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• NRC Found Lax in Oversight of Fire Safety Regulations at Reactors
  A new Government Accountability Office (GAO) report that reviewed the performance of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) in regulating federally-mandated fire protection standards at U.S. nuclear reactors was released this week. The report confirmed that the NRC has for three decades consistently mishandled fire protection violations at the country’s nuclear power plants.
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• Radioactive Waste Poses a Serious Threat to California
  According to a recent LA Times headline, the “Yucca Mountain safety plan is doomed.” If Yucca Mountain is “doomed,” what does this mean for the hundreds of tons of highly radioactive waste located on California’s fragile coast?
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• Can American be carbon-free and nuclear-free?
  Think what a burden would be lifted from the collective American psyche if we no longer had to depend on foreign countries for the oil that is the lifeblood of our economy and our way of life. In a new book, "Carbon-Free and Nuclear-Free: A Roadmap for U.S. Energy Policy," electrical engineer Arjun Makhijani contends that its possible to achieve that goal without turning to nuclear generation. The Citizen-Times interviewed Makhijani when he visited Asheville recently. This is an edited transcript of that interview.
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• Five Myths About Nuclear Energy
  Atomic energy is among the most impractical and risky of available fuel sources. Private financiers are reluctant to invest in it, and both experts and the public have questions about the likelihood of safely storing lethal radioactive wastes for the required million years. Reactors also provide irresistible targets for terrorists seeking to inflict deep and lasting damage on the United States. The government’s own data show that U.S. nuclear reactors have more than a one-in-five lifetime probability of core melt, and a nuclear accident could kill 140,000 people, contaminate an area the size of Pennsylvania, and destroy our homes and health.
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• Video: “Dr. Frank von Hippel discusses nuclear fuel reprocessing with Ben Moore of the Coastal Conservation League” (South Carolina)
  On May 29, Dr. Frank von Hippel of Princeton University gave two talks on reprocessing (Global Nuclear Energy Partnership) at the University of South Carolina in Columbia, SC. His evening talk to around 100 people kicked off a national nuclear waste summit that activists around the US attended.
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• Yucca Mountain safety plan is 'doomed,' nuclear company says
  In an earthquake, casks of radioactive waste could bounce and roll in a 'chaotic melee,' Holtec International says of the Energy Department proposal.
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• SCE&G requests 37 percent rate increase - Customers would see monthly bills rise over 11 years to pay for two nuclear reactors
  SCE&G ratepayers’ bills would rise 37 percent by 2019 if the state approves the Columbia utility’s plan to start paying costs upfront for two large nuclear reactors it would build 25 miles northwest of Columbia.
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• Slovenia shuts down nuclear plant after cooling system leak (loss of coolant)
  . . .Jan Beranek, Greenpeace International's nuclear campaigner, said: "Any situation which results in the European Commission alerting all 27 member states about the possible consequences of a nuclear accident cannot readily be dismissed as something not to worry about. "In this case we hope that independent confirmation can be gained to confirm that the situation is under control and there was no offsite contamination. "However, it stands as a testament to the threat that all of Europe's nuclear facilities pose to its population and environment and beyond. Those who are planning to build more nuclear reactors must heed this warning and reject nuclear technology."
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• Radioactive leak at Asco is 750 times more than disclosed
  The amount of radiation emitted by the Ascó nuclear power station in Tarragona during a leak in 2007 reached 176 becquerels, 750 times more that the plant's managers initially acknowledged, Spain's nuclear watchdog has disclosed in a new report.
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• AECL pulls plug on reactors after millions spent
  Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd. suffered another embarrassing setback Friday as the country's flagship nuclear corporation when it scrapped the development of two Maple isotope-producing reactors after pouring hundreds of millions of dollars into the project. The federal Crown corporation conducted tests on the reactors this spring and could not find a solution to a design flaw that would make the reactors more prone to a meltdown.
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• Uranium link to kidney ills studied.
  Preliminary modeling and statistical analysis of the first 400 people participating in the Navajo Uranium Assessment and Kidney Health Project has shown two significant factors linking environmental exposure to uranium and kidney disease.
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• Yankee discloses crane mishap
  Workers at the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant are taking additional precautions when working around a 97-ton cask filled with high-level radioactive waste after a crane moving the cask malfunctioned last week.
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• Millstone Unit 2 Suffers Second Scram in Three Days
  Class I Emergency Declared - Likelihood of Radioactive Releases to the Environment
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• Uranium: It’s worse than you think
  When people think of Durango, Colo., they usually think of the scenery, or the tourist attractions, or the disproportionate number of healthy, spandex-clad bicyclists, runners and raft guides. Rarely do they think of cancer. Perhaps they should.
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• On Cancer’s Trail
  The women in Stefanie Raymond-Whish's family have a history of breast cancer. Now the young Navajo biologist is asking why.
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Recent Articles

Recent articles of interest posted on the ANR website

• ALERT - ALERT - ALERT - ALERT - ALERT
  (This is used on the home page as part of a content panel)
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• Sign Petition to NRC to Block Yucca Mountain Dump
  Background: In early June, the U.S. Dept. of Energy filed a license application with the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, seeking permission to construct and operate the still pending high-level radioactive waste dump at Yucca Mountain , Nevada . The NRC will now review and then docket this application, allowing only a small window for any remaining public intervention. Although the DOE application is more than 8,000 pages long with 30 million pages of supporting documents, the NRC contends it will docket the application in three months. Once docketed, a three- to four-year licensing proceeding would commence, ending around 2012, most likely with NRC approval. The culmination of this review comprises the biggest NRC licensing proceeding in history. Our View: NRC is rushing its docketing review in order to launch the Yucca licensing proceeding before George W. Bush and his pro-Yucca Mountain administration exit the White House. But despite its huge size and cost – more than $11 billion to date that will likely balloon to at least $70 billion if the dump is built and operated – the DOE application and document collection is missing the most important pieces. These include: a final repository design; final national transport plan; final design for the "Transport, Aging, and Disposal" canister in which the waste would be “permanently” sealed; final EPA regulations on radiation releases; and meaningful treatment of Western Shoshone Indian land rights at Yucca under the "peace and friendship" Treaty of Ruby Valley signed by the U.S. government in 1863. Consequently, the NRC should not docket the application and should halt the Yucca licensing proceeding. What You Can Do: Follow the link where you will find U.S. Senator Harry Reid's "Petition to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to Reject the License Application for a Nuclear Waste Dump at Yucca Mountain ." Please sign it, and circulate it to others for signatures.
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