web analytics

Information Directory

Reference Directory

Issues pertaining to radiation and radioactivity are not static. Regulations change, an item of concern at one facility raises issues of concern at others, public perceptions influence decision-making, and new discoveries are made all the time. Once each day, Plexus-NSD reviews its various sources of information so that we can keep ourselves and our clients constantly and continuously informed.

On a periodic basis, we summarize what we have found and post it at this web site in the "Regulatory Action", the "Press Pieces", and the "Upcoming Events" categories. In the "Plexus-NSD Announcements" section you can read about what our staff has been up to lately, including a description of some of our publications and products, copies of which we would be glad to send to you at no cost. In the "Plexus-NSD e-Newsletters" section is a listing of headlines from recent editions, as well as an invitation to subscribe to this free monthly publication. We encourage you to check back frequently so that you too can keep up on the ever-changing world of radiation and radioactivity.

News Menu

October 6, 2016 – 81 FR 69446-69448 – NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION – Risk-Informed Changes to Loss-of-Coolant Accident Technical Requirements – The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is discontinuing a rulemaking activity titled, “Risk-Informed Changes to Loss-Of-Coolant Accident Technical Requirements.” The purpose of this action is to inform members of the public of the discontinuation of this rulemaking and to provide a brief discussion of the NRC’s decision to discontinue it. This rulemaking activity will no longer be reported in the NRC’s portion of the Unified Agenda of Regulatory and Deregulatory Actions (the Unified Agenda).

October 6, 2016 – 81 FR 69554-69555 – NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION – Strata Energy, Inc.; Ross Uranium In-Situ Recovery Facility; Source and Byproduct Materials License – The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has issued an updated Record of Decision (ROD) related to the license for Strata Energy, Inc. (Strata), Ross Uranium In-Situ Recovery (ISR) Facility in Crook County, Wyoming. Strata’s request for a source and byproduct materials license for the Ross ISR facility was contested through the NRC’s adjudicatory process. On June 29, 2016, the Commission denied a petition for review of the Atomic Safety and Licensing Board’s (ASLB) decision. The ROD has been updated to account for the ASLB’s decision and the Commission’s ruling.

October 6, 2016 – 81 FR 69553-69554 – NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION – Vogtle Electric Generating Plant, Units 3 and 4 – The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) staff has determined that the inspections, tests, and analyses have been successfully completed, and that the specified acceptance criteria are met for multiple inspections, tests, analyses, and acceptance criteria (ITAAC) for the Vogtle Electric Generating Plant (VEGP), Units 3 and 4.

read more

October 6, 2016 – Press Pieces

On October 6th, 2016, posted in: Latest News, Press Pieces

October 6, 2016 – Focus Taiwan News – Ban on food from Japan’s radiation-affected areas remains – The food and Drug Administration (FDA) reaffirmed Thursday that there is no timetable for any lifting of a ban on food imports from five Japanese prefectures that were affected by radiation fallout from a nuclear power plant meltdown following the 2011 earthquake and tsunami. “There is no timetable for any such opening,” FDA Director-General Chiang Yu-mei (姜郁美) told CNA. She declined to comment on reports that Taiwan and Japan have reached an initial consensus on Taiwan’s opening to food imports from the five prefectures. Taiwan banned food imports from Fukushima, Ibaraki, Tochigi, Gunma and Chiba prefectures in the wake of the meltdown of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant on March 11, 2011.

October 6, 2016 – Parent Herald – Aliens Survive On Galactic Cosmic Rays Like Bacteria In Radioactive Mines? – Recent studies have revealed that a bacterium named Desulforudis audaxviator can survive on Galactic Cosmic Rays (GCRs). GCRs are cosmic rays, which originate from sources outside the solar system and distributed throughout the Milky Way galaxy. Scientists predict GCRs can be the source of energy for Aliens. According to new research in the Journal of the Royal Society Interface, the bacteria miles below the earth in abandoned mine shafts off the radioactive rocks. Author Dimitra Atri, research scientist said D. audaxviator is the only known organism to live as a result of radiolysis. In this a substance decomposes as a result of radiation. The bacteria lives under such extreme conditions is the only of its kind and called an “extremophile” – eats radioactive rocks extracting carbon and other essential chemicals from them.

October 4, 2016 – The Japan News – Is medical radiation exposure being curbed? – In June last year, standards for exposure to medical radiation — dubbed diagnostic reference levels, or DRLs — were established. The DRLs serve as yardsticks to ensure patients are not exposed to unnecessarily high doses of radiation during radiological exams at hospitals. To find out whether levels of medical exposure have decreased over the last year, I spoke with Reiko Kanda, an expert at the National Institutes for Quantum and Radiological Science and Technology, which is leading efforts in that area.

October 6, 2016 – University of Copenhagen News – Robert Feidenhans’l resigns as head of the Niels Bohr Institute – Robert Feidenhans’l, professor and head of the Niels Bohr Institute at the University of Copenhagen has been appointed as the Chairman of the Management Board of the large European research facility XFEL in Hamburg. Robert Feidenhans’l will take up the new position on 1 January 2017 and will step down from his position as head of the Niels Bohr Institute at the end of the year. The European X-ray Free Electron Laser, European XFEL, is a research facility that produces extremely intense X-rays that are a billion times stronger than the best traditional X-ray sources. X-ray radiation is a super tool that opens up entirely new opportunities for research in materials and proteins and to be able to carry out advanced experiments with the structure and dynamic of individual particles.

October 6, 2016 – Ecologist – Japan abandons Monju fast reactor: the slow death of a nuclear dream – ‘Fast breeder’ reactors are promoted by nuclear enthusiasts as the clean, green energy technology of the future, writes Jim Green. But all the evidence tells us they are a catastrophic failure: complex, expensive, unreliable and accident-prone. Is Japan’s decision to abandon its Monju reactor the latest nail in the coffin of a dead technology? Or the final stake through its rotten heart? Monju reached criticality in 1994 but was shut down in December 1995 after a sodium coolant leak and fire. The reactor didn’t restart until May 2010, and it was shut down again three months later. Decommissioning Monju will cost an estimated $3 billion. 1956 US Navy Admiral Hyman Rickover summarized his experience of these reactors by saying they are ‘expensive to build, complex to operate, susceptible to prolonged shutdown as a result of even minor malfunctions, and difficult and time-consuming to repair.’ Sixty years later, this summary remains apt.

October 6, 2016 – Right Side News – Obama Aids Iranian Nuclear Terror – Senator Obama opposed naming Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps a terror group even while it was closely involved in organizing attacks against American soldiers in Iraq. Then, as part of his dirty deal with Iran, he secretly sent a fortune in foreign cash on airplanes linked to the IRGC. And, as another part of the secret ransom deal with Iran, he lifted UN sanctions on Bank Sepah. The United States has gone after plenty of banks for aiding terror finance, but Bank Sepah is somewhat unique in that it is a financial institution actually owned and operated by Islamic terrorists. Bank Sepah is an IRGC bank. The IRGC, despite Obama’s denials, is an Islamic terror group with American blood on its hands. It is to Shiite Islam what ISIS is to Sunni Islam. And even the Democrats know it.

October 6, 2016 – The Japan News – Russia suspends N-agreement with U.S. – Russia further curtailed its cooperation with the United States in nuclear energy on Wednesday, suspending a research agreement and terminating one on uranium conversion, two days after the Kremlin shelved a plutonium pact with Washington. The Russian government said that as countermeasures to the U.S. sanctions imposed on Russia over Ukraine, it was putting aside a nuclear and energy-related research pact with the United States. It also said it was terminating for the same reasons an agreement between its nuclear corporation Rosatom and the U.S. Energy Department on feasibility studies into conversion of Russian research reactors to low-enriched uranium.

October 6, 2016 – Broadway World – Limelight Performing Arts Presents D.W. Gregory’s RADIUM GIRLS – In 1926, radium was a miracle cure, Madame Curie an international celebrity, and luminous watches the latest rage-until the girls who painted them began to fall ill with a mysterious disease. Inspired by historical events, Radium Girls traces the efforts of Grace Fryer, a dial painter, as she fights for her day in court. Her chief adversary is her former employer, Arthur Roeder, an idealistic man who cannot bring himself to believe that the same element that shrinks tumors could have anything to do with the terrifying rash of illnesses among his employees. As the case goes on, however, Grace finds herself battling not just with the U.S. Radium Corporation, but with her own family and friends, who fear that her campaign for justice will backfire.

October 6, 2016 – Construction Index – Milestone reached in construction of Chernobyl enclosure – A key task has been completed ahead of schedule in the project to build a new safe containment (NSC) to enclose the nuclear plant in Chernobyl, which was destroyed in the disaster of 1996. The US$40m (£31m) project has built the arch end walls that will allow the main arch structure to be slid into its design position. Deputy project and program manager Viktor Popovskyi said that 9,600m3 of concrete and about 1,500t of rebar were used during the work to build the end walls. The scope of work included the reinforcement and sealing of existing power units structures – upon which the arch end walls will be abutted – as well as the design and construction of new dividing walls within existing structures. Preparatory work has also taken place for the installation and attachment of sealing anchors.

October 6, 2016 – Manilla Bulletin – Japan nuclear reactor shuttered for safety work – Utility Kyushu Electric is shutting down the No. 1 reactor at its Sendai plant in southern Sendai plant for a few months of inspections and maintenance, leaving Japan with just two operating reactors. But there is speculation that the reactor’s safety work could drag on longer. Thursday’s shutdown follows demands from the region’s top politician that Kyushu Electric conduct extra safety inspections at its two operating reactors in the Sendai plant — after deadly quakes hammered a neighbouring prefecture in April. Last month, the company refused governor Satoshi Mitazono’s demands to immediately shut down the reactors over safety concerns.

October 6, 2016 – Drowned In Sound – “It’s difficult to get these powerful stories across” – It’s been just over 30 years since the Ukrainian city of Pripyat suffered the devastating consequences of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster. It’s one of only two nuclear meltdowns classified as a maximum level event, the other being the Fukushima Daiichi disaster of 2011. During the incident, 400 times more radioactive material was released from Chernobyl than was dropped in the atomic bombing of Hiroshima. The effects are still being felt in Ukraine and Belarus. Charities such as the Chernobyl Children’s Project, based in Glossop, have been helping young people from the area take recuperative holidays, allowing them to escape the rising dust radiation levels in the summer months.

October 6, 2016 – CaliforniaHealthline – Pricey New Treatment Roils Issues Of How To Treat Prostate Cancer – Men hoping to avoid some side effects of prostate cancer treatment are shelling out tens of thousands of dollars for a procedure whose long-term effects are unknown and insurers, including Medicare, won’t pay for. Proponents say high-intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) can have fewer negative side effects than surgery or radiation, while giving some patients another option between actively watching their cancer and those more aggressive steps. Critics, however, say the procedure is being oversold, leading some patients to get a treatment they don’t need. Device makers are busy selling the $500,000-and-up machines to doctors around the country and offering training courses. Billboards advertising this “new non-invasive treatment for prostate cancer” are springing up, while treatment center websites promise “a safer method” with benefits such as “no erectile dysfunction and no incontinence,” although studies show those side effects can occur, but less often than with other types of more aggressive treatments. The treatment can range in cost from $15,000 to $25,000.

October 6, 2016 – Medical XPress – Incidence of thyroid cancer on the rise – The incidence of thyroid cancer has tripled in the past three decades, yet the reason for this is not clear. Dr. David Goldenberg, chief of otolaryngology and head and neck surgery at Penn State Health Milton S. Hershey Medical Center, notes the diagnostic tools are better, but he can’t get behind recent talk of overdiagnosis as the sole cause for the increase. Thyroid cancer occurs about three times more often in women than men, but Goldenberg said the jury is still out on whether reproductive hormones play a significant role in that. Risk factors for the disease include family history, being a woman, a low-iodine diet and exposure to ionizing radiation. Some theories include obesity as a possible risk factor, as well.

October 6, 2016 – Time – The Marshall Islands Cannot Sue Nuclear Powers for Proliferation, U.N. Court Rules – Dozens of nuclear tests took place at the island nation, sometimes wiping out entire atolls. The Marshall Islands — home to Bikini Atoll, where the first postwar U.S. nuclear test was conducted in 1946 —has been told by a top international court that its lawsuit against three nuclear powers over their alleged failure to stop nuclear proliferation cannot proceed. Agence France-Presse reports that the International Court of Justice (ICJ) “upholds the objection to jurisdiction” by the U.K., India and Pakistan, ruling that it “cannot proceed to the merits of the case” as there was no evidence the Pacific island nation ever had disputes or sought to negotiate with any of these countries over the nuclear issue.

October 6, 2016 – thedailystar.com – Nuclear plan gets backlash from left, right – A coalition of environmental and consumer activists warned Wednesday that New York electricity customers will be jolted by a “huge tax” stemming from Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s plan to subsidize aging nuclear power plants. Customers of National Grid, NYSEG and other state-regulated utilities will see bills climb by more than $2 per month beginning next year — and even more in subsequent years — if the plan stays on track, the critics said. The proposal is part of Cuomo’s plan to ensure New York gets at least 50 percent of its power from renewable sources, including solar and wind, by 2030. He contends the plan makes New York a national leader in the push to curb climate change linked to greenhouse gases.

October 6, 2016 – World Nuclear News – Japan bolsters reprocessing work, reports on Fukushima radiation – Japan has established a new organisation tasked with managing its reprocessing of used fuel, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry has announced. In a statement on 3 October, the ministry said the Nuclear Reprocessing Organisation of Japan will be funded by the country’s power utilities to cover the cost of the reprocessing work. This is a mandatory requirement that replaces the previous expectation that utilities would voluntarily contribute to the reprocessing program. Separately, Japan has reported to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) that tests last month on discharges from the sub-drain and groundwater drainage systems of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant have confirmed that the radiation levels of sampled water were “substantially below” the operational targets set by operator Tokyo Electric Power Company (Tepco).

October 6, 2016 – Newswire – UChicago Site of Radiocarbon Dating Discovery Named Historic Landmark – It was while working in the Kent Laboratory building in the 1940s that Prof. Willard Libby and his UChicago associates developed radiocarbon dating—an innovative method to measure the age of organic materials. Scientists soon used the technique on materials ranging from the dung of a giant sloth from a Nevada cave; seaweed and algae from Monte Verde, Chile, the oldest archaeological site in the Western Hemisphere; the Shroud of Turin; and the meteorite that created the Henbury Craters in northern Australia. Now the American Chemical Society has designated the discovery of radiocarbon dating as a National Historic Chemical Landmark. The society will officially recognize the achievement at 4 p.m. Oct. 10, with the unveiling of a plaque in the foyer of the Kent Chemical Laboratory building at 1020 E. 58th St. This year marks the 70th anniversary of Libby’s first publication on radiocarbon dating, which appeared in the June 1, 1946 issue of Physical Review. The work earned Libby the 1960 Nobel Prize in chemistry “for determinations in archaeology, geology, geophysics and other branches of science.”

October 6, 2016 – Nuclear Energy Insider – Operators urged to prioritize labor plans to control decommissioning costs – Nuclear operators planning to close reactors must set out detailed plans for labor reductions and other regulation-driven decisions to ensure decommissioning funds cover rising cost estimates, Tom Magette, PWC’s Managing Director, Nuclear Capital projects & infrastructure, told the 2016 Nuclear Decommissioning & Used Fuel Strategy Summit on October 4. There are currently 18 U.S. nuclear power plants being decommissioned and this will soon increase following a recent spate of plant closure announcements due to sustained low power prices. The majority of current decommissioning projects are being carried out under the SAFSTOR method of deferred decontamination as operators expect Decommissioning Trust Funds (DTFs) to rise to cover future decommissioning spending. However, Rates of Return for DTFs have been lower than some expectations and current dollar estimates for decommissioning costs have risen while actual costs have varied widely.

October 6, 2016 – Nuclear Energy Insider – US utilities warn new rules could impact reactor closures – Operators have accelerated decommissioning plans following early plant closures and proposed changes to licensing rules are raising project risks, leading utility executives said at the 2016 Nuclear Decommissioning & Used Fuel Strategy Summit on October 3. There are currently 18 U.S. nuclear power plants being decommissioned and this will soon increase following a recent spate of plant closure announcements due to sustained low power prices. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is developing new rules to reduce the number of licensing amendments required post-shutdown but significant changes to existing regulatory frameworks could impact project timelines, Jim Madigan, CNO Technical Advisor and Director of Oversight, Regulatory Affairs & Nuclear Safety Culture, Southern California Edison (SCE), told conference attendees.

October 6, 2016 – Enformable – Uranium mining industry in survival mode after Fukushima – The hot word in the uranium mining market is “staying power”, as in who will have the staying power to survive the collapse of the uranium mining industry. The uranium mining industry is in an awful state while trying to recover from the effect that the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster in Japan had on the global nuclear industry. The simple fact is that there is a glut of uranium available and no real need to explore new deposits or mine existing ones. The shutdown of nuclear power plants in the wake of the disaster generated a large surplus of uranium – combined with the rise of fracking and natural gas, drove uranium prices to record lows, and forced most of the few mining companies to shut down mines, lay off workers and reduce debt in a struggle just to survive. This could have long-term implications because it is expensive to shut down a uranium mining operation, and difficult to reverse.

October 6, 2016 – Athens Post – For What it’s Worth: Nuclear energy is the future of clean energy – In last week’s presidential debate, there was much discussion regarding energy policy. This discussion focused on issues such as climate change, investment in renewable energy resources and the role of fossil fuels going forward. As can be expected in a US presidential debate, this discussion was shallow, yielding only a few opportunities for the candidates to take pot shots at each other. The debate also touched on nuclear issues; specifically, proliferation and the Iran nuclear deal. However, neither Donald Trump nor Hillary Clinton even breathed a mention of the most important nuclear issue: nuclear energy. We are living in an age characterized by rising levels of greenhouse gases, shrinking reserves of fossil fuels, limited technological capabilities in regards to renewable energy resources and an expanding global population with growing energy demands. Given the challenges of such an era, it seems our only salvation will be found in the power of the atom. Nuclear power offers an alternative energy source that is not only cheap, bountiful, but also relatively safe and clean.

October 6, 2016 – Ruidoso News – Rising interest seen in Downwinders story – Demonstrators at the Stallion Gate during Saturday’s open house at the Trinity atomic test site said more people stopped to hear their story than at any protest in recent years. The Tularosa Basin Downwinders have been fighting for more than a decade to have victims of radiation exposure from the first-ever nuclear explosion in 1945 included in a federal law that later awarded compensation to military service members and others exposed during Nevada test explosions in the 1950s. Members of the group say more than 700 people have died of cancer and other causes related to the Trinity exposure, and the illnesses have continued to afflict many genetic descendants of those who were living and working in the basin and adjacent mountains when the blast went off and fallout drifted over the region.

October 6, 2016 – Los Alamos Monitor – Report: LANL to end on-site radioactive waste disposal at Area G in 2017 – A Los Alamos National Laboratory environmental report released has revealed that by Oct. 1, 2017, the lab will cease disposing of low-level radioactive waste on site. “The strategy for both low-level radiological waste and mixed low-level waste is to minimize its generation and to dispose of all newly generated waste off-site… No new, on-site disposal capacity will be developed,” read a statement in the report. The report also mentioned that the lab plans to dispose of low-level waste at “Area G” by Oct. 1, 2017. The report also indicated that for 2015 the amount of plutonium detected in the air was nine attocuries per cubic meter, which the lab categorized as the lowest it’s been in recent years, because there was not much soil activity at the site. The lab was shipping the low-level waste from Area G to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in Carlsbad. That stopped when an improperly packed barrel shipped from the lab exploded at the plant in February 2014. The WIPP plant is due to resume partial operations in December.

October 6, 2016 – Aiken Standard – Waste Isolation Pilot Plant cave-in adds to safety questions – A recent cave-in at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, or WIPP, near Carlsbad, New Mexico, brings facility safety and operational readiness back under the microscope. WIPP is a deep underground salt mine repository meant to store some of the nation’s nuclear waste. The facility has been closed since a truck fire in February 2014. Crews have been working to address safety concerns, including potential issues with storage canisters. Those concerns played a role in the operational shut-down and have led to new requirements for sites, such as Savannah River Site in South Carolina, that send material to WIPP.

October 6, 2016 – Denver Post – Feds seek balance in converting Cold War plutonium trigger plant west of Denver to wildlife haven – The Cold War-era Rocky Flats nuclear weapons factory, long reviled as a source of plutonium dust, is becoming more of a haven for wildlife. A bear raised three cubs. Mountain lion tracks can be seen. A bull moose recently wandered across the 6,000-acre prairie and wetland refuge. A herd of elk, numbering 130 last year, grew to 150. This week, the feds are launching a planning process to allow for more people. “A wildlife refuge is not a park,” Rocky Flats manager Dave Lucas said, but the government in four “sharing sessions” seeks ideas for future trials for hiking, cycling and horse-riding where hundreds of military-industrial structures once stood.

read more

October 5, 2016 – 81 FR 69010-69011 – NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION – Processing Fitness-for-Duty Drug and Alcohol Cases – The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is requesting public comments on proposed revisions to its Enforcement Policy (the Policy). The NRC is proposing to revise Section 4.1, “Considerations in Determining Enforcement Actions Involving Individuals,” of the Policy to indicate that the NRC typically will not consider Fitness-for-Duty (FFD) Drug and Alcohol (D&A) related violations for enforcement unless the licensee’s FFD program has apparent deficiencies.

October 5, 2016 – 81 FR 69088-69089 – NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION – General Use of Locks in the Protection and Control of: Facilities, Radioactive Materials, Classified Information, Classified Matter, and Safeguards Information – The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is issuing Revision 1 to Regulatory Guide (RG) 5.12, “General Use of Locks in Protection and Control of: Facilities Radioactive Materials, Classified Information, Classified Matter, and Safeguards Information.” This RG describes methods and procedures that the staff of the NRC considers acceptable for the selection, use, and control of locking devices in the protection of areas, facilities, certain radioactive materials, and specific types of information (e.g. classified matter, National Security Information (NSI), Restricted Data (RD), Formerly Restricted Data (FRD), Safeguards Information (SGI)).

October 5, 2016 – 81 FR 69054-69055 – DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY – Environmental Management Site-Specific Advisory Board, Northern New Mexico – This notice announces a combined meeting of the Environmental Monitoring and Remediation Committee and Waste Management Committee of the Environmental Management Site-Specific Advisory Board (EM SSAB), Northern New Mexico (known locally as the Northern New Mexico Citizens’ Advisory Board [NNMCAB]). The Federal Advisory Committee Act (Pub. L. 92-463, 86 Stat. 770) requires that public notice of this meeting be announced in the Federal Register. DATES: Wednesday, October 26, 2016 1:00 p.m.-4:00 p.m. ADDRESSES: NNMCAB Office, 94 Cities of Gold Road, Pojoaque, NM 87506. FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Menice Santistevan, Northern New Mexico Citizens’ Advisory Board, 94 Cities of Gold Road, Santa Fe, NM 87506. Phone: (505) 995-0393; Fax: (505) 989-1752 or Email: menice.santistevan@em.doe.gov. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Purpose of the Board: The purpose of the Board is to make recommendations to DOE-EM and site management in the areas of environmental restoration, waste management, and related activities.

read more

October 5, 2016 – Press Pieces

On October 5th, 2016, posted in: Latest News, Press Pieces

October 5, 2016 – The Post – For What it’s Worth: Nuclear energy is the future of clean energy – In last week’s presidential debate, there was much discussion regarding energy policy. This discussion focused on issues such as climate change, investment in renewable energy resources and the role of fossil fuels going forward. As can be expected in a US presidential debate, this discussion was shallow, yielding only a few opportunities for the candidates to take pot shots at each other. The debate also touched on nuclear issues; specifically, proliferation and the Iran nuclear deal. However, neither Donald Trump nor Hillary Clinton even breathed a mention of the most important nuclear issue: nuclear energy. We are living in an age characterized by rising levels of greenhouse gases, shrinking reserves of fossil fuels, limited technological capabilities in regards to renewable energy resources and an expanding global population with growing energy demands. Given the challenges of such an era, it seems our only salvation will be found in the power of the atom. Nuclear power offers an alternative energy source that is not only cheap, bountiful, but also relatively safe and clean.

October 5, 2015 – Radio New Zealand – France recognises first Tahiti nuclear test victim – France has for the first time recognised a link between its nuclear weapon tests in the South Pacific and the illness of someone who never visited the test sites at Moruroa and Fangataufa. The disclosure was made by a Tahiti resident, Yves Conroy, in an address at the UN decolonisation debate in New York. He was one of 18 speakers at the UN in favour of ending French Polynesia’s colonial status. Mr Conroy said he received a letter from the French Compensation Committee (CIVEN) in July, acknowledging a link between the tests and his wife’s two cancers.

October 5, 2016 – Prague Daily Monitor – Czechs protest against planned nuclear waste repository – Fourteen municipalities and 11 associations affected by the preparations of an underground repository of spent nuclear fuel and other radioactive waste founded a non-profit society against the plan on Tuesday, their leaders said in a press release sent to CTK. The Platform Against the Underground Repository wants to insist on an open and transparent solution to the problem in which both the municipalities and the public would have a chance of defending their interests, they said. The main reason for founding the group was the dissatisfaction with the previous steps taken by the governmental institutions in charge of the issue, the representatives said.

October 5, 2016 – The Financial Express – ‘Atomic sandwich’ to power gen-next, energy-efficient devices – Scientists, including those of Indian origin, have designed new ‘atomic sandwiches’ – materials that could lead to the next generation of devices that have more computing power and consume 100 times less energy than current electronics. The material sandwiches together individual layers of atoms, producing a thin film with magnetic polarity that can be flipped from positive to negative or vice versa with small pulses of electricity. This property may be used to store digital 0’s and 1’s, the binary backbone that underpins computing devices.

October 5, 2016 – Malaysian Digest – IAEA To Conduct M’sia’s First Nuclear Infrastructure Review Next Week – Next week, International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) experts will be in the country to conduct the first Integrated Nuclear Infrastructure Review (INIR), says Malaysia Nuclear Power Corporation (MNPC) chief executive officer Mohd Zamzam Jaafar. He said the 12 experts, mostly from the IAEA headquarters in Vienna, Austria would review Malaysia’s state of preparedness for nuclear energy development, from Oct 10 to 17. “Malaysia is almost there (for nuclear energy development) but there are still certain things that need to be done,” he said, adding they included the tabling for nuclear energy bill and identifying a site for nuclear energy programme.

October 5, 2016 – The Argus – Radon: The silent killer lurking in your basement – When moving into a first house or apartment, students will find themselves bombarded with warnings about the dangers of living alone and tips to keep themselves safe. People are told what to do in case of a fire, where the fuse box is located and how to use it, and what to do in case a carbon monoxide alarm goes off. Through the crash course of dangers in the household, few are told about the threat of high radon levels, but it is important to know about this hazardous gas. Radon is a radioactive gas that occurs naturally when there is a breakdown of uranium in the soil. It does not have a colour, taste, or smell, which can make it hard to detect. Radon can enter your house, and once inside, the toxic gas collects and reaches levels that can be extremely dangerous to the human body.

October 5, 2016 – Augusta Free Press – UVA among first to use new tool for noninvasive brain surgery – The UVA Health System is the first hospital in Virginia – and among the first in the world – to use a noninvasive tool for brain surgery. UVA recently began treating patients with the Gamma Knife Icon, the newest version of technology used for noninvasive surgery in the brain and upper spine. The Gamma Knife helps protects healthy tissue in the brain by using 192 focused beams of high energy Gamma radiation to treat patients instead of traditional open surgery. Neurosurgeons and radiation oncologists at UVA’s Gamma Knife Center have pioneered the Gamma Knife’s use. Since 1989, UVA has treated more than 10,000 patients from around the world with the non-invasive procedure, which is typically complete in less than an hour. Worldwide, the Gamma Knife has been used to treat more than 1 million patients over the past 30 years.

October 5, 2016 – HealthNews Florida – Pricey New Treatment Roils Issues Of How To Treat Prostate Cancer – Men hoping to avoid some side effects of prostate cancer treatment are shelling out tens of thousands of dollars for a procedure whose long-term effects are unknown and insurers, including Medicare, won’t pay for. Proponents say high-intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) can have fewer negative side effects than surgery or radiation, while giving some patients another option between actively watching their cancer and those more aggressive steps. Critics, however, say the procedure is being oversold, leading some patients to get a treatment they don’t need.

October 5, 2016 – Blackburn News – Opposition Grows To Trucking Liquid Nuclear Waste – 27 Canadian and American organizations are calling on Prime Minister Trudeau and President Obama to respect the 2012 Great Lakes Water Agreement and stop the planned transport of highly radioactive waste from Chalk River, Ontario, to the U.S. Canadian Coalition for Nuclear Responsibility President Gordon Edwards says the Sierra Club will speak to the International Joint Commission in Toronto Wednesday. “In order to get to the United States, you have to cross the Blue Water Bridge or some other bridge somewhere,” he says. “If there is a serious accident or spill, the fact that this material is in liquid form means it can easily be dispersed into the waters of the Great Lakes.” Edwards says trucking 23,000 litres of a “witch’s brew” 1,100 miles over the Great Lakes water system is ludicrous, given the fact that the material has been solidified at Chalk River for 13 years.

October 5, 2016 – physicsworld.com – New imaging technique combines MRI with nuclear medicine – A new technique that combines magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and nuclear medicine has been developed by physicists in the US. The method uses the fact that the direction that a gamma ray is emitted from a radioactive nucleus is highly dependent on the direction of the nucleus’s magnetic moment. Much like conventional MRI, the technique involves placing the sample in a strong magnetic field that causes the magnetic moments of the nuclei to point in the direction of the field. Then a magnetic pulse causes the moments to wobble, much like a spinning top. In conventional MRI, this wobble is detected by the radio waves emitted by the sample and this provides important information about the local chemical composition within the sample. In this new technique developed by Gordon Cates, Wilson Miller and colleagues at the University of Virginia, the wobble is characterized by measuring the distribution of gamma rays emitted by radioactive nuclei – in this case xenon-131m. The team was able to image a glass container filled with a tiny amount of radioactive xenon gas. However, this took 60 hours to complete – which is far too long for practical imaging applications. If the technique can be improved, then patients could one day ingest a radioactive tracer that would then travel to a tumour or other tissue of interest. Doctors would then be able to use the technique to image the tissue and obtain new types of information about its composition.

October 5, 2016 – tribuneindia.com – Court rejects Marshall Islands’ nuclear case against India – The International Court of Justice (ICJ) on Wednesday rejected suits filed by the tiny Marshall Islands against the world’s nuclear powers that sought to force them to do more to disarm. Though the suits failed on procedural grounds, India, Pakistan and Britain were brought to the court to answer the complaint at public hearings in April. In its ruling in the country’s case against India, the first of the three to be decided on Wednesday, the court said it had accepted Indian arguments that the ICJ, also known as the World Court, should not have jurisdiction in the case. Judges said that while the Marshall Islands may not be satisfied with progress on nuclear disarmament, it had failed to show that it has any ongoing legal dispute with India fit for the court to adjudicate.

October 5, 2016 – Stockz News – Trending Stocks on the Move – Mosaic Co (NYSE:MOS), LOST -1.00% and closed at $24.64 in the last trading session. The last trading range of the stock ranges between $24.59 and $24.95. During the 52-week trading session the minimum price at which share price traded, registered at $22.02 and reached to max level of $36.95. Testing of nine wells near a sinkhole at a Mosaic Co fertilizer facility in Florida, site of a massive leak of contaminated water, shows that water meets safe drinking standards for radioactivity and damage has not spread beyond the site, the company said.

October 5, 2016 – Daily Galaxy – NASA: Supernova Enigma Solved –“Light Reached Earth 350 Years Ago” – The new NASA image above shows a more complete picture of Cassiopeia A, the remains of a star that blew up in a supernova event whose light reached Earth about 350 years ago, when it could have appeared to observers as a star that suddenly brightened. The remnant is located 11,000 light-years away from Earth. The mystery of how Cassiopeia A exploded is unraveling thanks to new data from NASA’s Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array, or NuSTAR. In this image, NuSTAR data, which show high-energy X-rays from radioactive material, are colored blue. Lower-energy X-rays from non-radioactive material, imaged previously with NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory, are shown in red, yellow and green.

October 5, 2016 – NEI Press Release – Maria Korsnick Elected President and CEO of Nuclear Energy Institute – Maria Korsnick today was elected president and chief executive officer of the Nuclear Energy Institute, the policy organization for the U.S. nuclear energy industry, effective Jan. 1, 2017. Korsnick has served as NEI’s chief operating officer since May 2015 as a loaned executive from Exelon Generation and Constellation Energy Nuclear Group (CENG). In that role, she has guided NEI’s day-to-day operations and represented the industry before a multitude of stakeholders — including the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the Obama administration, Congress, state lawmakers, international nuclear professionals, think tanks and policymakers. She will succeed Marvin Fertel, who retires on Dec. 31 after nine years as NEI’s president and CEO.

October 5, 2016 – Charleston Post and Courier – South Carolina utilities, builder can’t agree on nuclear plant payments – South Carolina Electric & Gas and Santee Cooper have been unable to agree on payments with the contractor that’s expanding their nuclear power plant, leaving them about a month to hash out the dispute under an order issued Monday. The utilities have been in talks with Westinghouse Electric Co. for nearly a year, and the deadline expired July 1. They have been unable to come to terms over “the timing and amounts of various payments” related to work at the V.C. Summer Nuclear Station, SCE&G said in a June filing. The stalemate prompted the companies to refer the matter to a special panel they created last year to resolve disputed claims arising from the Midlands project.

October 5, 2016 – Pittsburgh Tribune – Nuclear plant security guard lied, but explosives detector functioned, NRC says – Federal investigators say there was no security breach at a Beaver County nuclear plant last year when a guard sent 150 employees through an out-of-service explosives detector because the device was still working as intended. Investigators from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission investigated the March 30, 2015, incident at FirstEnergy Corp.’s Beaver Valley Power Station in Shippingport, where the guard at the main entrance sent about 150 employees through an explosives detector despite a sign that said the detector was out of service, NRC spokesman Neil Sheehan said. The guard later told officials at Securitas, her employer providing security at the plant for FirstEnergy, that she hadn’t noticed the sign until she found it on the floor. But surveillance video appeared to show the guard noticing the sign after she’d sent people through, then taking the sign down and putting it on the floor herself, according to an NRC report released Monday.

October 5, 2016 – World Nuclear News – Watts Bar 2 completes power ascension testing – When Watts Bar 2 reached first criticality in May, it was the first nuclear unit to start up in the USA in a decade. The 1165 MWe (net) pressurized water reactor (PWR) was synchronized to the grid on 3 June and has undergone a series of detailed and highly rigorous tests at various power levels to ensure that all systems operate safely as designed. The unit successfully completed its final power ascension test – a 50% load rejection from full power, to test the system’s ability to withstand a sudden loss of load and return safely to normal operating conditions – on 30 September. It will now begin a pre-commercial period of extended full power operation to further test its reliability.

October 5, 2016 – PRNewswire – Plant Farley Unit 1 planned activities underway for the production of clean, safe, reliable and affordable nuclear energy – On Saturday, Oct. 1, Unit 1 of the Joseph M. Farley Nuclear Plant began a planned refueling and maintenance outage. In addition to refueling the reactor and performing regular maintenance and testing, workers will make upgrades to plant systems and components to enhance efficiency and reliability. “The key to a safe and successful outage is our outstanding employees and supporting partners,” said Site Vice President Cheryl Gayheart. “I am proud of the preparations we have made, and our entire team is ready to accomplish this refueling outage safely using our expertise and teamwork.” Plant Farley’s operators were making final preparations to begin the outage when the unit automatically shut down due to a malfunction of a main steam isolation valve. The safety system operated as designed, the plant was stable and the team established shut down conditions in support of the outage.

October 5, 2016 – St. Louis Post-Dispatch – Tests underway on creek in Hazelwood area that turned white – Water samples from a St. Louis County creek that turned white over the weekend are still being tested and it’s too early to conclude what caused the problem, the state Department of Resources said Monday. Coldwater Creek, which runs through the Hazelwood area in St. Louis County, has been a source of concern for area residents for years after radioactive contamination was confirmed in several yards that back up to the waterway. The milky white water raised new worries on Sunday morning, but the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers insisted Monday that whatever is in the water has nothing to do with the agency’s remediation efforts to remove soil contaminated by remnants of the nation’s early nuclear weapons program.

October 5, 2016 – Albuquerque Journal – WIPP plans will go on even if Russia quits plutonium deal – Should the U.S. continue to hold up its end of the bargain, Russia’s withdrawal from the agreement would likely have little effect on the Department of Energy’s plans to send a parallel portion of plutonium – six metric tons – to New Mexico’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant. That plutonium, which is not quite weapons grade, and would be diluted and packaged to meet disposal criteria at WIPP, is not actually part of the 34 metric tons covered by the agreement. But it is being viewed as a trial run “to establish that it’s cost-effective and safe” to dilute and dispose of it at WIPP, said Ed Lyman, senior scientist at the Union of Concerned Scientists.

October 5, 2016 – KUER 90.1 – Downwinders of Utah Archive Opens At U’s Marriott Library – A new Downwinders of Utah Archive opened Monday at the University of Utah J. Willard Marriott Library. It interactively shows the story of radioactive fallout in Utah related to atmospheric nuclear testing in Nevada in the 1950’s. Justin Sorensen specializes in geospatial content at the Marriott Library. He says the Atomic Energy Commission’s primary focus in the early days of testing was creating an image of strength and superiority no matter the consequences. “And that really was what the story was until you get to the late 70’s and 80’s when you see all these victims who are actually downwinders,” Sorensen says, “and what they’ve gone through, and ordeals, and really see what was actually happening at the time.” Sorensen says the archive contains everything from recorded interviews with downwinders to extensive cartographic maps and dramatic images of mushroom cloud heights based on raw numbers.

October 5, 2016 – Casper Star-Tribune – Uranium company will not be fined after former employee falsified safety records – An employee of Cameco, which operates Wyoming’s largest uranium mine, falsified a health survey required after two other workers were potentially exposed to radioactive material in 2013, regulators announced Monday. In an agreement confirmed Friday between the company and federal regulators, Cameco will not be cited for a violation or pay a penalty but must take steps to ensure a similar incident doesn’t again take place. Cameco is also working to end a federal halt on the transport of its nuclear waste after two spillage incidents in the last nine months.

October 5, 2016 – Associated Press – US wants to build Idaho facility for warships’ nuclear waste – The Navy and U.S. Department of Energy want to build a $1.6 billion facility at a nuclear site in eastern Idaho that would handle fuel waste from the nation’s fleet of nuclear-powered warships through at least 2060. The new facility is needed to keep nuclear-powered aircraft carriers and submarines deployed, according to an environmental impact statement made public Friday. It would be built at the Energy Department’s 890-square-mile site, which includes the Idaho National Laboratory, considered the nation’s primary lab for nuclear research. The government also looked at two other alternatives: continuing to use outdated facilities at the site or overhauling them. The effect to the environment would be small for all three options, the document concluded.

October 5, 2016 – Los Alamos Daily Post – NNSA And Bulgaria Partner To Complete Nuclear Detection Architecture – Representatives of the Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration (DOE/NNSA), the U.S. Embassy in Sofia, Bulgaria, and the Bulgarian government this week celebrated the completion of Bulgaria’s nuclear detection architecture, which will enhance efforts to prevent smuggling of dangerous radioactive materials across its borders. National and foreign dignitaries, including U.S. Ambassador Eric Rubin and Deputy Prime Minister Rumiana Bachvarova, gathered in Sofia to highlight the successful implementation of 27 radiation detection systems at locations across Bulgaria.

read more

October 4, 2016 – 81 FR 68474 – NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION – Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards (ACRS); Meeting of the ACRS Subcommittee on Radiation Protection and Nuclear Materials; Notice of Meeting – The ACRS Subcommittee on Radiation Protection and Nuclear Materials will hold a meeting on October 18, 2016, Room T-2B3, 11545 Rockville Pike, Rockville, Maryland. The meeting will be open to public attendance.

October 4, 2016 – 81 FR 68462 – NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION – Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards (ACRS); Meeting of the ACRS Subcommittee on Fukushima; Notice of Meeting – The ACRS Subcommittee on Fukushima will hold a meeting on October 19, 2016, Room T-2B1, 11545 Rockville Pike, Rockville, Maryland 20852. The meeting will be open to public attendance.

October 4, 2016 – 81 FR 68461-68462 – NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION – Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards (ACRS); Meeting of the ACRS Subcommittee on Fukushima; Notice of Meeting – The ACRS Subcommittee on Fukushima will hold a meeting on October 19, 2016, Room T-2B1, 11545 Rockville Pike, Rockville, Maryland 20852. The meeting will be open to public attendance with the exception of portions that may be closed to protect information that is proprietary pursuant to 5 U.S.C. 552b(c)(4).

October 4, 2016 – 81 FR 68461 – NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION – Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards (ACRS) Meeting of the ACRS Subcommittee on Metallurgy & Reactor Fuels; Notice of Meeting – The ACRS Subcommittee on Metallurgy & Reactor Fuels will hold a meeting on October 21, 2016, Room T-2B1, 11545 Rockville Pike, Rockville, Maryland. The meeting will be open to public attendance.

October 4, 2016 – 81 FR 68462-68466 – NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION – Susquehanna Nuclear, LLC; Susquehanna Steam Electric Station, Units 1 and 2; Consideration of Indirect License Transfer – The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) received and is considering approval of an application filed by Susquehanna Nuclear, LLC (Susquehanna Nuclear), on June 29, 2016. The application seeks NRC approval of the indirect transfer of Susquehanna Nuclear’s interests in Renewed Facility Operating License Nos. NPF-14 and NPF-22 for Susquehanna Steam Electric Station, Units 1 and 2 (SSES), respectively, as well as the general license for the SSES Independent Spent Fuel Storage Installation (ISFSI), from the current parent holder, Talen Energy Corporation (Talen), to Riverstone Holdings, LLC (Riverstone). Because the application contains sensitive unclassified non-safeguards information (SUNSI) an order imposes procedures to obtain access to SUNSI for contention preparation.

October 4, 2016 – 81 FR 68467-68474 – 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 Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station, Units 1, 2, and 3; Columbia Generating Station; Hope Creek Generating Station and Salem Nuclear Generating Station, Unit Nos. 1 and 2; and Virgil C. Summer Nuclear Station, Unit No. 1. For each amendment request, the NRC proposes to determine that they involve no significant hazards consideration. Because each amendment request contains sensitive unclassified non-safeguards information (SUNSI) an order imposes
procedures to obtain access to SUNSI for contention preparation.

read more