August 24, 2016 – ARS Technica – Nuclear waste accident 2 years ago may cost more than $2 billion to clean up – The Los Angeles Times is estimating that an explosion that occurred at a New Mexico nuclear waste dumping facility in 2014 could cost upwards of $2 billion to clean up. Construction began on the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in New Mexico’s Carlsbad desert in the 1980s (PDF). The site was built to handle transuranic waste from the US’ nuclear weapons program. The WIPP had been eyed to receive nuclear waste from commercial, power-generating plants as well. According to the LA Times, the 2014 explosion at the WIPP was downplayed by the federal government, with the Department of Energy (DoE) putting out statements indicating that cleanup was progressing quickly. Indeed, a 2015 Recovery Plan insisted that “limited waste disposal operations” would resume in the first quarter of 2016. Instead, two years have passed since the incident without any indication that smaller nuclear waste cleanup programs around the US will be able to deliver their waste to the New Mexico facility any time soon.

August 24, 2016 – Frederick News-Post – 240 apartments planned for property near Fort Detrick – A contractor is building an apartment complex on a property between Fort Detrick’s Area B and Waverley Elementary School. S.L. Nusbaum Realty Co. has invested $50 million to develop the property on Waverley Drive, across the street from the school. Morgan-Keller Construction will build the 240-unit apartment complex on about 11 acres. The new apartment complex will be called “The Fred.” Construction is scheduled to be complete in the first quarter of 2018, though tenants may start moving in during summer 2017, Johnson said. Waverley View Investors sued the Army in 2014 for not cleaning up radiological and biological contamination, left from decades of research at Fort Detrick, at a nearby property it still owns on Shookstown Road. A U.S. District Court judge dismissed the $37 million lawsuit in 2015 because the developer failed to show the Army was responsible for environmental cleanup activities.

August 24, 2016 – Tri-City Herald – Hanford 324 Building topic of Aug. 24 meeting – Demolition of the Hanford 324 Building, which sits over a highly radioactive spill just north of Richland, will be discussed at 5:30 p.m. Aug. 24 at the Richland Public Library. The meeting will cover demolition of the building’s four hot cells and two underground vaults after the spill has been cleaned up, a process that could take seven years. More information is posted on the calendar at www.hanford.gov under each day of a comment period that concludes Sept. 9. Participants may attend via an online webinar.

August 24, 2016 – The Inquisitr – It Has Been Zero Days Since The Last Nuclear Catastrophe – Fukushima Daiichi is still pouring radioactive water into the Pacific ocean, the consequences of which we still don’t know in the short term and can’t predict in the long term. I’m pointing this out now because as the slander campaign against Green Party presidential nominee Jill Stein ramps up, her criticisms of nuclear power have been coming under fire by people who insist that it’s perfectly safe, sane, and healthy to have hundreds of these power plants dotting our globe when we don’t know when the next Level 7 nuclear event is coming, or how bad it will be. While the most recently-added disaster is literally still happening. TEPCO has been making its latest pathetic attempt at rectifying its crimes against humanity by trying to freeze a one-mile barrier around the four reactors damaged in the 2011 Japanese tsunami over the last five months. Unsurprisingly, it has failed, with the barrier doing “little or nothing” to prevent 300 tons of groundwater per day from becoming polluted by pouring through the highly radioactive meltdown zone. Three hundred tons of groundwater. Per day. Not in 2011. Every single day for the last five and-a-half years. This is currently happening, right now.

August 24, 2016 – Gazette & Herald – Frack-site gas not any danger, expert claims – THE leader of the gas and oil industry body has moved to reassure residents living near the site of an impending fracking operation in Ryedale. Concerns had been raised over the operation leading to a colourless and odourless radioactive gas linked to cancer being inhaled. However, professor Averil MacDonald, chairman of UK Onshore Oil and Gas, said the first monitoring measurements at the area surrounding Third Energy’s well at Kirby Misperton, suggested that radon concentration in the outdoor air was “close to the UK average”.

August 24, 2016 – Whatech – Radiopharmaceuticals market to reach $8,207 million, globally, by 2022 according to market forecasts – Radiopharmaceuticals are pharmaceutical formulations comprising radioactive isotopes that are used in diagnosis and therapeutics. They are simple and small substances that contain a radioactive substance that is used in the treatment of cancer and cardiac & neurological disorders.

August 24, 2016 – Midland Reporter-Telegram – Scan measures visceral fat in abdominal region – Midland Memorial Hospital is dedicated to delivering the highest-quality screening and diagnostic imaging services to the Midland area. Because of this, dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) is the most common method used as a clinical tool to investigate body composition outcomes.

August 24, 2016 – InfraCircle – India may auction 70 atomic mineral deposits in Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Kerala – With the department of atomic energy (DAE) submitting a list of around 70 atomic mineral blocks, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Kerala may shortly auction these deposits containing rare earth elements such as monazite. The plan is an integral part of the National Democratic Alliance government’s strategy for India’s resource security, wherein the respective state governments will bid out blocks which contains monazite below the threshold value. The ministry of mines on 18 July notified the Atomic Minerals Concession Rules, 2016, allowing for auction of specific mineral deposits such as monazite, ilmenite and rutile, which are not used for atomic energy production, but have high economic value. “We have received a communication from DAE that it has identified around 70 blocks spread over an area of 1,400 sq. km along the country’s coastline, which can be auctioned by the states,” said a senior government official on condition of anonymity.

August 24, 2016 – The Hankyoreh – North Korea may have reprocessed enough spent nuclear fuel for 2-4 nukes – If North Korea reprocessed spent nuclear fuel from its 5MW nuclear reactor at Yongbyon in the first half of this year, it probably extracted enough weapon-grade plutonium to make between two and four nuclear weapons, an American research institute estimates. The estimate was made on Aug. 22 by David Albright, director of the Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS), an American public policy institute, as part of remarks about a recent report by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and about North Korea’s claims that it had reprocessed spent nuclear fuel.

August 24, 2016 – Nanowerk – Atomic gyroscope design – Shrink rays may exist only in science fiction, but similar effects are at work in the real world at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). After successfully miniaturizing both clocks and magnetometers based on the properties of individual atoms, NIST physicists have now turned to precision gyroscopes, which measure rotation. The NIST team has demonstrated a compact atomic gyroscope design that could, with further development, be portable, low power, and accurate enough to be used for navigation (Applied Physics Letters, “Point source atom interferometry with a cloud of finite size”). Gyroscopes, traditionally based on mechanical components that spin or vibrate, are common in navigation applications and are increasingly used in consumer electronics such as smartphones. The new NIST device might find uses in applications requiring ultra-precise navigation with extreme size, weight and power limits, such as on spacecraft or submarines.

August 24, 2016 – Mumbai Mirror – DOT gets docs to bust phone tower radiation ‘myth’ – To dispel fears that cell phone towers create health hazards for people, the Department of Telecommunications (DOT) got together city-based radiologists and IIT professors to clarify the ‘myth’ surrounding the sensitive issue. Speaking to Mumbai Mirror after a public outreach programme in Mumbai on Tuesday, Telecom Secretary J S Deepak said that the government was set to launch a website to help citizens check radiation levels on a tower-by-tower basis, in exchange for a small fee. Explaining the importance of having fears regarding radiations from telecom towers dispelled, Deepak asked, “How can one expect a top class network without allowing for infrastructure like towers?” He has therefore asked the BMC to treat cellular towers as essential requirements.

August 24, 2016 – Asahi Shimbun – Film focuses on ‘irradiated’ cattle kept alive in Fukushima – For some cattle farmers in Fukushima Prefecture, the thought of destroying their herds is too painful to bear even if they are contaminated with radioactive fallout. A new documentary to be shown here this week records the plight of these farmers, who continue to look after their beef cattle in defiance of a government request to euthanize the animals. “I took on this project because I wanted to capture what is driving farmers to keep their cattle. For all the trouble it is worth, the animals are now worthless,” said Tamotsu Matsubara, a visual director who shot the documentary. Four years in the making, “Hibaku-ushi to Ikiru” (Living with irradiated cattle) is set for its first screening on Aug. 26 at a local community center in the city.

August 24, 2016 – Medscape – Do Cell Phones Cause Cancer? Maybe Yes and No – Does using a mobile phone increase the risk of developing brain cancer? As many times as it has been asked, there is seemingly no simple answer to that question, as studies continue to produce conflicting results. But the answer may lie somewhere in the middle between a yes and a no, according to Dariusz Leszczynski, PhD, adjunct professor of biochemistry, University of Helsinki, Finland. In an article on the Conversation website, Dr Leszczynski poses the intriguing question: What if both views are correct? It could be possible that mobile phone radiation itself does not cause cancer but that long-term exposure increases the risk of developing cancer when other causes are part of the picture.

August 24, 2016 – Daily Pakistan – Pakistan makes a strong pitch for Nuclear Supplier Group’s membership – Pakistan has made a strong case for the country’s membership of the Nuclear Suppliers Group, a 48-nation body that regulates the global trade in nuclear technology, telling the UN Security Council that the exemplary measures Islamabad had taken to strengthen nuclear safety establish its eligibility credentials. “We expect that a non-discriminatory, criteria-based approach is followed for extending NSG membership which strengthens the non-proliferation regime,” Ambassador Maleeha Lodhi, the Pakistan permanent representative to the UN, said on Tuesday. Speaking in a debate on “non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction,” said Pakistan had implemented a comprehensive export control regime, participated in the Nuclear Security Summit process, ratified the 2005 amendment to the Convention on Physical Protection of Nuclear Material, declared unilateral moratorium on further nuclear testing and reiterated its willingness to translate it into a bilateral arrangement on non-testing with India, all of which established its eligibility to become a NSG member.

August 24, 2016 – Business Tech – You have less than a week to comment on the nuclear plans Eskom tried to hide from you – Civil action group Outa has appealed to South Africans to comment on nuclear procurement plans, which the group says Eskom tried to sneak past the public participation process by gazetting them in a provincial documents. The National Nuclear Regulator (NNR) and Eskom are attempting to license new Nuclear construction sites by ‘hiding’ the notice in the Eastern Cape Provincial Gazette (rather than the National Gazette) and shortening the deadline to below the 30 days, as required by law, Outa said. This move his highly dubious, the group said, as legally, if the public fails to comment on a gazette it is deemed to constitute acceptance of the proposal, and thus cannot easily be challenged legally at a later stage. Eskom applied for a site licence to develop a nuclear reactor/power plant at Thyspunt (near Jeffrey’s Bay) and at the existing Koeberg (Duynefontein) nuclear site.

August 24, 2016 – The Korea Times – Does N. Korea have nuclear suicide-bomber corps? – North Korea’s military is said to have established a “nuclear backpack” corps whose members are trained to infiltrate South Korea to detonate a nuclear bomb. Radio Free Asia (RFA) reported the corps’ establishment on Wednesday, citing unidentified sources in North Hamgyong Province. Details of the unit are unknown and the credibility of sources is questionable. But what if the corps does exist? That means the North’s nuclear weapons technology has advanced to where it can reduce the size of a nuclear bomb to that of a backpack. A miniaturized nuclear weapon could be carried by ground soldiers or loaded onto a long-range missile, which would pose a grave security threat to South Korea and its allies, including the United States. The South Korean government does not believe the North’s nuclear technology has advanced to that level yet. RFA said the corps’ members did not know what the nuclear backpack looks like. “They receive training with three types of fake bombs,” RFA quoted an unidentified source. “The regime is telling the soldiers that backpacks are not designed to detonate nuclear bombs, but to spread radioactive substances over a wide area.”

August 24, 2016 – Newsmaker.com.au – Graphite Electrodes Market to Grow at CAGR of 10.16% to 2020 – Research analysts forecast the global graphite electrodes market to grow at a CAGR of 10.16% during the period 2016-2020. Graphite is a crystalline form of carbon, which is a semimetal and a native element mineral. It is considered as one of the allotropes of carbon, and has distinct structure and properties. Graphite is the highest grade of coal, and has stable form of carbon under standard conditions. It has characteristics of metal and non-metal with high thermal and electrical conductivity. It is highly refractory and chemically inert with less absorption of neutrons and X-rays that enables it to be used as the main material in nuclear applications.

August 24, 2016 – ArabianBusiness.com – Kuwait abandons plan to build nuclear plant – Kuwait’s Ministry of Electricity and Water (MEW) has cancelled earlier plans to obtain a license from the United Nations to build a nuclear power plant. The decision was made after studies proved the projects was too costly and impractical, according to the ministry, reported Kuwait Times. Instead, the ministry said it would invest in alternative projects related to solar energy and wind.

August 24, 2016 – ITV.com – Nuclear police fight for retirement age of 60 – The Civil Nuclear Constabulary has given their statement regarding the High Court ruling, where the Civil Nuclear Police Federation is seeking for the retirement age for its officers to be set at 60. “The Civil Nuclear Police Federation (CNPF) has brought a Judicial Review into whether the Civil Nuclear Constabulary (CNC) is a police force as defined under the Public Service Pensions Act 2013. “The Judicial Review will rule on this very specific point of statutory interpretation in relation to the Public Service Pensions Act 2013 and this ruling will provide clarity on the situation, allowing us to continue to develop new pension arrangements for CNC officers in accordance with the Public Service Pensions Act 2013, working closely with relevant government departments and the CNPF.”

August 24, 206 – Science World Report – First Look At USS Independence Shipwreck Photos Taken By Nautilus – The puzzle of the history of World War II is still being discovered with a new underwater study conducted by scientists on Tuesday morning showing a photograph of the USS Independence aircraft carrier. The team made an expedition to the bottom of the Pacific Ocean, just 30 miles off the coast of Northern California where the aircraft carrier rests peacefully. They searched for the623-foot-long shipwreck sitting peacefully on Half Moon Bay. The expedition was made available on live broadcast as they travel 2,600 feet under the water. The telecast was open for viewers at nautiluslive.org and ended on Tuesday afternoon, as per the report in Mercury News. The team scanned the ship and confirmed it is safe for humans to get near since it shows negative of any radioactive materials since much of its radioactivity was lost during its early days. They’re very pleased that the ship is submerged below the ocean because water acted as an effective buffer to shield it from any radioactive material. “Any radioactivity will not penetrate water more than an inch or two inches,” Delgado added. He is also among the researchers who unlocked the secrets of The Titanic and plans to pursue a career of exploration and share the wonders of the world as he discovers it.

August 24, 2016 – The Beijinger – Was Your Beijing Sushi Nuked in Japan’s Fukushima Meltdown? – When we read the Economist’s hypothetical piece on a radioactive prawn ending Kim Jong Un, and leading to changes in the geopolitical relations between the two Koreas, we didn’t realize this situation was perhaps more likely than we had previously thought. Or dared to hope. Adding to the list of food scandals in China for us to worry about, there are now warnings of potentially radioactive seafood brought over from China’s most famous historical nemesis: Japan. This week, 14 people were detained in Shandong for smuggling frozen seafood into China, some of it hailing from waters near Fukushima prefecture, the Global Times reported. Seafood imports from the prefecture have been banned by China following the Tōhoku earthquake and resulting nuclear disaster in 2011.

August 23, 2016 – 81 FR 57442-57446 – NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION – List of Approved Spent Fuel Storage Casks: Holtec International HI-STORM Flood/Wind Multipurpose Canister Storage System, Amendment No. 2 – The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is amending its spent fuel storage regulations by revising the “List of Approved Spent Fuel Storage Casks” to include Amendment No. 2 to Certificate of Compliance (CoC) No. 1032 for the Holtec International (Holtec) HI-STORM Flood/Wind (FW) Multipurpose Canister (MPC) Storage System. Amendment No. 2 adds new fuel types to the HI-STORM FW MPC Storage System, includes new criticality calculations, updates an existing fuel type description, and includes changes previously incorporated in Amendment No. 0 to CoC No. 1032, Revision 1. In addition, Amendment No. 2 makes several other changes as described in Section IV, “Discussion of Changes,” in the SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION section of this document.

August 23, 2016 – 81 FR 57497-57499 – NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION – List of Approved Spent Fuel Storage Casks: Holtec International HI-STORM Flood/Wind Multipurpose Canister Storage System, Amendment No. 2 – The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is proposing to amend its spent fuel storage regulations by revising the “List of Approved Spent Fuel Storage Casks” to add Amendment No. 2 to the Certificate of Compliance (CoC) No. 1032 for the Holtec International (Holtec) HI-STORM Flood/Wind (FW) Multipurpose Canister (MPC) Storage. Amendment No. 2 adds new fuel types to the HI-STORM FW MPC Storage System, includes new criticality calculations, updates an existing fuel type description, and includes changes previously incorporated in Amendment No. 0 to CoC No. 1032, Revision 1, and revises CoC Condition No. 8 to provide additional clarity and guidance.

August 23, 2016 – 81 FR 57629-57632 – NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION – Virginia Electric and Power Company; North Anna Power Station Independent Spent Fuel Storage Installation; Renewal of Special Nuclear Materials License – The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is considering an application for the renewal of Special Nuclear Materials (SNM) License No. SNM-2507, which currently authorizes Virginia Electric and Power Company (Dominion) to receive, possess, transfer, and store spent fuel from North Anna Power Station (NAPS), Units 1 and 2, in the NAPS Independent Spent Fuel Storage Installation (ISFSI). The renewed license would authorize Dominion to continue to store spent fuel in the NAPS ISFSI for an additional 40 years from June 30, 2018, the expiration date of the original license.

August 23, 2016 – NextBigFuture.com – Will A President Hillary Clinton Close Down Nuclear Power Plants? – No. In fact, Clinton generally supports nuclear energy. She does not want any nuclear power plants to close prematurely, particularly the New York Indian Point plant. Clinton has said that “rapidly shutting down our nation’s nuclear power fleet puts ideology ahead of science and would make it harder and costlier to build a clean energy future”, agreeing with EPA chief Gina McCarthy and leading climate scientist Dr. James Hansen. Clinton opposes the Yucca Mountain nuclear repository and supports the Blue Ribbon Commission’s recommendations for our nuclear future.

August 23, 2016 – Daily Mail – China’s latest food scare: 5,000 TONNES ‘radioactive seafood’ are imported by gang of smugglers from polluted Japanese waters – Thousands of tonnes of potentially corrupted and dangerous seafood products have been imported into China over the past couple of years, according to investigators, raising significant health fears. Illegal smugglers allegedly brought in around 5,000 tonnes of contraband seafood from Japan to sell cheaply since 2014, much of it sourced from near the site of the Fukushima nuclear disaster, according to People’s Daily Online. Customs officers in Qingdao, Shandong province, east China, revealed on August 21 that they have seized a large quantity of scallops, king crabs and fish which was being imported by vans licensed in south-west China’s Guangxi province.

August 23, 2016 – Punjab News Express – Shadow over nationwide Radiologist’s strike, Sonologists not joining – Despite the strike call by the Radiologists association, the sonologists who run 70% of the scan centres shall continue working normally. Owing to bitterness amongst the two associations of Radiologists and Sonologists, public will be saved from suffering heat otherwise directed towards government. The Indian Radiological and Imaging Association (IRIA) had given a call of indefinite strike and paralyzing the ultrasound and other radiology work from September 1, 2016. The anguish of Radiologists body is over the fact that talks between radiologists and the union health ministry on amendments of the PC-PNDT Act had failed. According to the radiologists, they continue to face harsh punishments as well as harassment at the hands of authorities, even for minor clerical errors.

August 23, 2016 – Northern California News – E/V Nautilus to carry out first visual survey of WW-II era naval ship – Expedition ship E/V Nautilus will start a cruise from Monday, August 22, to study the Greater Farallones National Marine Sanctuary (GFNMS) and nearby sanctuary water. In this quest, the vessel will also carry out the first visual survey of the USS Independence, a World War II-era aircraft carrier that was intentionally sunk off San Francisco in 1951. The Nautilus will also live telecast of the survey from 7 to 9 pm ET. In 2015, NOAA has mapped the wreckage with the help of autonomous underwater vehicles. Members involved in the mission have affirmed that the ship will also be imaged for photomosaic and microbathymetry data. NOAA scientists were of the view that the Independence is present 2,600 feet of water off California’s Farallon Islands, but then also it is intact. As per the scientists, the ship’s its hull and flight deck are completely visible. About Independence, it has operated from November 1943 through August 1945 in the central and western Pacific. It was one of the more than 90 vessels present as a target fleet for the Bikini Atoll atomic bomb tests in 1946.

August 23, 2016 – Proactive Investors – NexGen Energy continues to hit high grade uranium near Arrow – NexGen Energy Ltd (CVE:NXE) hailed drill results from multiple holes at the new area 180m southwest of its Arrow deposit on the Rook 1 property in the Athabasca basin, Saskatchewan, which have hit significant high grade uranium. Today’s results are from ten holes from the recently completed winter 2016 drilling program, all of which contained mineralisation. Chief executive of NexGen Leigh Curyer said: “These results confirm the significant expansion potential of Arrow at the 180 m southwest area.

August 23, 2016 – Financial Express – Indore administration’s idea to curb accidents: Stick radium strips on cow horns – In a bid to curb accidents due to vehicles’ collision with stray cows wandering on the streets and roads, Indore administration has come up with an unique idea. The Indore Municipal Corporation with the help of some groups, has started sticking radium strips on cows’ horns and neck belts. These strips glow in the dark and help alert the riders and drivers about the presence of cows on the roads. The riders, after recognising the cow’s presence, may break or turn in time to avoid collision.

August 23, 2016 – Space.com – Probes in Orbit Spot Radiation Belt Zap from the Sun – A probe swinging around Earth through the Van Allen radiation belts was able to pick out near-light-speed electrons following a powerful geomagnetic storm, providing a rare look into the interaction between the belts and the space weather event. A new NASA video explores the shocking phenomenon. The probe witnessed the aftermath of what NASA called “the greatest geomagnetic storm of the preceding decade,” when the sun expelled a burst of charged particles, called a coronal mass ejection, toward Earth in 2015. The interplanetary zap hit Earth’s radiation belts right when a NASA probe was passing through, offering a rare glimpse of the event’s impact.

August 23, 2016 – PhysOrg – Researchers make proton radiation in cancerous tissue visible using ultrasound technology – Using ultrasound technology, physicists from the Munich-Centre for Advanced Photonics make proton radiation in cancerous tissue visible. In future, the irradiation of tumors with protons could become more precise. Medical physicists from the Munich-Centre for Advanced Photonics (MAP) at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität (LMU), together with physicists from the Technical University (TUM), the Helmholtz Zentrum München (HMGU) and the Universität der Bundeswehr München (UniBWM) have combined conventional ultrasound technology with proton irradiation of a tumor. Using ionoacoustic technology they developed, they are able to observe the action of proton beams in real time via ultrasound. A large number of tumors can be treated with radiation consisting of protons (positively charged hydrogen atoms), which attack and destroy the cancer cells of the tumor. However, it is crucial that the protons attack and kill only cancerous cells while sparing the surrounding healthy tissue. Doctors must therefore direct the energy of the protons precisely within the tumor in order to have maximum impact on the tumor cells.

August 23, 2016 – Your Nuclear News – 2 million-pound CA20 module safely lifted into Vogtle Unit 4 nuclear island – Georgia Power announced today the completion of another major milestone in the construction of Plant Vogtle Units 3 and 4 near Waynesboro, Ga. On Saturday, the project team successfully placed the CA20 module into the Unit 4 nuclear island. Weighing nearly two million pounds, or 1,000 tons, and towering more than five stories tall, the module is the heaviest lift at the project so far this year. With a footprint of approximately 67 feet long by 47 feet wide, the critical module will house various plant components, including the used fuel storage area. It was lifted into place using a 560-foot tall heavy lift derrick, one of the largest cranes in the world.

August 23, 2016 – Union of concerned Scientists – UCS Causes Meltdowns at US Nuclear Reactors (no, really) – You won’t see it on our website. You won’t find it in materials we mail out to our members. You won’t hear it in the webinars we hold for prospective donors. But UCS caused a meltdown at a U.S. nuclear power reactor. Well, that’s only half the story. UCS caused meltdowns at two U.S. nuclear power reactors. In our defense, they (being the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) and the nuclear industry, started it. We only finished it. In March 1996, I still worked in the nuclear industry. Walking through the Charlotte airport, I passed a newsstand with a front window display of four rows by six columns of the current TIME magazine. Two dozen George Galatis faces looked out at me. I’d met George the previous year because we both shared concerns about spent fuel pools in boiling water reactors (Millstone Unit 1 in his case, Susquehanna in mine) and had encountered a Rhett Butler reaction by plants owners and the NRC to the safety concerns (frankly, they just didn’t give a d**n). Eric Pooley’s article in TIME about the NRC’s nonchalance could not be ignored by the federal government any more than I could have failed to notice a window full of Georges that day in Charlotte.

August 23, 2016 – New Europe – As world retreats from nuclear power, Russia pushes faster reactors – In August, a Russia prototype – BN-800 nuclear power reactor started to work at 100% capacity for the first time while an innovative Russian Generation III+ reactor has been connected to the national grid. On August 17, Unit 4 of the Beloyarsk nuclear power plant with BN-800 fast neutron reactor, which should become the most powerful prototype of the commercial reactors of this type, started operating at 100% power for the first time, State Atomic Energy Corporation Rosatom said in a press release. Thus begins the procedure of comprehensive testing of the unit at its rated power. This procedure is a major and final condition in preparation for the delivery of power in commercial operation. During the 15-day comprehensive test the unit will have to confirm that it is able to consistently run at the rated power load in accordance with the design parameters, without deviation.

August 23, 2016 – Interfax-Ukraine – Energoatom seeks to finance building of spent nuclear fuel facility via issue of bonds in U.S. – National Nuclear Generating Company Energoatom seeks to finance building of the centralized spent nuclear fuel storage facility via the issue of securities on the U.S. stock market with the help of Bank of America Merrill Lynch. Energoatom announced the start of negotiations with Bank of America Merrill Lynch regarding coordination of due diligence, drafting preliminary financing conditions, cooperation with OPIC in registering the insurance policy and preparation of documents for the issue of the bonds. The expected cost of the agreement between Energoatom and Bank of America Merrill Lynch is $1.5 million.

August 23, 2016 – Syracuse.com – Companies ask regulators to approve sale of FitzPatrick nuclear plant – The companies involved in the $110 million sale of FitzPatrick nuclear plant have asked New York regulators to approve the transaction by Nov. 18, saying the deal could fall apart without prompt regulatory approval. Entergy Corp., the current owner, and Exelon Corp., the buyer, filed a petition Monday asking the state Public Service Commission to approve the sale. They also will seek approvals soon from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, the IRS and other agencies. The sale will be automatically canceled, unless Entergy and Exelon mutually agree to move ahead, if PSC approval and other conditions are not met by Nov. 18, according to a copy of the sales agreement provided to state regulators.

August 23, 2016 – Richmond Register – Estill citizens group wants say in landfill settlement – When state officials take action on the illegal dumping of low-level radioactive fracking waste at an Estill County landfill, the local citizens group wants a “seat at the table.” “The Concerned Citizens of Estill County are not satisfied with the plans by the Energy and Environmental Cabinet to allow mere comments on agreements made between the Cabinet and Advanced Disposal Services,” the group said in a letter to Energy and Environment Cabinet Sec. Charles Snavely. Advanced Disposal Services owns the Estill landfill where 2,000 tons of radioactive waste was illegally dumped.

August 23, 2016 – Guam Daily Post – Indigenous Australians fight nuclear dump plan on sacred land – Enice Marsh remembers the black clouds of “poison stuff” that billowed from the northwest after British atomic bomb tests in the 1950s spread fallout across swathes of South Australia. Now a new kind of radioactivity could head to her ancestral home in the remote Flinders Ranges – a nuclear waste dump. “To me, it feels like a death penalty,” said Marsh, 73, standing in the cemetery of the outback town of Hawker, where many of her relatives are buried under red earth. “We are one big family and the land also is family to us. We care for the land just in the same way we care for our family.” South Australia is at the heart of a debate over the nation’s nuclear future that highlights a familiar tension between quick economic gain and long-term custodianship of land occupied by Aboriginal people for more than 50,000 years.

August 23, 2016 – Food Safety News – Hong Kong still testing food imports for Fukushima’s radiation – More than five years ago on Friday, March 11, 2011, the Great East Japan Earthquake with a magnitude of 9.0 set off a large tsunami sending a 50-foot wall of water over three Fukushima Daiichi reactors. Three of the nuclear cores melted down in the next three days. About 1,600 miles away on the next day, Saturday, March 12, 2011, the Center for Food Safety (CFS) in Hong Kong began stepped up surveillance of fresh foods including milk, vegetables and fruits, imported from Japan for radiation testing. Eleven days later, on Wednesday, March 23, 2011, CFS discovered three samples imported from Japan with radioactivity levels exceeding those considered to be safe by international Codex Alimentarius Commission. CFS is a unit of the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department of Hong Kong’s City government, which is part of China. The CFS continues to test those Japanese imports but hasn’t found any additional shipments with unsafe radiation levels.

August 23, 2016 – Los Alamos Daily Post – LANL Scientist David L. Clark Receives 2017 Glenn T. Seaborg Award For Nuclear Chemistry – Los Alamos National Laboratory chemist David L. Clark has been selected as the 2017 recipient of the Glenn T. Seaborg Award for Nuclear Chemistry, sponsored by the American Chemical Society Division of Nuclear Chemistry and Technology. “Dave is well-known for his breadth of accomplishment in actinide synthesis, characterization, and electronic structure elucidation, as well as the development of modern multi-method approaches to the characterization of complex actinide behaviors,” said Alan Bishop, Principal Associate Director of the Laboratory’s Science, Technology and Engineering directorate. Clark was honored for his innovative systematic studies of the fundamental chemistry of actinide elements using novel experimental techniques and giving new insights into chemical bonding of 5f electrons.

August 22, 2016 – 81 FR 56716 – NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION – Virginia Electric Power Company; Surry Power Station, Unit Nos. 1 and 2; Use of AREVA’s M5[supreg] Alloy Fuel Rod Cladding Material – The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is correcting a notice that was published in the Federal Register (FR) on August 3, 2016, regarding an exemption issued on July 27, 2016. This action is necessary to correct a typographical error in the SUMMARY section from “September 30, 2016,” to “September 30, 2015.”

August 22, 2016 – 81 FR 56704-56715 – NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION – South Carolina Electric & Gas Company and South Carolina Public Service Authority; Virgil C. Summer Nuclear Station, Unit 2 – The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is granting an exemption from the requirements of the Commission’s regulations that require a portion of the operating test, which is part of the operator licensing examination, to be administered in a plant walk-through. The NRC is also approving alternative examination criteria in response to a July 28, 2016, request from South Carolina Electric & Gas Company (SCE&G or facility licensee).

August 22, 2016 – Environmental Leader – The Granddaddy of the Climate Change Movement is Trying to Save Nuclear Energy in California – Nuclear power has a powerful advocate: James Hansen, the grandfather of the climate change movement. His latest move is to step on behalf of Pacific Gas & Electric’s Diablo Canyon, which is set to retire in 2025. He is asking California’s governor to have the public utility commission delay its decision to close the power plant until the state legislature can weigh in. “There are serious questions about whether this proposal is good for ratepayers, the environment and the climate,” Hansen and other prominent scientists have written to Governor Jerry Brown. California’s aim of cutting carbon emissions by 80 percent by mid Century won’t be reached if the 17,600 gigawatt hours that the plant cranks are retired. That’s 9 percent of the state’s electric generation and 21 percent of its low-carbon generation. “If Diablo closes it will be replaced mainly by natural gas, and California’s carbon dioxide emissions will rise,” the letter states.

August 22, 2016 – Las Vegas Review-Journal – Heller predicts new move to build Yucca Mountain after Reid retires – U.S. Sen. Dean Heller thinks there will be a new effort to kick-start the Yucca Mountain Project after one of its most powerful and outspoken opponents, Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, leaves office at the end of the year. Heller, speaking at a Las Vegas Metro Chamber of Commerce luncheon Thursday, said some members of Congress see the Nevadan’s exit as an opportunity to build the high-level nuclear waste repository in Nevada, 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas. Heller, R-Nev., said the push for the long-debated and hotly contested repository never really disappeared under the strong opposition from Reid, at one point considered the most powerful Democrat in the nation, and then President Barack Obama. Some current members of Congress are there “for only one purpose,” he said: to get the site up and running.

August 22, 2016 – PhysOrg – Improved tests of the weak nuclear force from beta decay – Studies of beta decay, which involves an electron and antineutrino being emitted from a nucleus, can reveal new properties of the weak nuclear force—one of the four fundamental forces in the universe. Scientists performed an exquisitely precise measurement of the angular distribution of neutrinos emerging from beta decay using a completely novel approach to the experimental challenge of revealing the extremely subtle imprint of tensor interactions, subtle processes that have long defied measurement due to their modest imprint on nuclear processes. These new measurements will help hone our theoretical understanding of the weak force; such understanding could one day lead to a deeper understanding of the inner workings of our sun and other stars as well as provide valuable insights for fusion energy. The results are consistent with current particle physics theories and set general limits on possible additional contributions to the weak nuclear force.

August 22, 2016 – Buffalo News – Department of Energy needs to provide more information on planned shipments of liquid nuclear waste – The bureaucrats in Washington should consider slowing down plans for truck transport of high-level liquid nuclear waste over the Peace Bridge and across Western New York’s highways on its way to a South Carolina processing facility. This process could start as early as September and, as opponents claim, without the proper environmental reviews and public comment. After years of protest, letters, legislation and finally a lawsuit, the U.S. Department of Energy has failed to satisfactorily address concerns. If, as the agency claims, the process poses no threat to the public from terrorism or environmental hazard, then it should have no problem addressing the point-by-point issues that have been brought by various groups and a congressman. Given the issues, the department owes Western New York – and all along the trucks’ potential routes – at least that much.

August 22, 2016 – WEKU 88.9 – Advocacy Group Wants Role in Landfill Cleanup Negotiations – A citizens group wants representation at the table as the state of Kentucky negotiates the clean-up of radioactive waste at a Central Kentucky landfill. The best a state official is offering is to hear citizen comments. Representatives with the Energy and Environmental Cabinet are talking with Advanced Disposal Services. It’s the owner of the Estill County landfill where 2,000 tons of radioactive waste was illegally dumped. Concerned Citizens of Estill County is asking that two of its members be included in negotiations. Mary Cromer is with the Appalachian Citizens’ Law Center. She says there needs to be transparency in the process and adds, so far that hasn’t happened. “There was an initial meeting with state officials back in March, but the state has pretty much been silent since then,” noted Cromer.

August 22, 2016 – Consumer Eagle – Perma Fix Environmental Services Inc Has Another Bullish Trade, Fundamental Global Investors Bought Stake! – Fundamental Global Investors filed with the SEC SC 13D/A form for Perma Fix Environmental Services Inc. The form can be accessed here: 000114420416120407. As reported in Fundamental Global Investors’s form, the filler as of late owns 7.1% or 817,016 shares of the Industrials–company. Perma Fix Environmental Services Inc stake is a new one for the and it was filed because of activity on August 3, 2016. We feel this shows Fundamental Global Investors’s positive view for the stock.

August 22, 2016 – OpenPR – Nuclear Medicine Market to Cross US$ 4.5 Billion by 2021 – Market Research Engine has published a new report titled as “Nuclear Medicine/Radiopharmaceuticals Market by Type (Diagnostic (SPECT – Technetium, PET – F-18), Therapeutic (Beta Emitters – I-131, Alpha Emitters, Brachytherapy – Y-90) & by Application (Oncology, Thyroid, Cardiology) – Global Forecasts to 2021”. The nuclear medicine market is expected to exceed more than US$ 4.5 billion by 2021 growing at around 9.0% CAGR for the given forecast period. Nuclear medicine is special category in medical branch used for diagnosis and treatment of disease in a safe and painless way. Nuclear medicine contain radioactive material which combined called as radiopharmaceutical. The small quantity of radiopharmaceutical is given into human body in the form of injection or swallowing. It goes to specific location of a body where there could be disease or abnormality. It emits radiation called gamma rays and contains gamma camera which helps nuclear medicine physician to see inside the body. It takes pictures of inner body which helps physician to diagnose patients’ disease.

August 22, 2016 – Optics.org – NASA mission to map asteroid using lidar and spectrometers – A NASA mission to investigate an asteroid in unprecedented detail with a variety of photonics-based equipment is set to launch September 8 from Cape Canaveral in Florida. Kitted out with a lidar altimeter, visible-IR spectrometers and a trio of cameras, the “OSIRIS-REx” mission (short for Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security-Regolith Explorer) is aiming to generate new insights into planet formation and the origin of life on Earth. Arizona scientists are heavily involved in the mission, with Dante Lauretta from the University of Arizona in Tucson heading things up as principal investigator. “The launch of OSIRIS-REx is the beginning a seven-year journey to return pristine samples from asteroid Bennu,” said Lauretta. “The team has built an amazing spacecraft, and we are well-equipped to investigate Bennu and return with our scientific treasure.”

August 22, 2016 – The Guardian – Radon from fracking will not be a threat – In his letter (11 August) Dr David Lowry raised the issue of radon and shale gas quoting studies in Pennsylvania and sought to reinforce his own views by quoting from a study undertaken by Public Health England in 2014. Let me quote the same study, which states, “caution is required when extrapolating experiences in other countries to the UK since the mode of operation, underlying geology and regulatory environment are likely to be different” and “the PHE position remains, therefore, that the shale gas extraction process poses a low risk to human health if properly run and regulated”.

August 22, 2016 – PhysOrg – Scientists create method to obtain the most precise data for thermonuclear reactors – Researchers from the National Research Nuclear University, working as part of an IAEA project, have created the most accurate method to date of obtaining the data needed to reliably operate a thermonuclear reactor. The results were published in the Journal of Nuclear Materials. Thermonuclear facilities attempt to generate electricity using thermonuclear fusion reactions like those that drive the sun. The largest thermonuclear fusion project is ITER, which is currently under construction in France. Constructing thermonuclear reactors poses a number of challenges. For example, choosing the material for the most energetically tense reactor elements, which are in contact with thermonuclear plasma, is difficult. Tungsten is a material of interest, though specialists are still unsure how this metal will behave in the conditions of a working fusion reactor. In particular, researchers are interested in tungsten’s interaction with one of the components of thermonuclear fuel, the radioactive hydrogen isotope tritium. One potential problem is defects of plasma-facing reactor walls caused by tritium radiation.

August 22, 2016 – High Country News – Nuclear power divides California’s environmentalists – At the end of June, nearly 100 environmentalists marched through the streets of Oakland, California, stopping to picket an unlikely foe: the Sierra Club. While most of their comrades waved signs outside the concrete building’s expansive front windows, a small group took the elevators upstairs to the main office and began chanting: “We’re on a mission to stop all emissions!” “We love you, and we’re behind you,” declared Eric Meyer, organizer of the march. “But you’re wrong about one thing: nuclear power.” The protest followed Pacific Gas & Electric’s announcement that it would close the Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant in 2025. PG&E executives said it would be too expensive to install the new cooling towers and seismic upgrades needed to keep it open. Both the Sierra Club and the Natural Resources Defense Council pushed for the closure because they say that there’s no long-term disposal method for nuclear waste, and the plants consume too much water. But environmentalists like Meyer argue that Diablo Canyon is currently California’s single largest producer of carbon-free power, and closing it will derail the state’s ambitious efforts to phase out fossil fuels. California already leads the nation in renewable energy, with 22 percent of its electricity coming from geothermal, wind and solar. By 2030, it hopes to more than double that figure.

August 22, 2016 – Los Angeles Times – Nuclear accident in New Mexico ranks among the costliest in U.S. history – When a drum containing radioactive waste blew up in an underground nuclear dump in New Mexico two years ago, the Energy Department rushed to quell concerns in the Carlsbad desert community and quickly reported progress on resuming operations. The early federal statements gave no hint that the blast had caused massive long-term damage to the dump, a facility crucial to the nuclear weapons cleanup program that spans the nation, or that it would jeopardize the Energy Department’s credibility in dealing with the tricky problem of radioactive waste. But the explosion ranks among the costliest nuclear accidents in U.S. history, according to a Times analysis. The long-term cost of the mishap could top $2 billion, an amount roughly in the range of the cleanup after the 1979 partial meltdown at the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant in Pennsylvania.

August 22, 2016 – London School of Business & Finance – Wind and solar power could challenge nuclear energy – One of Hinkley Point’s main advantages is offering continuous, “on-all-the-time” power. However, technology and its lower costs may be erasing the need for the plant to be built. One of those technologies is hi-tech battery storage. Currently being researched are lithium-air, sodium-ion and redox flow batteries. These all offer better energy options if developed, and will be cheaper than electricity. Their potential for energy storage will address complaints that wind and solar are intermittent. The green industry also believes that renewables are cheaper and that they will make the Hinkley project unnecessary. Solarcentury (a solar panel maker) Founder, Jeremy Leggett, said: “Finally the message is getting through that Hinkley, and indeed nuclear, make no sense today simply because wind and solar are cheaper. If we accelerate renewables in the UK, we can get to 100% renewable power well before 2050.”

August 22, 2016 – Sputnik International – Russia Unique in Being Able to Use Fast Breeder Reactors in Nuclear Industry – Russia is the only country able to introduce fast breeder reactors into the nuclear industry, Boris Vasiliev, chief designer of the Fast Neutron Reactors Department in Rosatom’s Afrikantov Experimental Design Bureau for Mechanical Engineering (OKBM Afrikantov) said. “Currently, Russia is the only country in the world able to introduce fast neutron reactors into the nuclear power industry. This is because only in Russia have studies of all stages of BN technologies been completed… I must mention the initiative by Russian nuclear experts to develop leading fast breeder reactors under a project named Proryv [Breakthrough]. The main aim of the next stage is to create the pilot and demonstration reactor [called] BREST-300. If it works successfully, it will give us an additional opportunity to develop components of fast breeder reactors,” Vasiliev told RIA Novosti in an interview.

August 22, 2016 – Hartford Courant – Kevin Rennie: Our Bipartisan Battle Against Nuclear Waste Dump – Last week, I wrote about the treachery accompanying the passage of the income tax I witnessed as a state representative 25 years ago this month. It was not, however, the only issue that commanded my attention that year. At a time when cynicism is flourishing, it’s important to hear this story of citizens and their representatives defeating a government plan thought to have been unstoppable. On June 10, 1991, a state agency announced that it had chosen three prospective sites in East Windsor, Ellington and South Windsor for a nuclear waste dump. John Larson, Ed Graziani and I were the legislators for the three towns. With nearby representatives Joe Courtney and Nancy Wyman, we became an unlikely and united bipartisan quintet in fighting this disorienting move by a government agency, the Low Level Hazardous Management Service. An ill-considered federal law required states to take more responsibility for disposing of the radioactive waste generated within their borders. Connecticut and New Jersey had entered into an agreement that required each state to build a facility for storing certain types of radioactive waste.

August 22, 2016 – Cape Cod Times – Challenge to nuclear waste facility heads to trial – After two years of waiting, neighbors of Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station will go to trial Monday in state Land Court to challenge construction of a massive storage facility for nuclear spent fuel on plant property. The lawsuit, filed in 2014 by a handful of residents who live within two miles of the plant, alleges that the nuclear waste facility will affect property values. The town of Plymouth improperly granted permits to Entergy, Pilgrim’s owner-operator, in 2013, they say. They contend a special permit process with a public hearing should have been required. Defendants in the case are Entergy; Plymouth Building Commissioner Paul McAuliffe, who issued a building permit for a concrete pad where massive dry casks would store spent fuel; and members of the Plymouth Zoning Board of Appeals, who upheld the building commissioner’s actions.

August 22, 2016 – Pittsburgh Post-Gazette – Clean energy doesn’t require a nuclear renaissance – Edward H. Klevans (“Nuclear Power’s Time Has Come,” Aug. 12 Perspectives) praises New York state for providing clean energy credits to keep its otherwise uncompetitive nuclear plants running and finds “an overwhelming case for […] reliance on, and expansion of, America’s nuclear energy infrastructure.” Market reality suggests a limited and temporary role for nuclear power. In California, Pacific Gas & Electric Co. announced in June that it will phase out Diablo Canyon’s two nuclear reactors over nine years, because they’re too costly to operate and not necessary. Its output will be replaced entirely by efficiency and renewables, burning no fossil fuels, emitting no carbon and costing $1 billion less (net present value through 2044) than continuing to run the high-performing plant (estimated savings according to the National Resource Defense Council).

August 22, 2016 – Amarillo Globe News – Officials, dignitaries gather for Pantex groundbreaking – National dignitaries gathered Thursday for the groundbreaking of the new Pantex Administrative Center, which will house up to 1,100 office employees. “It’s pretty remarkable that this will take roughly a third of the workforce at Pantex that work in conditions that, if anything, are unsure,” said U.S. Secretary of Energy Dr. Ernest Moniz. “It’s a new chapter, a chapter of modernization. It’s already been said that we have a great challenge ahead of us in terms of the life extension of our (nuclear stockpile).” The 343,000-square-foot building is the culmination of 16 months of planning by Consolidated Nuclear Security, the company that manages the Pantex Plant, and the National Nuclear Security Administration. Construction is expected to be finished in spring of 2018. The building will be located at the intersection of Farm-to-Market Road 2373 and U.S. Highway 60.

August 22, 2016 – AlterNet – The Toxic Legacy of Racism and Nuclear Waste Is Very Much Still With Us in Los Alamos – The air is crisp, cool and fresh. The sun is warm, but not too much. Residents picnic at a pond complete with cruising swans and ducks. The vistas of the Jemez Mountains and the mesas of the Pajarito Plateau are breathtaking. Flowers are in bloom. Everything is green. The historical structures are quaint and rustic, ranch-style houses made of wood and corrugated tin. The city is quiet and peaceful, a perfect slice of small-town America. It’s difficult at times to remember that this is the part of the world where the nuclear bomb was invented. It’s hard to picture the hundreds of thousands who died in Hiroshima and Nagasaki while standing in this environment, filling your lungs with fresh air; difficult to imagine the sounds of the celebrations that ensued after receiving the news via telegram from Truman while you listen to the wind rustle through the trees. No one could hear the screams of burning children halfway across the world from all the way up here.

August 22, 2016 – Deseret News – For future nuclear electric power, small is the answer – Small modular nuclear reactors, combined with renewables, are the only opportunity we have to achieve such reductions in carbon emissions and control global warming. On the horizon are U.S.-designed small modular nuclear reactors (SMRs) that range from 50 megawatts to 300 megawatts electrical power output. Like renewables (wind and solar), SMRs produce no air pollution or global warming gases, but SMRs are also capable of generating base load electrical power on demand. Almost 50 companies are creating designs for SMRs using 21st-century technology and enhanced features. These designs include modularity, efficient factory construction, rapid siting and exceptional safe operation. Very important is that SMRs are less expensive and easier and faster to site and build than conventional 1,200-megawatt nuclear plants. Reliance on renewables as now pursued by Germany has resulted in 37 cents per kilowatt-hour in U.S. dollars compared with France (75 percent nuclear base) at 17 cents per kilowatt-hour and Utah at 11 cents per kilowatt-hour.

August 22, 2016 – SF Gate – Scientists to examine WWII carrier that survived nuclear tests – Scientists aboard an ocean research ship moored at the Embarcadero are preparing to probe the sunken remains of an American aircraft carrier that was blasted by atom bombs at Bikini during the first postwar tests of the nation’s nuclear firepower. Marine archaeologists and biologists aboard the E/V Nautilus — its initials stand for Exploration Vessel — said Thursday that they will use a remotely operated underwater vehicle to take the first new photographs of the Independence, the famed World War II aircraft carrier that survived the first Bikini atom bomb tests in the Pacific in 1946 and was later used to train sailors for radiation readiness at Hunters Point. The ship was finally sunk by the Navy in 1951 and now lies in 2,600 feet of water near the borders of the Monterey Bay and Greater Farallones national marine sanctuaries.

August 22, 2016 – KREM 2 – Legal papers depict Hanford managers eager to cut back on safety – Legal documents filed by the Washington state attorney general, the advocacy group Hanford challenge and the local 598 pipefitters union detail a trail of decisions by managers at Hanford that, according to the records, explain why a record number of workers have been exposed to suspected chemical vapors and are suffering adverse health effects from them in the last three months. The documents paint a picture of a government contractor eager to cut back on safety protections for the workforce, even during some of the most hazardous work conducted in years. Then, the attorney general and Hanford challenge contend managers didn’t respond accordingly, but instead looked the other way as workers began getting sick in record numbers.

August 22, 2016 – USNRC Press Release (08/19/16) – NRC Makes Yucca Mountain Hearing Documents Publicly Available – The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has made nearly 3.7 million documents from the adjudicatory hearing on the proposed nuclear waste repository at Nevada’s Yucca Mountain publicly available in the agency’s online documents database. The documents were formerly part of the Licensing Support Network (LSN) created to allow various parties and the public access to documents needed for the hearing on the Department of Energy’s request for a construction authorization for the repository. The NRC’s Atomic Safety and Licensing Boards had admitted nearly 300 contentions from various parties challenging aspects of DOE’s application. The LSN was shut down when the hearing was suspended in September 2011 after Congress reduced funding.