August 8, 2016 – 81 FR 52478-52482 – NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION – Massachusetts Institute of Technology; 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-986, which currently authorizes the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) to possess and use SNM for education, research, and training programs. The renewed license would authorize MIT to continue to possess and use SNM for an additional 10 years from the date of issuance. The NRC proposes to determine that the renewal involves no significant hazards consideration. Because this application contains sensitive unclassified non-safeguards information (SUNSI) an order imposes procedures to obtain access to SUNSI for contention preparation.

August 8, 2016 – 81 FR 52483-52484 – NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION – Request To Amend a License To Export Radioactive Waste – Pursuant to Title 10 of the Code of Federal Regulations (10 CFR) 110.70 (b) “Public Notice of Receipt of an Application,” please take notice that the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has received the following request for an export license amendment. A copy of the request is available electronically through the Agencywide Documents Access and Management System, and can be accessed through the Public Electronic Reading Room link http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm.html at the NRC Homepage. A request for a hearing or petition for leave to intervene may be filed within 30 days after publication of this notice in the Federal Register (FR). Any request for hearing or petition for leave to intervene shall be served by the requestor or petitioner upon the applicant, the office of the General Counsel, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555; the Secretary, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555; and the Executive Secretary, U.S. Department of State, Washington, DC 20520.

August 8, 2016 – 81 FR 52483 – NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION – Omaha Public Power District; Fort Calhoun Station, Unit No. 1 – The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has granted the request of the Omaha Public Power District (the licensee) to withdraw its license amendment application dated August 31, 2015, as supplemented by letters dated December 23, 2015, and June 9, 2016, for a proposed amendment to Renewed Facility Operating License No. DPR-40. The proposed amendment would have revised the Fort Calhoun Station, Unit No. 1 (FCS), Updated Safety Analysis Report (USAR) to change the structural design methodology for Class I structures at FCS to use American Concrete Institute ultimate strength requirements, with the exception of the containment structure (cylinder, dome, and base mat), the spent fuel pool, and the foundation mats.

August 8, 2016 – 81 FR 52484-52485 – NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION – Request To Amend a License To Import Radioactive Waste – Pursuant to Title 10 of the Code of Federal Regulations (10 CFR) 110.70 (b) “Public Notice of Receipt of an Application,” please take notice that the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has received the following request for an import license amendment. A copy of the request is available electronically through the Agencywide Documents Access and Management System, and can be accessed through the Public Electronic Reading Room link http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm.html at the NRC Homepage. A request for a hearing or petition for leave to intervene may be filed within 30 days after publication of this notice in the Federal Register (FR). Any request for hearing or petition for leave to intervene shall be served by the requestor or petitioner upon the applicant, the office of the General Counsel, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555; the Secretary, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555; and the Executive Secretary, U.S. Department of State, Washington, DC 20520.

August 8, 2016 – Huffington Post – We Regret To Inform You That Cow Dung Will Not Save You From Radiation – In a recent interview with The Indian Express, Shankar Lal, president of Akhil Bharatiya Gau Sewa Sangh, an outfit associated with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), claimed that dung produced by Indian cows has the power to absorb harmful radiation. The 76-year-old sang praises of both cow dung and cow urine generously. “We drink cow urine and have extracts from her dung, which has kept me healthy even at the age of 76,” he said. “We make pregnant women eat cow dung and urine paste to ensure a normal delivery. We treat all deadly diseases with cow dung.” However, he insisted that the gobar (cow dung) and mutra (urine) should be of a desi cow, “not western monsters like Jersey or Holstein”. Their dung and milk, he claimed, “are nothing but poison”. While cow urine and dung may possibly have antiseptic properties, Lal made a more intriguing case for the use of the latter. He said he applies “fresh cow dung” on the back of his mobile phone to protect himself from harmful radioactive emissions from it. “If cow dung can treat cancer, why can’t it save us from a phone’s microwaves?” Thus went his logic.

August 8, 2016 – The Hill – Nuclear trade group shakes up leadership – The nuclear power industry’s Washington trade group is shaking up its leadership and consolidating numerous executive positions. The Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI) said Thursday that it’s consolidating its governmental affairs, communications and policy offices into one operation. Alex Flint, the group’s top lobbyist who has been there for a decade, will leave this fall, along with Scott Peterson, the head of the communications shop, who has worked for the NEI since it was formed in 1994. The NEI will look to hire a new leader for its external affairs operations. The moves come at a pivotal time for the nuclear industry, when many of the fewer than 100 reactors in the country are closing due to increasing costs and competition from cheap natural gas and only a small handful of new plants are being constructed or even planned.

August 8, 2016 – New York Daily News – Your very own dirty bomb: A do-it-yourself guide to a radioactive weapon – It could be mistaken for a page ripped from a script of the soon-to-be-rebooted TV terrorism thriller “24”: Undercover investigators working for the federal government’s chief watchdog agency source the building blocks of a radioactive dirty bomb. Right here, in the U.S. With hardly any trouble at all. Getting radioactive material is supposed to be tough. It requires getting a license from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which is supposed to require jumping through fail-safe hoops. But fewer than 10 people working for the Government Accountability Office set up a shell company, faked their credentials and got permission — via a Texas regulator deputized to give licenses without federal review — to line up shipments of enough toxic stuff to poison a city center.

August 8, 2016 – International Business Times – Neutrino Oscillation Anomaly May Explain Why There Is Something Rather Than Nothing – If our current understanding of the universe is correct, it should not even exist. The very fact that planets, stars and galaxies exist undercuts one of the most fundamental premises of particle physics — that the Big Bang, which created our universe 13.8 billion years ago, created equal amounts of matter and antimatter. If this really happened, it begs the question — why, given that matter and antimatter particles annihilate each other when they collide, is there something rather than nothing in the universe? Why do you and I exist when the laws of physics, as we know them, seem to dictate that the cosmos should be nothing but a wasteland strewn with leftover energy?

August 8, 2016 – MetroNews.ca – No more ‘Pokemon Go’ at Hiroshima atomic bomb memorial – It was a bit touch and go for Hiroshima officials, but the atomic bomb memorial park in the western Japanese city is now Pokemon No. The city had asked the developer of the popular “Pokemon Go” smartphone game to remove the creatures and sites that appeared in the park by last weekend, when a solemn annual ceremony was held to mark the anniversary of the atomic bombing that killed 140,000 people in the final days of World War II. The “Pokestops” and gyms, and the clumps of players that they attract, were gone by last Thursday, but the monsters that gamers try to catch were still popping up. The city sent an email inquiry to game developer Niantic, and got a response at 1:56 a.m. Saturday, just six hours before the start of the ceremony. “We were so relieved,” city official Tatsuya Sumida said. “We were worried if those ‘Pokemon’ were really going to go away in time.”

August 8, 2016 – South Washington County Bulletin – Web app tracks prevalence of radon in Washington County – A majority of Minnesota counties have high average levels of radon, according to a new online tool that tracks the prevalence of the odorless gas linked to thousands of lung cancer deaths in the U.S. each year. The Minnesota Department of Health collected radon data from 86,000 residential and commercial properties tested from 2010 to 2014, and found 67 of the state’s 87 counties have average radon levels at or greater than 4 pCi/L — the threshold at which the Environmental Protection Agency recommends mitigation measures. The data and an interactive map showing county radon levels can be found at https://apps.health.state.mn.us/mndata/radon.

August 8, 2016 – Lewiston Tribune – Bomb radiation said altering human species – Atomic radiation from exploded A-bombs is at work changing the human species all over the earth, and probably for the worse, according to a distinguished American scientist. He says there is no stopping this, that the change was going on slowly before the advent of the atomic age because of the effects of the earth’s natural radiation, and that the bombs already set off have simply made it worse. He adds that any more bombs will increase the undesirable changes. These views were given by Dr. A. H. Sturtevant, zoologist, before a meeting of the Pacific division of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Dr. Sturtevant, a specialist in genetics at the California Institute of Technology, spoke as the retiring president of the association. He is widely known abroad as well as at home.

August 8, 2016 – LobeLog – Time to Retire the Nuclear Football – Speculation about whether Donald Trump can be trusted with his finger on the nuclear “button”, should he be elected president, is a reminder that the world’s survival rests on a hair trigger. Contrary to popular belief, there is no actual button to be pushed. But the president of the United States goes nowhere without a briefcase (the “football”) containing a menu of targets and list of verification codes (the “biscuit”). Twenty-five years after the end of the Cold War,does it make sense to hold human existence hostage to the decision of one individual, acting alone, on a moment’s notice? To answer this question, we first need to consider the circumstances under which the use of nuclear weapons would ever be contemplated.

August 8, 2016 – Bloomberg News – Bulgaria May Restore Russian Gas Pipeline, Nuclear Plant – Bulgaria and Russia agreed to resurrect the canceled South Stream natural gas pipeline across the Black Sea and the Belene nuclear power plant as the Balkan country strives to reduce penalty payments over unfulfilled contracts awarded to Russia by international courts. Bulgaria and Russia agreed to set up working groups that will seek ways to resume work on the two energy projects, Prime Minister Boyko Borissov said on Saturday in the Black Sea city of Varna, according to an e-mailed statement. He spoke after a phone conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Aug. 5. Borissov has discussed the projects with the European Commission and they will be done in compliance with European Union rules, he said.

August 8, 2016 – New York Times – Thousands in Eastern Chinese City Protest Nuclear Waste Project – China’s efforts to expand its nuclear power sector suffered a backlash in one eastern seaboard city over the weekend, as thousands of residents took to the streets to oppose any decision to build a reprocessing plant in the area for spent nuclear fuel. The government of Lianyungang, a city in Jiangsu Province, tried to calm residents on Sunday, a day after thousands of people defied police warnings and gathered near the city center, chanting slogans, according to Chinese news reports and photographs of the protests shared online. They chanted “no nuclear fuel recycling project,” the state-run Global Times reported, citing footage from the scene. “It is unsafe to see another nuclear project coming and besieging us,” one resident told the paper.

August 8, 2016 – Syracuse.com – Instead of a nuclear subsidy, embrace a revenue-neutral carbon tax – A recent editorial supports the decision by the PSC to ratify Gov. Cuomo’s Clean Energy Standard — particularly the State’s goal of achieving a 50 percent mix of New York’s electricity from renewable energy sources by 2030. The editorial points out the advantage of particular nuclear subsidies for economic interests of Oswego County referring to them as “a bridge to a worthy public goal.” But in the absence of a longer term, more comprehensive policy that will result in reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, nuclear subsidies are not a bridge and may create a delay in taking real action to achieve the goals of the Clean Energy Standard. Continuing nuclear sourced power does prevent the substitution of fossil fuel sourced power temporarily but doesn’t lead toward 50 percent from renewable energy sources.

August 8, 2016 – Counter Punch – Wake Up: These Unneeded Instruments Can Wreck Mass Destruction – New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has recently advanced a clean energy plan which mandates that New York transition half of its energy needs to renewables by 2030. By regressive contrast, New York’s Public Service Commission (PSC) has approved enormous subsidies for three aging nuclear power plants―Ginna, Nine Mile Point and FitzPatrick―located in Upstate New York. Estimates of the costs of these subsidies range from $59 million to $658 million by 2023, with specialists such as Blair Horner of the New York Public Interest Research Group predicting that costs could grow to $8 billion. New York consumers will be covering the tab via their utility bills. Ginna and Nine Mile Point are owned by the Exelon Corporation, and Exelon has plans to purchase the FitzPatrick plant. You can be sure that Exelon is frothing at the mouth for this huge bailout that was approved without adequate public scrutiny. Approval of this plan gives New York State the not-so-honorable distinction of being one of the first states to bailout the aging nuclear industry in our increasingly green energy age. The long-coddled nuclear industry is hoping that other states will follow suit.

August 8, 2016 – NJSpotlight – New Jersey unlikely to follow New York’s subsidies of nuclear industry – Profitable nuclear-plant owner PSEG might like to be subsidized, but that’s unlikely to happen in the Garden State. New York this week handed lucrative subsidies to the nuclear industry to keep a trio of power plants upstate afloat, but New Jersey is unlikely to follow suit anytime soon. Subsidies, which in this case amount to $965 million over two years paid by electric customers, are also being sought in other states across the nation as the costs of operating nuclear units have made it difficult to compete economically with cheaper gas-fired plants. The New York system may serve a model for others wrestling with the question. Between 10 to15 nuclear power plants are at risk of closing in the near future and another half dozen already have closed, according to energy executives.

August 8, 2016 – WLTX 19 – USC Chemists Growing Crystals Store Nuclear Waste – A team of scientists at the University of South Carolina are using an $8 million federal grant to study safer ways to store nuclear waste within the structure of crystals. They have already grown crystals to be able to house Uranium within the atomic structures, and say the grant from the Department of Energy will allow them to develop a structure than can store various types of radioactive chemicals, including Plutonium. USC is also working collaboratively with the D.O.E.’s Savannah Riversite in Aiken to test on those materials housed at that nuclear waste facility.

August 8, 2016 – Eau Claire Leader-Telegram – Knight Life: Land purchase will ensure site where nuclear plant was once proposed will remain – I once went for a fishing trip and canoe ride with a top Xcel Energy official who told me — he didn’t intend his comments be made public at the time — that he didn’t think the company would sell the Tyrone property in Dunn County, despite requests from regional sportsman’s groups and environmentalists. Times have changed. On Wednesday the state Natural Resources Board approved the purchase of 991 acres of the property from Northern States Power Co. — a subsidiary of Xcel — that includes 18,000 feet of undeveloped shoreline. The land also incorporates a segment of a state bike trail and habitat of dry prairie, oak savanna, floodplain forest, pine plantations, a 10-acre lake, agricultural land and upland brush.

August 8, 2016 – Sputnik News – Delays During Reopening Nuclear Waste Plant Cost US Taxpayers $64M – The Department of Energy (DOE) did not follow all best practices in analyzing and selecting an alternative for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant’s (WIPP) new ventilation system. As a result, its analysis was not reliable and the alternative it selected in December 2015 may not best provide the needed capabilities at WIPP, the report noted. DOE’s WIPP is the only deep geologic repository for the disposal of US defense-related nuclear waste. In February 2014, waste operations were suspended following a truck fire and an unrelated radiological release, the report said.

August 8, 2016 – OH&S – GAO Faults Energy Department on WIPP Restart Process – The U.S. Government Accountability Office issued a report Aug. 4 on its examination of the U.S.Department of Energy’s process for resuming operations at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP), the transuranic waste disposal site outside of Carlsbad, N.M. Operations there have been suspended since two serious incidents in February 2014, a salt haul truck fire and a radiological release from a waste container, incidents that exposed workers to smoke and radiation. The GAO report says the resumption has seen a cost increase of about $64 million and a delay of nearly nine months partly because DOE did not follow all best practices in developing the cost and schedule estimates. In particular, its schedule did not include extra time, or contingency, to account for known project risks.

August 8, 2016 – Pueblo Chieftain – Rock cracked Cotter pipeline; contaminants contained at mill site – Cotter Corp. Uranium mill officials say a leak that dumped about 7,200 gallons of contaminated water on the mill property was caused by a rock that punctured a hole in a feeder line. The feeder line connects to the main pumpback pipeline above a Soil Conservation Service dam that helps prevent rainwater runoff from leaving the mill site. The pipeline carries contaminated water that seeps past the earthen dam and returns it to an impoundment. “When Cotter personnel excavated the area of the leak, a large rock was discovered above the feeder line. The rock had punctured the pipe, causing the leak,” said Stephen Cohen, Cotter Mill manager.

August 8, 2016 – Counter Punch – Whistleblower Retaliation Alive and Well at Hanford – It’s getting real out at Hanford in eastern Washington, the site of the most expensive (and likely dangerous) environmental clean-up in the world. On July 21, Washington state Attorney General Bob Ferguson, along with watchdog group Hanford Challenge and UA Local Union 598 Plumbers and Steamfitters, filed an emergency legal motion asking US Judge Thomas Rice to intervene and force the US Department of Energy and federal contractor Washington River Protection Solutions to protect their workers from toxic vapor exposure at the site. “[It’s] as serious as it gets,” Ferguson told King 5 News. “At Hanford there’s a culture of indifference by the federal government and their contractors. Frankly, we’re not going to put up with it anymore…. So right now we’re trying to get before the judge immediately asking for immediate steps required from the federal government to protect workers. That’s the bottom line.”

August 4, 2016 – No relevant citations.

August 4, 2016 – Texas Tribune – In Dirty Bomb Prevention, Texas Fails a Crucial Test – Large quantities of radioactive materials stored in a single location, like these at an oil well-logging storage site, are particularly vulnerable to theft for use in a dirty bomb, the Department of Energy and the Government Accountability Office determined in 2014, yet the Nuclear Regulatory Commission still allows the practice. The clandestine group’s goal was clear: Obtain the building blocks of a radioactive “dirty bomb” — capable of poisoning a major city for a year or more — by openly purchasing the raw ingredients from authorized sellers inside the United States. It should have been hard. The purchase of lethal radioactive materials — even modestly dangerous ones — requires a license from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, a measure meant to keep them away from terrorists. Applicants must demonstrate they have a legitimate need and understand the NRC’s safety standards, and pass an on-site inspection of their equipment and storage. But this secret group of fewer than 10 people — formed in April 2014 in North Dakota, Texas and Michigan — discovered that getting a license and then ordering enough materials to make a dirty bomb was strikingly simple in one of their three tries. Sellers were preparing shipments that together were enough to poison a city center when the operation was shut down.

August 4, 2016 – Ecologist – Uranium from Russia, with love – Uranium mining is a dirty business that we didn’t clean up but sourced out to less developed countries, so why isn’t this being discussed in any debate about nuclear energy. Our EU and US based nuclear power is currently coming at the cost of poisoning people in Africa. But it begs the question: are we ready to face that reality? Amidst all the fuss about Hinkley C and other planned nuclear power plants in the EU and US, does anyone knows where the stuff that keeps these reactors buzzing comes from? Here’s a fun fact: no other country supplies so much uranium to the EU than … Russia. Putin has more than the gas valve if he wants to play games with Europe. And the degree to which the US has become dependent on non-stable foreign sources of uranium is also unprecedented.

August 4, 2016 – The Press – York scientist working on decommissioning of Chernobyl nuclear power plant – A SCIENTIST from York has returned from a visit to Chernobyl nuclear power plant – where it is hoped he will be able to assist with the decommissioning of the radioactive site. Adam Fisher, 30, was among a team invited to the site of the worst ever nuclear power plant accident, to see the progress made in decommissioning the site. Their focus is the lava-like substance created as the reactor core melted into the surrounding structural material. As a PhD student specialising in material science, and specifically nuclear waste, it is hoped Adam and the team from the University of Sheffield will be able to assist in safely decommissioning, and ultimately disposing of, the radioactive material.

August 4, 2016 – Oak Ridge Today – Demolition work on K-27, last of big 5 uranium-enrichment buildings, to be complete this month – Demolition work should be complete this month on K-27, the last of the big five buildings once used to enrich uranium for nuclear weapons and commercial nuclear power plants at the former K-25 site in west Oak Ridge, officials said last week. Demolition work started on K-27 in February. Like the other four buildings that have already been demolished, the four-story, 383,000-square-foot K-27 building once used a process known as gaseous diffusion to enrich uranium. The demolition is part of Vision 2016. That’s the plan by the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Environmental Management, or EM, to remove all five gaseous diffusion buildings from the site by the end of the year.

August 4, 2016 – newschannel10.com – Activists to march in Los Alamos on Hiroshima anniversary – Dozens of peace activists are expected to participate in march in Los Alamos around the 71th anniversary of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bombings. The Los Alamos Monitor reports (http://goo.gl/NI3GJi) anti-nuclear activist Rev. John Dear will lead a match Saturday to the boundaries of Los Alamos National Laboratory and then to Ashley Pond Park to meditate and pray. Dear says Los Alamos National Laboratory and its employees must repent for participating in the manufacture of nuclear weapons. During the World War II-era Manhattan Project, scientists at the then-secret city of Los Alamos developed the weapon dropped on the Japanese cities.

August 4, 2016 – Creamer Media’s Mining Weekly – Cameco’s Yeelirrie project faces environmental hurdle – The Western Australia (WA) Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has determined that Cameco’s Yeelirrie uranium project does not meet one of nine key environmental factors examined. Cameco is proposing to mine up to 7 500 t/y of uranium oxide concentrate from the Yeelirrie deposit, which is located about 420 km north of Kalgoorlie-Boulder and 70 km south west of Wiluna. The EPA on Thursday said the company did not meet the Subterranean Fauna factor in its environmental objectives, as the proposal would threaten the viability of some species of animals that live below ground, in particular stygofauna. “The stygofauna habitat at Yeelirrie is particularly rich, with 73 species recorded – more than anywhere else in the northern goldfields,” EPA chairperson Dr Tom Hatton said.

August 4, 2016 – OncLive – Dr. Luke Nordquist on Radium-223 Retreatment – Luke Nordquist, MD, FACP, a urologic medical oncologist and CEO of the Urology Cancer Center and GU Research Network, discusses a multicenter, prospective study of radium-223 retreatment in metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC). There were many questions that remained unanswered after the ALSYMPCA study, which led to the approval of radium-223, said Nordquist. One area where uncertainty remains is proper dosing. While this drug is approved at 50 kBq/kg monthly for 6 months in mCRPC, a higher dose may have more benefit. To investigate this, a study was conduced with 44 patients who had mCRPC. The patients received up to an additional 6 doses of radium-223 after the original 6. The primary endpoint of the study was safety, but there were exploratory endpoints with radiographic progression and progression-free survival looking at PSA.

August 4, 2016 – The Republic of East Vancouver – Nuclear Response Robots Market Research Report Now Available at Research Corridor – Research Corridor has published a new research study titled “Nuclear Response Robots Market – Growth, Share, Opportunities, Competitive Analysis and Forecast, 2015 – 2022”. The Nuclear Response Robots market report studies current as well as future aspects of the Nuclear Response Robots Market based upon factors such as market dynamics, key ongoing trends and segmentation analysis. Apart from the above elements, the Nuclear Response Robots Market research report provides a 360-degree view of the Nuclear Response Robots industry with geographic segmentation, statistical forecast and the competitive landscape.

August 4, 2016 – Financial Express – Supply of nuclear reactors to Pakistan under NSG norms: China – Defending its nuclear cooperation with its close ally Pakistan, China on Thursday said its supply of reactors to Islamabad were in accordance with the principles of NSG and under the supervision of UN’s nuclear watchdog. Refuting a U.S. think tank report which said that China’s nuclear cooperation with Pakistan was in contravention with the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) principles, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson, Hua Chunying said China—Pakistan cooperation is in accordance with the 48-member nuclear club, which supervises global nuclear commerce. “China has stated on many occasions that the cooperation between China and Pakistan in the civil nuclear energy sector is completely for peaceful purpose,” Hua said.

August 4, 2016 – Power-Technology.com – UK’s NuGen contracts Amec Foster Wheeler for Moorside nuclear project – British engineering company Amec Foster Wheeler has secured a continuation of contract from UK-based NuGeneration (NuGen) to offer environmental support for the proposed nuclear power station at Moorside in Cumbria. Once completed, the Moorside power station will be the largest nuclear project in the UK and will have the capacity to generate up to 3.8GW of power.

August 4, 2016 – Motherboard – Is China’s Role in a UK Nuclear Plant Really a Cybersecurity Risk? – Last week, the UK delayed plans to build the proposed Hinkley Point C nuclear power plant, which would have been the first nuclear plant to be built in the UK in 20 years. While the government did not give a specific reason for the hold-up, one reason suggested is that it has reservations over China’s role in the construction. The state-owned China General Nuclear Power Corporation has agreed to a 33 percent stake in the project, and some suggest that the new British government may be concerned about the cybersecurity of the plant. Nick Timothy, Prime Minister Theresa May’s chief of staff, has previously said that experts think the Chinese government could use its involvement to introduce vulnerabilities into systems, which would allow it to tamper with Britain’s energy production in the future. But is this something we really need to worry about? In conversations with Motherboard, researchers and those who work on on critical infrastructure were divided over whether Chinese financing of Hinkley Point is a legitimate concern or not.

August 4, 2016 – Power Engineering International – Alstom Power wins turbine generator order for Finnish nuclear plant – Alstom Power Systems, part of GE, will deliver a turbine generator set for Fennovoima’s Hanhikivi 1 nuclear power plant in Finland. The contract covers the design and supply of the turbine generator equipment package as well as advisory services for installation and commissioning works. The set will be based on Alstom Arabelle technology and the design work will start immediately. The delivery and installation schedule will allow the commissioning of the power plant to begin in 2023 and commercial operation in 2024.

August 4, 2016 – Russia & India Report – Russia, Bolivia sign first contracts on nuclear research center project – Russia’s nuclear power corporation Rosatom and the Bolivian Atomic Energy Agency (ABEN) have signed first commercial contracts on the project of construction of a center for nuclear research and technologies in Bolivia, Rosatom reported Thursday. ABEN signed two contracts – with Rosatom’s engineering subsidiary Atomstroyexport on preliminary engineering surveys regarding the construction of the center, and with Rusatom Service on estimation of the state of Bolivia’s national nuclear infrastructure, the report said.

August 4, 2016 – Interfax-Ukraine – Ukraine agrees construction of nuclear fuel plant in Ukraine with Westinghouse – Ukraine has agreed an increase in supplies of nuclear fuel with Westinghouse and building a nuclear fuel plant in Ukraine in the future to avoid dependence on Russia, Ukrainian Energy and Coal Industry Minister Ihor Nasalyk has said. “We agreed to diversify supplies for almost half of nuclear reactors and to build a nuclear fuel plant on the territory of Ukraine,” he said at a press conference in Kyiv on Thursday.

July 4, 2016 – Raw Story – Can environmentalists learn to love – or just tolerate – nuclear power? – In June, California utility Pacific Gas and Electric announced plans for phasing out its Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant, located on the central California coast. If the current timetable holds, late summer 2025 will see the first time in over six decades that the nation’s most populous state will have no licensed nuclear power providers. This is big news. Forty years ago, Diablo Canyon stood at the middle of an intense controversy over the safety and desirability of nuclear power. Those debates stand as part of the origin story of the anti-nuclear movement; failure to stop the plant from coming online educated and galvanized a generation of anti-nuclear activists. From this perspective, Pacific Gas and Electric’s decision to replace nuclear output with renewable energy seems to be an environmental victory, a belated vindication of the anti-nuclear efforts of the 1970s. But in the era of climate change, no decision regarding energy production is simple. California’s move away from nuclear power comes alongside a modest reappraisal of a technology that was once vilified by the vast majority of environmentalists. James Hansen, the scientist whose 1988 testimony before Congress provided climate change with much-needed visibility and political salience, has become one of a number of prominent environmentalists to support nuclear power.

August 4, 2016 – CBS Denver – Water Treatment Plant Worker With Cancer Calls Health Department Letter ‘Smoking Gun’ – Neighbors near the Charles Allen Water Filtration Plant in Englewood are telling city officials they are concerned that three workers there have died of cancer. The neighbors want to be absolutely sure there is nothing that is affecting their health. The water treated at the plant for drinking leaves a waste referred to as sludge. Some who work there and families of those who died believe it may have been responsible for causing the cancer. After CBS4’s first report, the city took action, but the controversy is not over. While much of the sludge has been removed after the first CBS4 report, still more remains, as do the concerns of those who live nearby. Neighbors have obtained a 2012 state health department letter to the city that indicated the radiation then was actually much higher than the city had stated.

August 4, 2016 – IEER Press Release – Comments on the “Design of a Consent-Based Siting Process for Nuclear Waste and Disposal Storage Facilities” – “Consent” in a democracy must always be informed consent. As the Nuclear Energy Information Service noted in its comments: INFORMED CONSENT (legal definition) is: Assent to permit an occurrence that is based on a complete disclosure of facts needed to make the decision intelligently, such as knowledge of the risks entailed or alternatives. Informed consent is all the more necessary in regard to an issue as fraught as nuclear waste, including spent fuel (which contains the vast majority of radioactivity in all nuclear waste). An experiment with a drug requires informed consent, for instance. What should be the standard of informed consent in regard to matters involving security for eons (given the plutonium-239 content of spent fuel) and involving health risks for even longer, given that the half-lives of some fission products, like iodine-129 and cesium-135 are in the millions of years? Informed consent can never be in the abstract: it is the obligation of the DOE to inform the public exactly what is involved. The DOE has fallen very far short of what is needed in its discussion of “Integrated Waste Management”. Since the DOE is seeking comment on what a “consent-based siting process” should consist of, IEER is setting forth some minimal requirements.

August 4, 2016 – Ecologist – US Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s ‘enforcement’ is as fierce as the comfy chair – The NRC routinely fails to enforce its own safety codes at nuclear power plants, writes Linda Pentz Gunter – putting all of us at risk from accidents. It’s the US’s most extreme example of regulatory capture, rivalling Japan’s ‘nuclear village’ of crony agencies and feeble regulation that led to the Fukushima disaster. How long can it be before the US experiences another nuclear catastrophe? The nuclear industry has consistently challenged the NRC’s safety compliance orders to avoid the expense, putting profit well ahead of safety. The NRC has consistently and obligingly capitulated, even when the risk itself is identified as a top priority. Fetch the comfy chair! The US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is in town to enforce its own safety regulations at your local nuclear power plant. Reactor owners have been duly warned. Comply or else … Or else what? Three more last chances? No, unlike Monty Python’s Spanish Inquisition, the NRC isn’t bothering to read the charges. It’s handing out immunity.

August 4, 2016 – Buffalo News – New York no longer needs energy from nuclear plants – New York State is a leader in the energy revolution and has made significant progress in advancing renewable energy to address the climate crisis. However, the recent proposal by the Public Service Commission on the Clean Energy Standard incorporates nuclear energy with an estimated $8 billion subsidy to the nuclear industry to keep uneconomical Ginna and FitzPatrick nuclear power plants open. New York Independent System Operator, the group responsible for meeting state energy needs, has publicly stated we do not need the energy from nuclear plants. Nuclear is also not clean: the extraction process produces over a billion pounds of radioactive mining waste per reactor each year! New York State plants use hundreds of millions of gallons of fresh water daily, causing thermal and radioactive pollution.

August 4, 2016 – Bloomberg News – Exelon Losing in its Own Backyard as New York Rescues Nukes – In the end, the fate of Exelon Corp.’s money-losing reactors in Illinois and New York may have come down to one governor who desperately wanted to rescue them and another who wasn’t so sure. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo laid down his marker in December when he told the chairman of the state’s utility regulator that losing two upstate nuclear plants would gut a plan to cut global warming pollution and cost jobs. On Monday, the state agreed to a bailout and within hours, Exelon said it would invest $200 million in the two plants. While Illinois Governor Bruce Rauner also worried about job losses, he said any rescue plan must protect ratepayers and taxpayers and that corporate bailouts raise red flags. In June, Chicago-based Exelon said it would close two Illinois plants after the state legislature balked at a measure to stem their financial losses.

August 4, 2016 – Business Wire – NuScale Power Hosts Advisory Board Meeting In Charlotte – 16 representatives from 13 utilities met with NuScale Power in Charlotte, N.C. last week for the small modular reactor developer’s tri-annual NuScale Advisory Board (NuAB) meeting. NuAB is currently comprised of 26 member companies including the owners and operators of nearly two-thirds of the U.S. operating fleet of commercial nuclear power plants. Highlights of the meeting included updates on the Design Certification Application (DCA) Project, the Utah Associated Municipal Power Systems (UAMPS) Carbon-Free Power Project (CFPP) 12-month plan, and the NuScale Power Module (NPM) manufacturability activities.

August 4, 2016 – The Chattanoogan – Alexander Urges EPA To Ditch Proposal To Offer New Incentives To Big Wind – Senator Lamar Alexander on Monday urged the administration to reconsider a proposal to provide new incentives to wind power producers who are already benefiting from the 24-year-old wind production tax credit. Senator Alexander also pointed out that the proposal fails to provide any incentive for nuclear energy – this country’s largest source of clean electricity. “Wind developers have been getting rich on the backs of taxpayers and the wind production tax credit for over two decades, and there is no reason they should receive additional incentives to build unreliable and unsightly wind turbines,” Senator Alexander wrote in a letter to Gina McCarthy, the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, urging against the program’s proposed Clean Energy Incentive Program.

August 4, 2016 – Ripon Advance – Issa presses Department of Energy for long-term nuclear waste storage solution – U.S. Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) pushed on Monday for a nationwide nuclear waste storage plan and for the removal of nuclear waste from the San Onofre Nuclear Generation Station (SONGS). Issa highlighted the “urgent need our nation has for the department to develop and execute a national plan to store waste” in comments submitted to Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz on consent-based siting processes for nuclear waste storage and disposal facilities. “A 2011 Government Accountability Office report estimated over $15 billion has already been spent toward the development of a nuclear waste repository,” Issa wrote. “The department estimates an additional $11 billion will be spent. Yet, the permanent designated site of Yucca Mountain, Nevada, is nowhere near opening while the nation maintains thousands of pounds of radioactive nuclear waste and spent nuclear fuel (SNF) scattered throughout the country.”

August 4, 2016 – Albuquerque Business First- Sandia Labs moving forward on new ‘front door’ for the public – If you’ve ever visited any part of Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, you’ll probably recall having to sign in and get a badge. That could soon change as Sandia moves forward with plans for its Center for Collaboration & Commercialization (C3). The center was originally announced in 2014 as a way to connect lab research and intellectual property to the city’s growing innovation district and Innovate ABQ complex located near Downtown. Jackie Kerby Moore, executive director for the Sandia Science & Technology Park and manager of economic development at the lab, says tech transfer is a mission imperative, and the new center is critical to its plans.

August 3, 2016 – 81 FR 51216-51217 – NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION – Advisory Committee on the Medical Uses of Isotopes: Meeting Notice – NRC will convene a meeting of the Advisory Committee on the Medical Uses of Isotopes (ACMUI) on October 6-7, 2016. A sample of agenda items to be discussed during the public session includes: An update on medical-related events; a discussion on the reporting of medical events for various modalities; a discussion on the licensing guidance for yttrium-90 microsphere brachytherapy; a discussion on the training and experience requirements for authorized individuals for various modalities; a presentation from Spectrum Pharmaceuticals, Inc. on the training and experience requirements for alpha and beta emitters; an update on the worldwide supply of molybdenum-99; and a discussion on the licensing guidance for the NorthStar[supreg] Generator. The agenda is subject to change. The current agenda and any updates will be available at http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/acmui/meetings/2016.html or by emailing Ms. Michelle Smethers at the contact information below. Purpose: Discuss issues related to 10 CFR part 35 Medical Use of Byproduct Material.

August 3, 2016 – 81 FR 51217-51218 – NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION – Steam Generator Materials and Design – The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is issuing a final revision to Section 5.4.2.1, “Steam Generator Materials and Design,” of NUREG-0800, “Standard Review Plan [SRP] for the Review of Safety Analysis Reports for Nuclear Power Plants: LWR [Light Water Reactor] Edition.” Revision 4 to Section 5.4.2.1 of the SRP reflects current NRC review methods and practices based on lessons learned from NRC reviews of design certification and combined license applications completed since the last revision of this section.

August 3, 2016 – 81 FR 51218-51220 – 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 issuing an exemption in response to a September 30, 2016, request from Virginia Electric Power Company (Dominion or the licensee) in order to use AREVA’s M5[supreg] alloy fuel rod cladding material at Surry Power Station, Unit Nos. 1 and 2 (SPS). DATES: The exemption was issued on July 27, 2016.

August 3, 2016 – 81 FR 51215-51216 – NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION – Information Collection: “NRC Form 212, Qualifications Investigation, Professional, Technical and Administrative Positions” – The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) invites public comment on the renewal of the information collection entitled, “NRC Form 212, Qualifications Investigation, Professional, Technical and Administrative Positions.” DATES: Submit comments by October 3, 2016. Comments received after this date will be considered if it is practical to do so, but the Commission is able to ensure consideration only for comments received on or before this date.

August 3, 2016 – 81 FR 51140-51142 – DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY – Convention on Supplementary Compensation for Nuclear Damage Contingent Cost Allocation – This document provides information on a public workshop to discuss the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) notice and request for comment on a proposed collection of information. DOE developed the proposed collection of information in connection with the notice of proposed rulemaking on the Convention on Supplementary Compensation for Nuclear Damage Contingent Cost Allocation (NOPR) in which it proposed regulations to establish a retrospective risk pooling program covering nuclear suppliers that may be required under certain circumstances to pay for any contribution by the United States government to the international supplementary fund created by the Convention for Supplementary Compensation for Nuclear Damage.

August 3, 2016 – 81 FR 51183-51184 – DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE – International Trade Administration; Civil Nuclear Trade Advisory Committee: Notice of an Opportunity To Apply For Membership – The Department of Commerce (the Department) is seeking applications for membership on the Civil Nuclear Trade Advisory Committee (CINTAC or “Committee”). The purpose of the CINTAC is to provide advice to the Secretary of Commerce regarding the development and administration of programs to expand U.S. exports of civil nuclear goods and services in accordance with applicable U.S. laws and regulations, which will be used by the Department in its role as a member of the Civil Nuclear Trade Working Group of the Trade Promotion Coordinating Committee and of the TeamUSA interagency group to promote U.S. civil nuclear trade.