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New research published this week in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences shows that radioactive cesium from the Fukushima nuclear power plant is collecting in the sands and groundwater along a 60-mile (100-km) stretch of coastline near the facility. Cesium-137 is a radioactive isotope of cesium (a soft, silvery-gold metal) that’s formed by nuclear fission and potentially fatal to humans when exposed to high concentrations. The scientists who led the study, Virginie Sanial of Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and Seiya Nagao of Kanazawa University, say the levels of radiation “are not of primary concern” to public health, but that...

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...

Cabinet ministers in Japan approved a plan to reduce greenhouse gases by 26 percent by 2030, a goal already criticized by environmental groups as too timid and statistically unsound. The cuts, first unveiled in a draft in April, will use 2013 as a baseline. Acceptance of the draft report was announced by Environment Minister Yoshio Mochizuki Tuesday in Tokyo. Final approval will be sought after public comment. Adopting 2013 as a starting point is contentious because it's a year when Japan recorded its second-highest emissions level ever as it burned more fossil fuels to replace nuclear power lost after the...

Transmutation Revolution? Mitsubishi Granted Patent for ‘Nuclide Transmutation’ Process Posted on March 4, 2014 by admin • 64 Comments Thanks to Cold Fusion Now and AlainCo at LENR Forum for picking up what seems to be a very important development — Mitsubishi Heavy Industries has been granted a patent by the European Patent Office for a “Nuclide transmutation device and nuclide transmutation method” which the introduction to the patent states could allow for the transforming of long-lived radioactive waste into short-lived radioactive nuclides or stable nuclides, and the transmutation of abundant elements into rare earth elements. The patent application was...

There have been cases of people stealing radioactive material without knowing about it, and an IAEA spokeswoman said that may have been the case with the stolen truck in Mexico. Mexican authorities are searching for the stolen truck.

WASHINGTON — In the two years that Gregory Jaczko has led the nation's independent nuclear agency, his actions to delay, hide and kill work on a disputed dump for high-level radioactive waste have been called "bizarre," `'unorthodox" and "illegal." These harsh critiques haven't come just from politicians who have strong views in favor of the Yucca Mountain waste site in Nevada. They've come from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's own scientists and a former agency chairman. An inspector general's report released last week exposed the internal strife under Jaczko. The internal watchdog said he intimidated staff members who disagreed with him...

The federal government, in search of a place to dispose of its radioactive waste, is once again considering New Mexico. Three of seven sites under consideration for disposal of some of the lesser radioactive nuclear power plant waste are in New Mexico, including the possibility of adding it to the inventory of waste headed for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant outside Carlsbad. A second site near WIPP is also on the list of possible locations, as well as Los Alamos National Laboratory. The waste, much of it from machinery in old nuclear power plants, is technically categorized as "low level,"...

Dumping all our nuclear waste in a volcano does seem like a neat solution for destroying the roughly 29,000 tons of spent uranium fuel rods stockpiled around the world. But there’s a critical standard that a volcano would have to meet to properly dispose of the stuff, explains Charlotte Rowe, a volcano geophysicist at Los Alamos National Laboratory. And that standard is heat. The lava would have to not only melt the fuel rods but also strip the uranium of its radioactivity. “Unfortunately,” Rowe says, “volcanoes just aren’t very hot.” Lava in the hottest volcanoes tops out at around 2,400F....

The former commander of the Russian navy's Baltic fleet on Friday denied Swedish media reports that Russia dumped radioactive and chemical waste into Swedish waters in the Baltic Sea in the early 1990s. "This is complete nonsense and a clear provocation, propagated at an international level," Admiral Vladimir Yegorov, who commanded the Baltic fleet from 1991 to 2000, told the Interfax news agency. Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt on Thursday called for the previous governments to explain a television report that Russia dumped chemical weapons and radioactive waste off the shores of a Swedish island in the Baltic Sea. According...

State energy officials would evaluate the future of nuclear power in California under a bill sent Thursday to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. The bill --introduced by Assemblyman Sam Blakeslee, R-San Luis Obispo --requires that the state Energy Commission examine the costs incurred by state and local governments for the continued storage of highly radioactive waste at California' two nuclear power plants. It also requires contingency planning for the loss of a large power plant --such as Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant --as a result of an earthquake. The bill was one of a package of three energy bills authored by Blakeslee...

WASHINGTON - A federal appeals court on Friday rejected Nevada's arguments against a building a nuclear waste site in the state, but ordered the government to develop a plan to protect the public against radiation releases beyond the proposed 10,000 years. The three-judge panel dismissed claims by Nevada that the Bush administration's plan to build the Yucca Mountain waste site was unconstitutional and said that actions by the Energy Department and President Bush leading up to approval of the waste site were not subject to review by the court. In a victory for Nevada, however, the court rejected the government...

Worth repeating. Although I'm sure you're all too narrow-minded and angry to consider words like these. But... Please remove the word "Free" from your name. You poor folks don't have a clue. Have everyone read the Constitution again... carefully and, perhaps, sober this time. Sad and pathetic.. an wholly UN-American Signed David (Who loves truly American ideals)

Thursday, August 14, 2003 Waste Headed to WIPP Ignites By John FleckJournal Staff Writer     A drum of radioactive waste destined for New Mexico caught fire in an Idaho laboratory Wednesday morning because of an unknown chemical inside, officials said.     The Advanced Mixed Waste Treatment Facility at the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory was evacuated for several hours after the drum caught fire, said lab spokeswoman Ann Riedesel.     No radiation escaped and no workers were injured, she said.     Workers were preparing the drum for shipment to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico when the...

<p>WHITMAN - A man who ignored a veterinarian's order to flush his cat's radioactive waste down the toilet was hit with a $2,800 bill. And Bill Jenness said he's happy to pay it.</p> <p>''I don't feel I was mistreated,'' Jenness told The Patriot Ledger of Quincy. ''It's my cat, my responsibility, and I did not abide by the directions I was given.''</p>