported to be a nuclear power-plant developer. U.S. District Judge Edward J. Lodge also ordered Jennifer R. Ransom, 41, to forfeit $580,780 and pay $116,138 in restitution to victim-investors. A federal grand jury in November 2014 indicted Ransom, the former vice president of Alternate Energy Holdings Inc., and her business and romantic partner, AEHI founder and president Don Gillispie, on 14 counts of conspiracy, securities fraud, wire fraud, filing false tax returns and making false statements to federal agents.