German Nuclear Storage Facility Hit by Safety Scandal | Germany | Deutsche Welle | 04.09.2008
Germany's Asse nuclear storage facility is to get a new operator who will be responsible to the federal environment ministry following revelations this week of serious safety violations at the site.
Germany's Federal Office for Radioactive Protection (BfS) is to take over the ailing Asse nuclear storage facility in the state of Lower Saxony after strong criticism of operators Helmholtz's German Research Center for Environmental Health in Munich for failing to alert the government to violations at the site.
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Radioactive Leakage: Berlin Takes Steps to Address Nuclear Waste Scandal - SPIEGEL ONLINE - News - International
Responsibility for a leaking radioactive waste site in the mountains of Lower Saxony has been shifted from one office to another in the German government. The scandal has political fallout, but whether -- and how -- the leaking waste can be cleaned up is still not clear.
Drums containing radioactive waste in the Asse storage site.
After a damning report about nuclear waste leaking from a Cold War-era storage facility in Lower Saxony -- a former salt and potash mine called Asse-II -- the German government will dissolve the bureau responsible for its maintenance, the Helmholtz Center for Health and Environment, and put another office in charge, the Federal Office for Radiation Protection.
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David Lowry: The nuclear industry's secret subsidies | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk
The industry may well be 'back with a vengeance', but taxpayers could be unwittingly subsidising its growth
Today, several hundred nuclear industry executives will gather in London for the British-based World Nuclear Association's annual symposium.
A major session – The nuclear renaissance: redefining the global framework – chaired by Keith Parker, chief executive of the UK Nuclear Industry Association (NIA), will be devoted to the new opportunities expected as new nuclear build is back on the energy agenda, "with a vengeance", in the words of former prime minister Tony Blair.
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VPIRG challenges Vt. Yankee ads | The Burlington Free Press
Advertisements in print and on the air tout Vermont Yankee as "safe, clean, reliable."
The nuclear power plant is none of those, argues the Vermont Public Interest Research Group, which Tuesday asked state Attorney General William Sorrell to investigate whether the ads amount to false advertising.
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"Each aspect of this claim is misleading as it is unsubstantiated and conflicts with relevant science and reports," VPIRG Executive Director Paul Burns said in a letter to Sorrell.
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Fox 44 | Nuclear plant owner accused of consumer fraud
The Vermont Yankee nuclear plant is being targeted in a consumer fraud complaint with the state that says the plant's owners have been engaging in deceptive advertising.
The Vermont Public Interest Research Group takes issue with the plant's advertising slogan, "safe, clean, reliable." It says the plant has not been reliable in recent years, suffering several operational mishaps.
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Campaigner hits out at nuclear 'sweeteners' (From The Westmorland Gazette)
A SOUTH Lakeland anti-nuclear campaigner has claimed taxpayers’ money is being used to “soften up” Cumbrians for a new nuclear power station.
Artist Marianne Birkby spoke out after discovering the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority has given £34 million from its “socio-economic fund” to organisations such as hospitals and colleges and wildlife, and heritage groups.
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toledoblade.com -- Ex-engineer found guilty of concealing Davis-Besse dangers
Former FirstEnergy Corp. engineer Andrew Siemaszko was convicted yesterday on three of five counts of intentionally misleading federal regulators about the danger at the Davis-Besse nuclear plant in Ottawa County in 2001.
The verdicts were the final ones in a seven-year saga that has had national implications for the nuclear industry as it plans for a rebirth to help meet America's rising energy needs.
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toledoblade.com -- Former FirstEnergy engineer guilty on 3 of 5 counts
A former FirstEnergy Corp. engineer was found guilty Tuesday afternoon by a U.S. District Court jury on three of five counts he faced for lying or withholding information from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission about Davis-Besse's operating status in the fall of 2001.
A federal jury deliberated over three days before returning the verdict against Andrew Siemaszko, a native of Poland.
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Jury: Worker covered up damage at Ohio nuke plant
Jurors on Tuesday convicted a former nuclear plant engineer of hiding information from government regulators about the worst corrosion ever found at a U.S. reactor.
Prosecutors said Andrew Siemaszko and two other workers lied in 2001 so the Davis-Besse plant along Lake Erie could delay a shutdown for a safety inspection. Months later, inspectors found an acid leak that nearly ate through the reactor's 6-inch-thick steel cap.
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FOCUS Information Agency: Kozloduy NPP used in a smear campaign targeting Bulgaria
Bulgaria has once again been tarnished before the face of Brussels, as reports over substituted nuclear fuel in NPP Kozloduy reached José Manuel Barroso, President of the European Commission. This is what representatives of the Committee for protection of nuclear physicist Georgi Kotev announced yesterday.
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knoxnews.com | 100 tons of weapons material off the books
The National Nuclear Security Administration announced today that 100 tons of highly enriched uranium -- enough for about 2,200 nuclear bombs -- had been downblended over the past decade to eliminate its weapons capability. All told, the U.S. government has designated 217 tons of HEU as "excess" and scheduled for downblending.
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Hanford employees fired over alleged fraud | Tri-City Herald
Fluor Hanford has fired three employees it believes are linked to the misuse of a federal government credit card issued for work at the Hanford nuclear reservation.
A single card was used to make fraudulent purchases over at least the past four years, according to a memo sent by Fluor Hanford President Con Murphy to employees Wednesday. Just one person was allowed to sign on the card.
The purchases included tools and electronic equipment, said Fluor spokeswoman Judy Connell.
more fromwww.tri-cityherald.com
Clear Channel Removes UCS Ad from Minneapolis Airport
Northwest, the official airline of the Republican National Convention, has taken on a new role of censor. Yesterday it asked Clear Channel Communications to remove a Union of Concerned Scientists' (UCS) anti-nuclear-weapons billboard in the Minneapolis airport because it is "scary" and "anti-McCain." Clear Channel agreed, and plans to take the billboard down today.
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Duke settles with whistleblower | Cincinnati Enquirer | Cincinnati.Com
Duke Energy reached an out-of-court settlement this weekend with a former employee who claimed he was fired after raising concerns about payments the utility made to some of its biggest customers.
Lawyers for Duke and John Deeds, the former employee, confirmed the deal today.
• Duke made secret payments to companies.
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US proposes India nuclear waiver, approval in doubt | Reuters
The United States has proposed to waive a ban on nuclear trade with India without conditions such as compliance with a nuclear test ban or U.N. inspections, but diplomats said on Thursday the draft was unlikely to pass.
The draft, circulated among members of the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) and unveiled late on Wednesday by an arms control advocacy, will be discussed by the NSG next week in Vienna.
more fromin.reuters.com
The Mercury - NRC: Nuclear plant guard hid arrests
About a year after a security guard at Exelon's Limerick Nuclear Generating Station was fired for sleeping on the job, another was fired for altering his driver's license to hide the fact that he had been charged by police with three separate offenses.
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Federal Agency Scapegoating Nuclear Power Engineer for Near-Accident at Davis-Besse, Science Group Says
Andrew Siemaszko, a former nuclear safety engineer at the Davis-Besse nuclear power plant, will go on trial this Friday for allegedly lying to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) about conditions leading to a near-disaster at the plant in 2002. NRC documents, however, show that Siemaszko is not to blame. It was FirstEnergy, the plant's owners, which falsified reports to the NRC, not Siemaszko. In fact, Siemaszko was one work shift away from discovering the problem at Davis-Besse while cleaning the reactor head in 2000, but FirstEnergy prevented him from completing his task.
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Yankee panel is kept in the dark - Bennington Banner
Recent news that there was yet another leak in the 42-year-old Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant's cooling system underscores the need for independent evaluation of the plant. The public has rightfully lost confidence in the ability of Entergy to maintain Vermont Yankee. More important, this latest failure has also raised questions about the ability of the Department of Public Service even to oversee Entergy's maintenance program.
more fromwww.benningtonbanner.com
Feds raise Yucca price tag to $96.2 billion - Las Vegas Sun
It's official: The Energy Department announced today that it will cost $96.2 billion to build the nation's nuclear waste dump at Yucca Mountain, operate it for the next 150 years and shut it down.
In a conference call today, the department's Yucca Mountain project director said the new estimate assumes more waste will eventually be stored at the mountain than now allowed. Department projections are counting on Congress to one day lift the 70,000 metric ton limit to 122,000 metric tons at the mountain 90 miles north of Las Vegas.
more fromwww.lasvegassun.com
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Green Party Energy Expert Höhn: 'The Nuclear Industry Has Invented the Energy Shortfall' - International - SPIEGEL ONLINE - News
Bärbel Höhn, 56, deputy leader of the German Green Party's parliamentary group, discusses her party's opposition to nuclear energy, the market power of the major energy companies, and why she rejects warnings of a shortfall in energy supplies.
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