May

May 17: Nuclear officials should proceed with Yucca Mountain review

May 14: Finland's brilliant plan for dealing with nuclear waste: pulling a Keyser Söze - After decades of planning and $12 billions of investment, the United States grand plan to dispose of the nation's nuclear waste in Nevada's remote Yucca Mountain melted down in political rancor like... well, kind of like a nuclear plant melting down. The Obama Administration pulled the plug on funding the project without specifying any technical problems, leaving the Government Accountability Office to conclude it was done for purely political reasons.

May 14: The Thing That Couldn't Die: Yucca Battle Continues in Congress and in the Courts - As Republican members of Congress try to exert pressure on Reid and Senator Barbara Boxer (whose committee has jurisdiction over the NRC) to quickly confirm Svinicki, two states with heaping helpings of nuclear waste have gone to court to make sure that the Yucca repository is kept, if not on track, at least on life support.

May 13: Opinion - Licensure process must continue for Yucca nuclear waste site

May 13: Debate continues over proposed nuclear waste facility- The debate on what to do with America's spent nuclear fuel and other contaminated waste products is a hot topic. Recently, the Republican-controlled Arizona State Legislature endorsed the state to become home to the nation's first permanent nuclear recycling and waste storage site, and there's a possibility it could be placed in the Gila Valley's back yard.

May 13: Nuclear story was disappointing, disservice to community- The line continues to be blurred between fact and opinion in today's media, and Sunday's Courier served another example with a misleading and fear-inducing "news" article ("State Legislature endorses Arizona as dumping ground for nuclear waste").

May 12: TVA nuclear waste storage pact has hot history - The nuclear disaster in Japan and the abandonment of a spent fuel repository at Yucca Mountain, Nev., have prompted TVA to consider a $298 million contract for giant concrete and steel casks to store nuclear waste outside its operating plants.

May 10: Opinion - Uncle Sam, derelict nuclear-waste disposer - Enter the proposed Yucca Mountain nuclear-waste repository. The debate over Yucca Mountain has gone on for decades. But this week, a federal appeals court heard arguments that could result in a court order forcing the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) to complete its long-overdue review of the Yucca proposal.

May 10: Site fight - In arguments before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Washington, D.C., circuit, states and municipalities seeking to dump their nuclear waste in Nevada made their case for a court ruling to re-start the Yucca Mountain suitability process, shut down after Congress failed to fund it.

May 7: Dry cask storage to house spent fuel locally - Spent fuel at Nine Mile Point Nuclear Station units 1 and 2 in Scriba will be transported to storage sites on the grounds surrounding the power plants this summer, according to officials of Constellation Energy Nuclear Group, owner of the two units.

May 7: Nuclear Energy Won't Die - Some thought that nuclear energy may get buried after the Japanese Fukushima deluge. But the rumblings in this country are suggesting that it won't die.

May 7: Dry cask storage to house spent fuel locally - Spent fuel at Nine Mile Point Nuclear Station units 1 and 2 in Scriba will be transported to storage sites on the grounds surrounding the power plants this summer, according to officials of Constellation Energy Nuclear Group, owner of the two units.

May 6: What if Yucca Mountain becomes a repository for data? - When Congress gets back to town this week, two items will be up for discussion that, as we reported last week, will heavily interest Nevada: cybersecurity and Yucca Mountain.

May 6: Politics, the law and Yucca Mountain

May 5: State Legislature endorses Arizona as dumping ground for nuclear waste: Safford area one of five potential locations -if the Republican-controlled Arizona State Legislature has its way, the state could become the nation's dumping ground for nuclear waste.

May 5: South Carolina suing federal goverment over $1.4 billion state paid for nuclear storage

May 5: Is Yucca Mountain Still Dead? - New York Times

May 4: Spokesman changes his tune on Yucca Mountain — because he must Greg Lemon spinning the opposite direction with Joe Heck's team after stint with congressman who advocated for the nuclear waste site

May 4: Fuel for the Fire -

May 4:Yucca Mountain May Get Second Life Courts looking into this - The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit could rule within the next few months on whether the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) should be forced to reopen its license case for the Yucca Mountain spent fuel repository in Nevada, even though the Obama administration has no interest in developing the much-debated nuclear waste site.

May 4: Yucca backers pressing issue - upporters of a proposed nuclear waste dump in Nevada urged a federal appeals court Wednesday to force the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to move forward on a licensing plan for the long-delayed project.

May 2: Funding issues behind decision to end Yucca licensing: US NRC attorney- A US Nuclear Regulatory Commission attorney told a federal appeals court Wednesday that the agency ended its review of the Yucca Mountain repository license application last year because it was apparent Congress would not fund the work.

May 2: SC may sue Obama administration again if Aiken Co. lawsuit fails

May 2: Federal appeals court hears arguments on Yucca Mountain project - It may seem like the sort of question best reserved for psychics’ studios and self-help literature, but it’s also likely to determine how the U.S. District Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia rules in the case that several states and Nye County have brought against the Nuclear Regulatory Commission regarding Yucca Mountain

May 2: Appeals court hears arguments over Yucca Mountain- Supporters of a proposed nuclear waste dump in Nevada urged a federal appeals court Wednesday to force the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to move forward on a licensing plan for the long-delayed project.

April

April 30: States seek court action on Yucca nuclear-waste dump

April 30: South Carolina seek court action over N-waste dump An appeals-court panel will hear arguments Wednesday, May 2, 2012 in a lawsuit filed by South Carolina and Washington state seeking an end to a political stalemate over the Yucca Mountain nuclear-waste repository.

WASHINGTON — Federal judges are again being asked to solve a difficult problem that lawmakers can't fix: the decades-old morass of how to handle tons of nuclear waste in temporary storage around the country.

April 30: NRC Commish's Stunning Lack of Candor Should Make President Rethink Renomination

April 30: Congress Goes Nuclear - The short version is this bill is consent-based, meaning the Feds can’t just pick a site and force it down a State’s throat, but have to wait for someone to bid for it and requires approval of the Governor, any affected Tribes, and the local representatives of that State.

April 30: Protecting South Carolina's interests at Yucca Mountain - The message is now very clear: Abide by the law, or pay the price.

April 27: Nuclear power waste and storage facility proposed for Ariz. - Could Arizona become the next dumping ground for nuclear waste? That's exactly what one Arizona lawmaker is proposing.

April 26: BILL ALLOTS $25 MIL FOR YUCCA MOUNTAIN Republicans and Democrats on the committee did agree that the Obama administration's decision to terminate the long-planned Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository in Nevada was misguided and "counter to the law." The committee bill attempts to fix that by providing DOE with $25 million to work on a solution to storing commercial nuclear waste, but only if it is directed at Yucca Mountain. Also, the bill would bar DOE from spending any funds to eliminate the option of Yucca Mountain as a waste site. Those measures could face opposition in the Senate, however, where Senator Harry Reid, a Nevada Democrat and majority leader, has vowed the Yucca Mountain repository will never be built. In fact, an appropriations bill passed by the Senate Appropriations Energy and Water Development Subcommittee on Tuesday provided no funds for Yucca Mountain. It did, however, include a provision that would create a DOE pilot program for siting and developing an interim consolidated storage site for commercial spent nuclear waste. The Senate Appropriations Committee is set to take up its own version of the energy and water development appropriations bill on Thursday. That bill would provide DOE with $27.1 billion in 2013, an increase of $1.38 billion above fiscal 2012. That is $1 billion above the $26.1 billion provided by the House committee.

April 25: Senate Panel Advances Bill for Temporary Nuclear Storage Sites - A Senate committee proposed letting U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu begin the process to build temporary storage sites for nuclear waste in communities that seek such a facility.

April 25: Amodei's efforts to strike Republican compromise on Yucca faces first real test - When the House Appropriations committee votes on an annual Energy and Water package today, Nevadans might want to brace for some powerful deja vu: Just like last year, House Republican leaders want to spend $35 million to revive the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste project over Nevada lawmakers’ objections, all but setting up a repeat of last year’s fights.

April 25: Lawmakers mount new bid to revive Yucca Mountain - House lawmakers supporting the Yucca Mountain repository plan to advance a bill this week that would set aside $35 million to revive the controversial nuclear waste site.

April 25: Bill to ease radioactive rules makes some in Missouri worry -An amendment quietly added to legislation in the Missouri House would make it easier -- and far less expensive -- for a Canadian company to ship radioactive material through the state.

April 25: Should nukes be nullified? The debate over nuclear energy has remained inconclusive with environmentalists and the nuclear industry at loggerheads. Antony P U discusses the effects of nuclear waste on the environment while suggesting alternate sources of energy.

April 24: U.S. Sen. Dean Heller Calls On Congress To Continue Defunding Of Yucca Mountain - U.S. Sen. Dean Heller, R-Nev., today sent a letter to the chairmen and ranking members of both the Senate and House Committees on Appropriations asking them to continue defunding the proposed high level nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain.

April 24: Senate bill takes first new step on nuke waste - Sen. Dianne Feinstein unveiled a bill Tuesday that she said takes a first step, though admittedly a small one, to relocate thousands of tons of nuclear waste left in limbo by the cancellation of the Yucca Mountain repository.

April 23: Republicans Push Spending to Dump Waste in Reid Back Yard - A proposed nuclear waste dump outside Las Vegas that the U.S. Senate’s top Democrat has spent years trying to kill is back on the congressional agenda as Republicans are pushing for it in spending bills.

April 20: NRC leader fights abuse accusations - RC Chairman Gregory Jaczko denied accusations he abuses women in the workplace, a charge that has resurfaced in the latest fight in Congress over the nuclear safety agency.

April 19: Obama Defies Reid On Key Appointment - Reuters reported that Obama will renominate Svinicki despite the majority leader's objection, setting up an intra-party battle over Reid's signature issue, Yucca Mountain. A White House aide confirmed that Obama will indeed renominate Svinicki.

April 19: Obama to renominate Republican member of Nuclear Regulatory Commission - President Barack Obama will nominate Republican Kristine Svinicki to a new term on the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, despite opposition from two top Democratic senators.

April 19: Old tensions return as Republican senators demand NRC member be reappointed - Old tensions at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission are surfacing again as Republican leaders banded together Wednesday to issue a demand to the president: Renominate Commissioner Kristine Svinicki, whose term is expiring, or else.

April 19: Energy bill would keep Yucca open - A bill introduced this month by U.S. Rep. Jeff Duncan (R-S.C.) calls for the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository in Nevada to remain open.

April 19: RPT-Turmoil at U.S. nuclear regulator spills into Congress- A toxic internal battle that has scarred the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission as it works on historic reforms now threatens to hold up the work of the U.S. Senate as leaders spar over an opening on the five-member panel.

April 18: NRC Nomination Revives Political Fight - At issue is whether Republican Kristine Svinicki, who has criticized the current chairman, will be renominated to the five-member board before her term ends on June 30.

April 18: Bill legalizing fracking in NC will be taken up in May session -RALEIGH A state Senate committee on energy policy on Wednesday approved a proposal to legalize fracking in North Carolina in a little more than two years, and during that period establish a new regulations to ensure the environmentally sensitive process of natural gas extraction is done safely.

April 17: Bill gives big increase for fossil fuels research - Fossil fuels and nuclear energy are big winners in the House Appropriations Committee’s energy and water spending bill that was released Tuesday...An additional $765 million would go to nuclear energy research and demonstration, about the same amount as 2012, as well as $25 million to keep Yucca Mountain in Nevada operational.

April 10: US NRC should consider work on new repository regulation: chairman - US Nuclear Regulatory Commission Chairman Gregory Jaczko said Tuesday he believes the agency should begin looking at how to proceed with the development of a generic repository licensing regulation to replace those tailored to a repository at Yucca Mountain, Nevada.

April 9: Letter to the Editor Who made Harry Reid king of the USA?-Your pungent April 5 editorial, "Derail this gravy train," on the boondoggle of running a train from Las Vegas to nowhere — er, make that Victorville, Calif. — was exactly on point. And its political backdrop raises a troubling question. While I confess to a strong preference for U.S. Senate Democratic leadership rather than that of Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), I have to wonder about the slack accorded Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) in his parochialism on issues that go well beyond Nevada. First, he cons 2008 presidential nominee Barack Obama into prematurely abandoning the proposal to place a nuclear waste complex at Yucca Mountain. Now he's asking the taxpayers' indulgence of his high-speed-rail fantasies. Is it heretical to ponder a tipping point between such self-serving scheming and the national interest?

April 5: Going Nuclear - NRC Chairman Gregory Jaczko discusses nuclear's future and agency turmoil. Gregory Jaczko, chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, has had a tough year. The normally obscure agency was thrust into the limelight after a triple meltdown at Japan's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant in March 2011. Since then, even while the regulator has been wracked by a very public internal feud, it has also moved forward, issuing the first construction and operating licenses for new U.S. nuclear reactors in almost 35 years. The embattled chairman spoke with National Journal about the challenges of his job. Edited excerpts follow.

March 2012

March 20: Solving Nuclear Storage Issues - The desire to meet the requirements of an increasingly energy hungry world, without the carbon emissions associated with fossil-fuel-fired power plants, has caused many utility companies to consider nuclear energy.

March 19: Energy is top concern, Sensenbrenner says - The high cost of energy is the No. 1 issue on the minds of his constituents, Rep. James Sensenbrenner, R-Menomonee Falls, said in a stop at the Watertown Daily Times on Friday.

March 17: Comments Print E-mail Share Nye County, Sandoval clash over future of Yucca - Despite the tough words earlier this week by Gov. Brian Sandoval, the proposed Yucca Mountain nuclear dump is still alive.

March 14: NRC unites on safety, but rift remains - Members of the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) testified regarding new safety rules during a hearing by the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee on Thursday, presenting a united front despite ongoing divisions over controversial issues such as nuclear waste.

March 13:Graham wants Yucca fees repaid in rebates to electricity customers in S.C. - U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham has a simple lesson in consumer economics for the federal government: We paid for something we didn’t get, so please give us our money back.

March 12: Nevadans Surveyed About Yucca Mountain - A new survey shows more Nevadans are in favor of turning opening up Yucca Mountain as an energy research park.

Public Opinion Strategies surveyed 500 likely voters last month. Of them, 62% said they supported the created of a research park, for the study of reprocessing spent nuclear fuel. 34% said the Yucca Mountain should be closed entirely, and 2% of respondents were undecided.

In Washoe County, 60% of those surveyed are in support and 37% are opposed. In just Reno, 64% are in support, with 32% opposed. In Clark County, 61% of residents support it, with 36% opposed. 75% of rural residents supported the opening of the site, with 17% opposed.

Among party registration, 73% of Republicans, 66% of Independents, and 50% of Democrats are in support of the research park. 70% of labor union house holds support creating the park, while 68% of teacher union members support it.

March 12: US Senate bill would force nuclear waste fee rebate if Yucca not revived - Legislation introduced in the US Senate Monday would require the US president to certify within 30 days of the bill's passage that Nevada's Yucca Mountain remains the preferred site for a US nuclear waste repository. If the president fails to do so, all money in the Nuclear Waste Fund would be returned to utilities with 75% of that going back to utility customers, according to a statement Senator Lindsey Graham's office issued. The remainder would be used for upgrades at nuclear power plants storing spent fuel, it said.

March 12: Gov. Sandoval Says Nevada Does Not Want Nuclear Waste, But New Poll Shows Support For Research Facility - Gov. Brian Sandoval sent a letter to U.S. Department of Energy Secretary Steven Chu today making it clear that he does not support any type of nuclear waste disposal or interim storage at Yucca Mountain.

March 9: A NEW BEGINNING IN NEVADA - A large majority of Nevada voters say Yucca Mountain should be opened From a statewide survey of 500 likely voters in Nevada, conducted February 21-23, 2012 by Glen Bolger at Public Opinion Strategies.

March 12: U.S. Senate bill: President must allow the Yucca Mountain repository or give rebates: A bill introduced in the U.S. Senate last week calls for the president to be required to allow the operation of Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository or make rebate payments to South Carolina ratepayers who have contributed more than $1.3 billion toward the repository to date.

March 10: Alexander thinks incentives might spur communities to accept nuclear waste - Republican Sen. Lamar Alexander, a nuclear power advocate, is working to turn into legislation the recommendations made in January by the Blue Ribbon Commission, a group appointed by President Barack Obama to move the country out of nuclear-waste limbo.

March 10: Nuclear Waste - Leave well alone -OF ALL THE difficulties nuclear power is heir to, that of waste has most fired the public imagination. Building power plants that last a century is one thing; creating waste that will be dangerous for 100 times as long is another. For decades America has failed to create a long-term repository for the waste from its civilian reactors at its chosen site, Yucca Mountain in Nevada. Most other countries have similarly failed, so the waste from today’s reactors piles up.

March 9: Nye officials give consent to burying nuke waste - With the federal government embarking on a new "consent-based" search for someplace to dispose of nuclear waste, officials in Nye County sent a reminder this week that they still consent to burying it at Yucca Mountain.

March 9: Fukushima disaster halts progress of nuclear power in the US - On February 9, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission approved the construction of two new nuclear reactors near Augusta, Ga., making these the first reactors to receive construction approval in over 30 years. This was seen as a major victory for proponents of nuclear power, possibly signaling a change in U.S. energy policy. Even President Barack Obama, a staunch clean-energy advocate, renewed his commitment to nuclear power in 2010 when he extended over $8 billion in federal loan guarantees to the new nuclear reactors.

March 8: US DOE would resume Yucca work if court tells it to do so: Chu- Department of Energy Secretary Steven Chu said before a House of Representatives subcommittee hearing Thursday that DOE would resume the Yucca Mountain repository program it dismantled in 2010 if there is a court order to do so.

March 3: OBAMA ADMINISTRATION: NO CONFIDENCE IN NUCLEAR ENERGY- A major public concern about nuclear reactors has been that the spent nuclear fuel could remain stranded at the reactor site indefinitely. In the 1970s, courts prohibited the Nuclear Regulatory Commission from licensing new reactors unless it assured the public that the waste would be removed-a requirement called the "waste confidence" rule. President Obama's decision to abandon plans for removing the waste to the Yucca Mountain repository in Nevada creates an uncertainty that could be a barrier to the expansion of nuclear power. Two nuclear policy experts argue that the 1982 Nuclear Waste Policy Act provides sufficient confidence that spent nuclear fuel will be removed and, thus, that the waste confidence rule is unnecessary and should be abandoned.

March 1: Nuclear Power's Unsettled Future - A year after the Fukushima Daiichi disaster in Japan, prospects for the nuclear power industry worldwide are far from certain. An energy policy scholar assesses the key economic, environmental, political, and psychological hinges on which nuclear power's future now swings.

February 2012

Feb 28: America's IMBY era for energy - Last week during a speech at the University of Miami, President Obama called for an “all-of-the-above energy strategy that develops every available source of American energy.”

Feb 28: Commission Blasts Outdated Nuclear Waste Management Policy - The BRC report attributes the dearth of waste management options to decades of ineffective nuclear policy. As a result, the U.S. currently lacks a long-term disposal site for radioactive waste. The majority of used fuel in the U.S. is instead stored at local reactor sites.

Feb 27: A New Urgency to the Problem of Storing Nuclear Waste- The nuclear disaster in Fukushima, Japan, earlier this year caused many countries to rethink their appetite for nuclear power. It is also, in subtler ways, altering the fraught discussion of what to do with nuclear plants’ wastes.

February 2012

Feb 24: The other thing Vogtle has revived: Nuclear hysteria -... Let's just set aside the fact that Yucca Mountain was pulled off the table not for any scientific or technical basis (there is an overwhelming paucity of evidence indicating Yucca Mountain was unsuitable as a repository, a fact confirmed by the GAO)...

Feb 20: Chairman with an agenda - Opinion By John Sununu (story appeared in the Boston Globe) - WASHINGTON HAS a special vocabulary for everything. When bureaucrats become too close with the industry they're charged with overseeing, it's called "regulatory capture.'' The phenomenon can be very expensive for the public. Most famously, the Office of Thrift Supervision was accused of lax oversight contributing to the collapse of Washington Mutual and IndyMac, two of the biggest bank failures during the 2008 financial crisis. The OTS has been eliminated.

Feb 17: New Plant Vogtle reactors praised despite unresolved nuclear waste plan - Steven Chu "Finding a workable way to end the stalemate over the safe and secure storage of used nuclear fuel is one of the most important things we can do to support this vital industry," he said."

Feb 15: Energy working group to assess nuclear waste recommendations - Energy Secretary Steven Chu vowed Wednesday to develop a strategy for managing the country’s nuclear waste based on recommendations issued last month by the Blue Ribbon Commission.

Feb 8: Yucca could still be on the table for nuclear waste: BRC member

Feb 8: White House is all talk on its energy strategy - President Obama said in his State of the Union address that he supports an "all-of-the-above" national energy strategy. Unfortunately, his actions and the actions of his administration have not followed in line with this statement.

Feb 6: Debate emerges over refunding nuclear waste fee - With long-held plans to develop a national repository for nuclear waste locked in political limbo, a debate is emerging over what to do with billions of dollars collected from utility customers in South Carolina and other states to pay for the illusive

Feb 5: Insisting on Yucca Mountain won't fix nuclear waste problem, says Hamilton -The fact of Yucca Mountain still standing empty of nuclear waste is a testament to the need for a new approach to siting permanent nuclear waste disposal factories, said a co-chair of a blue ribbon commission chartered to examine radioactive waste policy.

Feb 4: Nuclear waste fracas that just won't go away

Feb 2: Yucca Mountain as a nuclear-waste site - (Opinion) This is just another burden on the American taxpayer. The residents near Yucca Mountain don't want nuclear waste stored there. The residents of the Tri-Cities don't want nuclear waste stored at Hanford. Sounds like a clear case of "Not In My Back Yard." They are both half right: There is no safe haven for nuclear waste, waste that must be kept isolated from all living things for hundreds of thousands of years.

Feb 1: CAGW President Tom Schatz Testifies on Yucca Mountain - To date, through assessments in their utility bills, ratepayers have contributed between $750 and $780 million each year since 1983 into the Nuclear Waste Fund. The Department of Energy (DOE) has spent $15 billion to evaluate various possible sites, to develop Yucca Mountain, and to submit the licensing application, but the national inventory of spent nuclear fuel stands at 65,000 metric tons and not one spent fuel rod has been moved to the Yucca Mountain facility. The spent fuel languishes at 75 sites in 33 states, stored either in cooling pools or, when the pools have reached capacity, in expensive dry cask storage facilities adjacent to operational reactor sites.

Feb 1: Heads of US nuclear waste panel call for new approach to disposal - The top-down approach the federal government used to select the proposed repository site at Yucca Mountain, Nevada does not work and a new process is needed, the co-chairmen of a blue ribbon commission on nuclear waste told a subcommittee in the US House of Representatives Tuesday.

Feb 1: DOE Responds to Complaints About Its Commitment to Open Government - After a journalist called attention to the difficulty of finding documents about the prospective Yucca Mountain nuclear repository last week, the Department of Energy responded in near-record time. Cammie Croft, director of New Media & Citizen Engagement, addressed the concerns in a reasonable blog post on Energy.gov. She pulled together a specific list of Yucca Mountain documents and explained the general problem that governmental bodies have.

January 2012

Jan 30: How to Win Friends, Influence People, and Bury Nuclear Waste - The decades-long stalemate on where to store U.S. nuclear waste could be ending.

Jan 30: What about radioactive waste? - Although the nuclear power industry touts the fuel as emission free, it still leaves a big challenge behind: what to do with radioactive waste.

Jan 29: What Sweden can teach us about nuclear waste - Back in the 1980s, the Swedish government drew up a long list of locations that could potentially host a waste repository. Each town was given a chance to veto, and, after two decades and countless hours of local consultation, Sweden had two finalists, towns that actually competed with each other for the chance to host the site and reap the economic benefits. (One was finally picked in 2009.) Both towns, not surprisingly, already had nuclear plants in the area, and polls showed support running as high as 83 percent.

Jan 27: Final Blue Ribbon Commission Report Urges Cooperative Efforts in Siting Waste Facilities - A new consent-based approach to siting future nuclear waste management facilities and a new organization to run a waste management program are two key recommendations in a final report released Jan. 26 by the Blue Ribbon Commission on America's Nuclear Future.

Jan 27: Immediate action needed on US waste policy - After nearly two years of work, the Blue Ribbon Commission has issued its final recommendations for "creating a safe, long-term solution" for dealing with the USA's used nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste. Efforts to develop a waste repository and a central storage facility should start immediately, it says.

Jan 27: Around the Halls: President Obama and America's Nuclear Future - President Obama's Blue Ribbon Commission report on America's Nuclear Future, released today, is exasperatingly devoid of meaningful concrete policies that will move the industry ahead and allow it not only to contribute to the future supply of electricity in the United States but also to make the vital contribution that Professor Socolow's wedge theory posits nuclear energy must make if we have any chance of reducing rising global CO2 emissions over the next 30 years.

Jan 25:Where information goes to die - Last August, the US Energy Department proudly announced a "comprehensive website reform, making Energy.gov a cutting-edge, interactive information platform and saving taxpayers more than $10 million annually." In short, the government eliminated 12 separate department program sites and merged them into one (with plans to add many more), upgraded the content-management system, and streamlined information into the cloud PDF. In theory, Energy.gov is now the "cutting-edge" go-to site for information on everything from home weatherization to nuclear research. In practice, however, it's more often a black hole.

Jan 26: Panel: Start now to replace Yucca Mountain nuclear dump - WASHINGTON (AP) – The United States should immediately start looking for an alternative to replace the failed Yucca Mountain nuclear waste dump in Nevada, which cost an estimated $15 billion but was never completed, a presidential commission said Thursday.

Jan 26: Feds: Company backing Utah nuclear plant is a fraud - A company once touted as one of the main financial backers of Utah’s first nuclear power plant is in big trouble with federal securities regulators.

Jan 26: Nuke Us: The Town That Wants America's Worst Atomic Waste- This attitude—“Yes in my backyard,” if you will—has brought near permanent prosperity to this isolated spot that until recently had no endemic economic engine.

Jan 26: Blue Ribbon Commission on America's Nuclear Future Issues Final Report to Secretary of Energy - The Commission noted that it was specifically not tasked with rendering any opinion on the suitability of Yucca Mountain, proposing any specific site for a waste management facility, or offering any opinion on the role of nuclear power in the nation's energy supply mix.

Jan 25: Broken Promises on Energy Independence - Last night we heard some lofty language from our campaigner-in-chief about exploring America's energy potential. We heard about the development of offshore gas, and about reducing America's dependence on foreign oil. What the president failed to mention is that he recently killed the Keystone XL pipeline, which would have put thousands of Americans to work and is the best way to supply oil to U.S. Gulf Coast refineries.

Jan 25: President Obama comes to Las Vegas -- shish, boom bah! - So, President Obama is heading to Las Vegas to talk more about his "everything goes" domestic energy policy. Do you know why he's headed to Vegas? Because the press corps here for the most part can't find a discouraging word (or question) to ask the president when it comes to energy policy. Someone may serve up a Yucca Mountain question, let the president play to the Nevada crowd, and then fail to follow it up with key questions about what this means for the national development of nuclear energy. Is he for nuclear energy (like he says he is) or not? And how does that support mesh with the closing of Yucca Mountain?

Jan 25: Yucca Mountain on the horizon for GOP candidates - The presidential debates have featured discussions most recently addressing the Republican candidates' tax returns, how quickly they'd repeal President Obama's Affordable Health Care Acr and personal claims made by ex-spouses. One topic missing from the recent debates in South Carolina, but not from the campaigns' radar, is the nation's nuclear waste storage plan, which also hits home with Washingtonians.

Jan 24: A mountain of nuclear waste- Before the month is out, the U.S. Department of Energy’s Blue Ribbon Commission on America’s Nuclear Future will unveil the result of its two year-long investigation into what to do with the accumulated radioactive waste at the country’s nuclear power plants. By year’s end, that waste will constitute a mountain 70 years high, with the first cupful generated in 1942 at the Fermi lab not far from Chicago when scientists first created a self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction.

Jan 13: Senator: Send used nuclear fuel rods here - State Sen. Al Melvin admits that not everyone thinks having a nuclear waste processing plant and burial site in Arizona is a great idea.So the Republican from Tucson's far-north suburbs has a sweetener he believes will get some people to change their minds: Money.He is proposing to make Arizona as the place where all the nuclear plants in the country send their spent nuclear fuel rods. Melvin, a long-time proponent of nuclear energy, said the failure of the federal government to set up a planned high-level radioactive waste dump at Yucca Mountain in Nevada creates an opportunity for Arizona.

Jan 10: NRC: Can chairman's new chief of staff help bridge panel's deep divides? -Coggins is moving into a tough spot. Jaczko and his colleagues do not get along. In October, the four commissioners -- two Republicans and two Democrats -- complained to the White House about Jaczko bullying NRC staffers, particularly female employees, and withholding information from the commission. Jaczko denied the allegations.

Jan 9: Reps. give overview of legislative session- South Carolina has provided $1.3 billion toward the prospective Yucca Mountain site for radioactive waste disposal, including spent fuel at the Savannah River Site. However, that project has been shelved, at least for now. The state's legislative delegation has asked President Barack Obama and Secretary of Energy Steven Chu about returning those funds to ratepayers, Young said.

Jan 5: 'Nuclear waste here? Why not?' - As reported shortly before Christmas, scientists at Sandia National Laboratories have produced a handful of studies into geologic formations that might replace the scuttled Yucca Mountain site for disposal of highly radioactive wastes.

Jan 5: Our view: Nuclear waste here? Actually, why not?- Duluth Daily News. The news landed like a lump of coal for many of us on Christmas morning: The Lake Superior region of Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan’s Upper Peninsula has “the most stable region of granite outcrops in the U.S.” Also, there hasn’t been a volcano or significant earthquake here in millions of years. And that makes our area perfect — absolutely perfect, according to a front-page story about a 114-page study from the Sandia National Laboratory — for entombing nuclear waste.

Jan 3: Halt nuclear panel meltdown - The chairman of the NRC has been excoriated by scientists who have seen years of research effectively discarded as Mr. Jaczko wantonly terminated the national nuclear waste repository in Yucca Mountain, Nevada.

 

December 2011

 

Dec 29: Nuclear power: The case for a safe, alternative energy source

Dec 29: Yucca Mountain received no funding after a bill was passed in the House of Representatives on Dec. 16, and Sen. Harry Reid blocked an attempt by House Republicans to keep the issue open when they tried to halt closure procedures of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. In a press release distributed after the year-end funding meeting, Reid stated, "Once again, Congress will not appropriate a single dime to make Nevada the nation's dumping ground for nuclear waste. Despite the best efforts of House Republicans, President Obama and Congress have made a decision to end this dangerous project. … Yucca Mountain was never a good idea and it's time to move on towards real solutions that ensure Americans' health and safety."

Dec 27: Why would a utility consider Nuclear Energy? - The future of the U.S. electricity portfolio is a complex matter that asks the industry to find a path forward that acceptably balances many different factors. Once one acknowledges that every generating technology carries physical, financial and environmental risks, the conversation can begin in an intellectually honest manner. In the case of the nuclear industry, the issues frequently discussed are the costs of new construction, safety and fuel management.

Dec 27: Bomb-Grade Uranium Being Shipped from Canada to the U.S. - Today, Canada's Globe and Mail reports that "weapons-grade uranium is quietly being transported within Canada, and into the United States, in shipments that the country's nuclear watchdog wants to keep cloaked in secrecy." The radioactive freight is being shipped from Chalk River, Ontario into the U.S. via routes of which only authorized agencies and law enforcement personnel know the details. The freight contains a large enough amount of highly enriched uranium capable of making "several Hiroshima sized nuclear bombs."

Dec 27: As Nuclear Plants Age, No Easy Energy Solutions - No nuclear power plants have been built in this country since the accident at Three Mile Island more than 30 years ago. The old reactors continue to provide 20 percent of our electrical power, but many of them will start to come offline in the next 10 years or so.

Dec 21: Yucca funding remains zero in 2012 - Congress for the second consecutive year is zeroing out spending for the Yucca Mountain project, the nuclear waste plan that continues to recede as government policy.

Dec 19: Feuding NRC Faces Decisions on New Southern Co., Scana Reactors- Members of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission have said they're willing to work together after four of them accused Chairman Gregory Jaczko of bullying employees and creating a toxic work environment.

Dec 16: Koodankulam Nuclear Plant : Risk Analysis on Spent Fuel – Part 4- Nuclear power plant uses nuclear fission techniques in which atom splits into smaller parts and release the abundant quantity of heat energy.

Dec 15: The Plot to Oust America's Nuclear Watchdog- In what may well be a temporary aberration, the Obama Administration appears to be sticking by Nuclear Regulatory Commission Chairman Gregory Jaczko, even though the nuclear industry most definitely wants him out. 

Dec 15: Illinois wants its waste gone - A Republican congressmember from Illinois is faulting a Democratic U.S. senator from Massachusetts for failing to help his constituents by opposing a nuclear waste dump in Nevada.

Dec 11: Lawmakers Split Over NRC's Jaczko -Lawmakers are splitting along party lines over whether to support U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Chairman Gregory Jaczko after colleagues questioned his leadership in a letter released Friday.

Dec 9: Nuclear Panel Members Say They Have 'Grave Concerns' About Chairman Jaszko - Four Nuclear Regulatory commissioners from both parties say they have "grave concerns" about the panel's chairman, charging that the actions of Gregory Jaczko are "causing serious damage" to the commission and creating a "chilled work environment at the NRC."

Dec 8: UCS Comments on Threat Assumptions for Dry Cask Security - The termination of the Yucca Mountain repository project has left the US with no near-term prospects for a final disposal site for spent nuclear fuel. Until the repository program gets back on track, dry cask storage of spent fuel can be an acceptable interim option for many decades, but it is not risk-free. Long-term dry cask storage raises safety and security concerns that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) and the nuclear industry will have to resolve.

Dec 7: Coffin wants to keep alive city's Yucca Mountain Nuclear Repository Committee - Coffin argues that eliminating the Yucca Mountain Nuclear Repository Committee, which hasn't met in four years, would be a mistake, though the state has a similar committee aimed at blocking the federal government from directing nuclear waste to a storage site about 100 miles north of the city.

Dec 7: Nuclear Reactor License Renewals May Be Slowed, Jaczko Says- Limited staffing at the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission may slow the agency in renewing licenses for existing nuclear power plants, the agency's chairman said.

Dec 4: Nevada Cites Concerns With Transport Of Hazardous Waste In Response To Draft Plan For Former Test Site - CARSON CITY – A draft environmental statement addressing the future of the former Nevada Test Site appears to be setting the stage for the transportation of mixed hazardous and low-level radioactive waste to the site through heavily populated areas of Las Vegas, the state response to the document says.

Dec 3: House Republican targets Sen. Kerry for Yucca Mountain opposition - Top Republican on the House Energy and Commerce Committee criticized Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) for his opposition to the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository this week, arguing that lawmakers who are unsupportive of the Nevada storage site are effectively ensuring that high-level nuclear waste remains in their states

Dec 3: Advantages and challenges of nuclear power - Yet the authors of the report also recognize that the impediments are significant. No federal depository is available to accept the highly radioactive waste that is a byproduct of nuclear power. Financing the construction would be difficult. And nuclear power remains unpopular with an ill-informed public. (State of Conneticut)

November 2011

Nov 30: Transport of Nuclear Waste Protested By German Activists Calling For Change - Nuclear energy has been unpopular in Germany since the fallout from the 1986 Chernobyl disaster in Ukraine drifted over the country.

Nov 29: Ballot Initiative Would Close California's Nuclear Plants, Cause Rolling Blackouts- Should it attract enough signatures by mid-April to be placed on the ballot in California, an initiative could effectively shutter the San Onofre and Diablo Canyon nuclear plants.

Nov 28: Dramatic Carbon Emission Reduction Goals Targeted By Koch Brothers Achievable, Study Finds - California's ambitious greenhouse gas reduction goals may be eminently achievable using available technologies, a new study finds, although the virtual elimination of fossil fuel to generate electricity is required.

Nov 27: A New Urgency to the Problem of Storing Nuclear Waste- The United States has long contemplated a permanent disposal site at Yucca Mountain in Nevada, but that plan has been stymied, perhaps permanently, by the politics of local opposition. Nevada has an early presidential primary, and this autumn several Republican presidential candidates, appearing at a debate in Las Vegas, denounced proposals to use the site. The Senate majority leader, Senator Harry Reid, Democrat of Nevada, also opposes using Yucca Mountain.

Nov 20: Illinois' Sen. Kirk's Letter on Nuclear Spent Fuel at Yucca Mt. - On November 18, Senator Mark Kirk (R-IL) sent a strong letter in support of Yucca Mountain being the permanent repository of nuclear waste. The letter, signed by 31 Senators was sent to the Chairmen and Ranking Members of the Senate and House subcommittees urging them to support the bipartisan, House passed language which funds the storage of nuclear waste inside Nevada's Yucca Mountain. Senator Kirk has made establishing a permanent storage facility for America's nuclear waste a critical issue for all states and especially critical for Illinois.

Nov 17: No Alternative to Yucca Mountain for Waste Found Yet - Licoln County Record - Nearly two years of study and scrutiny regarding storage of high-level nuclear waste in the U.S. has failed to find any better alternatives than what has already been proposed at Yucca Mountain.

Nov 15: Heller and Kirk in an amendment-off over Yucca mountain - Republican Sens. Dean Heller and Mark Kirk have got themselves into a bona fide amendment-off over Yucca mountain, but their squabble may be destined to stay on the sidelines of the Senate floor.

Nov 14: Final Showdown on Spending: .....Sen. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) plans to offer an amendment to the package of spending bills that would continue funding for Nevada's planned nuclear waste repository Yucca Mountain, a project Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) has pledged to end. The Obama administration has also taken steps to end funding for the project.

Nov 8: Familiar face to return to Nevada Nuclear Projects Agency - the Nevada Board of Examiners on Tuesday gave the go-ahead to pursue a contract with Joe Strolin, former planning administrator and acting director of the agency. Board approval is needed under a new law aimed at curbing abuses uncovered in state audits on the use of contract workers.

Nov 7: Court sets schedule in Yucca case

Nov 3: Dump switch -The Reno News & Review provides a useful summary of the politics roiling around the nuclear waste issue after Republican presidential candidates Mitt Romney and Rick Perry said they opposed opening a national waste repository at Nevada's Yucca Mountain.

October 2011

Oct 30: REP. PAUL BROUN AND REP. ANDY HARRIS HOLD A JOINT HEARING ON AMERICA'S NUCLEAR FUTURE
Oct 28: US House science lawmakers spar over Yucca Mountain
Oct 27: Energy CEOs Urge Court To End Nuclear Waste Fee
Oct 27:Oral history records 'lessons learned' in Yucca Mountain fight
Oct 26: Quit stalling on solutions for spent nuclear fuel rods
Oct 26: Recycling nuclear waste makes sense for energy future
Oct 25: County creating oral history of decades-long battle over Yucca Mountain nuclear dump in Nevada
Oct 21: Yucca Mountain Nuclear Waste Project Opposed By GOP Candidates
Oct 20: Nye County official sees no alternative to Yucca Mountain
Oct 20: GAO studies alternative uses for Yucca Mountain
Oct 20: GOP Lawmakers Challenge White House on 'Scientific Misconduct'
Oct 20: If I ruled Yucca Mountain
Oct 19: Nuclear waste task force meets in Atlanta
Oct 18: GOP candidates line up against Yucca Mountain
Oct 14: Yucca Mountain: The 'Scientization' Of Politics
Oct 12: The "scientization" of Yucca Mountain
Oct 10: MASS. MARKET: Quest continues for nuclear waste solution
Oct 10: End deplorable Yucca delay
Oct 7: Nuclear Regulatory Commission Chair: Events Like Fukushima Too Rare to Require Immediate Changes
Oct 7: Nuclear crises renew regulator's relevance
Oct 7: Spent nuclear fuel rests in peace near Fort St. Vrain

September 2011

Sept 30: Senior U.S. Official Denies Talk of Foreign Nuclear Waste Site in Mongolia
Sept 30: Nuclear Regulatory Commission Suspends Yucca Mountain Licensing Hearings
Sept 29: Savannah River Site Gets Nuclear Waste
Sept 28: UNH students get a lesson in nuclear power
Sept 28: Draft Plan For Future Of Former Nevada Test Site Questioned At DOE Public Hearing
Sept 28: America Falling Behind: The Strategic Dimensions of Chinese Commercial Nuclear Energy
Sept 28: NRC invites public to meeting on spent fuel
Sept 23: Despite Berkley's ethics woes, final chapter yet to be written
Sept 23: Pro-Yucca lawmaker tries new strategy
Sept 22: Guest Column: The Lessons of Fukushima
Sept 22: TWENTY-FOUR MILLENNIA AHEAD
Sept 22: San Clemente sets up nuclear meetings
Sept 20: Could SRS be the new Yucca Mountain?
Sept 19: 26 Organizations Voiced Support for Resumption of Yucca Mountain Review
Sept 19: Yucca Nuclear Waste Wars
Sept 19: Court urged to intervene in Yucca Mountain dispute
Sept 15: NRC allows closure of Yucca Mountain nuclear dump
Sept 14: EDITORIAL: Reid goes nuclear on waste storage
Sept 13: NRC issues final Yucca Mountain technical report, nears closure of license review
Sept 13: NRC commissioner offers views on Yucca
Sept 13: Don't dump nuclear waste on us, Westerners say
Sept 12: Blue Ribbon Commission report focuses on process
Sept 12: How Dead Is Yucca Mountain?
Sept 9: Yucca may yet have pulse after ruling
Sept 9: Energy and Commerce Committee has been Preparing All Year for Administration's Regulatory Push th Legislative Solutions Are Primed for Floor Consideration
Sept 8: Temporary storage proposed for vit plant waste
Sept 7: Our views; All power sources present health risks Quake damage to nuke storage unit underscores need for rational policy D
Sept 4: Earthquakes, Hurricanes Highlight Serious Regulation Flaws
Sept 1: Quake shifted nuclear storage containers at Virginia plant

August 2011
Aug 30: Amodei: No reason to close Yucca Mountain entirely
Aug 26: Yucca Nuclear Site Returns
Aug 25: $142M award upheld for San Onofre nuclear fuel disposal
Aug 24: Where will Nuclear Waste Go?
Aug 23: Where to Put Spent U.S. Nuclear Fuel
Aug 22: Blue Ribbon Commission on Nuclear Waste: Missing Opportunity for Lasting Reform
Aug 18: Future of nation's nuclear waste buried in deficit
Aug 16: NRC infighting goes nuclear
Aug 15: County in Nevada where Yucca Mountain is located joins Aiken County lawsuit
Aug 15: Bury Our Nuclear Waste — Before It Buries Us
Aug 14: Japan Prepares for Its First Import of Radioactive Waste Since Earthquake
Aug 13: Expert: Yucca not best place for storing nuclear waste
Aug 12: Nuclear fallout
Aug 9: Nuclear Waste Piles Up—in Budget Deficit
Aug 8: In Our View: Pressing the Feds State attorney general turns up the heat on Nuclear Regulatory Commission
Aug 8: Used 22 times over 314 weeks, Yucca Mountain facility closes
Aug 8: Panel urges speedy removal of CT nuclear waste
Aug 6: Halstead to head nuclear projects agency
Aug 5: Committee releases draft recommendations on safe nuclear waste disposal
Aug 5: Yucca Mountain removed from equation
Aug 4: Governor appoints chief of Nevada nuclear agency
Aug 4: Access to electronic Yucca Mountain data ending
Aug 2: Looking Past Yucca Mountain
Aug 1: The back and forth over Yucca Mountain as nuclear waste storage site

July 2011
Jul 31: Energy NW sues for higher nuclear fuel storage costs
Jul 30: How to store nuclear waste? New approach urged
Jul 26: Yes, In Our Backyard
Jul 22: NRC Releases Study of Yucca Waste-Site Application
Jul 17: Labrador Votes Against, Simpson Votes For Energy Bill
Jul 15: Joe Heck chooses Nevada interests over party loyalty
Jul 15: NRC's Jaczko leads an agency in flux
Jul 14: House Could Breathe New Life Into Yucca Repository
Jul 14: House increases money for nuclear waste review
Jul 14: Optimism in Congress for Hanford Tank Farm Funding
Jul 12: DOE official promises Hanford waste will be moved
Jul 12: Green Scene: A glowing report?
Jul 8: Re-processing nuclear waste
Jul 8: U.S. to pay Xcel $100M for nuclear waste storage
Jul 6: Court Rejects Bid to Rescind Yucca Cancellation
Jul 7: GOP field splits on Yucca
Jul 6: Nevada's Yucca Mountain nuclear site a dilemma for Republican hopefuls
Jul 6: Editorial: We should demand an answer now Obama punts on Yucca Mountain; the nation can't afford another 50-year wait
Jul 5: Learning Lessons from Yucca Mountain
Yucca Lawsuits Must Wait Until NRC Acts, D.C. Circuit Rules

June 2011
June 24: Huntsman: Nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain up to Nevadans
June 21: U.S. official says Yucca nuclear dump not an option
June 21: Bipartisan Outrage Over Obama Administration Termination of Yucca Mountain Nuclear Repository
June 18: Illinois nuclear plant leaks contaminated drinking water
June 16: Defiant NRC Chief Rejects Calls to Resign Over Yucca Mountain Dispute
June 16: Waste discovered at Yucca Mountain
June 16: House OKs $20 million Hanford budget cut
June 13: Jaczko heads to Capitol Hill amid criticism over Yucca handling
June 13: GOP: Politics at play in commission's Yucca Mountain review
June 13: Desert site said ideal for nuclear waste disposal
June 11: Gadomski Says Yucca Mountain Shows U.S. Ineffectiveness
June 9: Chairman Accused of Withholding Information in Nuclear Repository Decision
June 8: Yucca a radioactive issue for Gregory Jaczko
June 7: Radioactive politics over nuclear storage at Yucca Mountain

May 2011

May 31: Debate rumbles on over U.S. Nuclear Waste Recycling Facility
May 29: Callaway, other nuclear plants cope with spent fuel dilemma
May 25: Ore. lawmakers: Don't put nuclear waste at Hanford
May 25: Risk From Spent Nuclear Reactor Fuel Is Greater in U.S. Than in Japan, Study Says
May 24: McCain campaigns in Reno
May 23: In Our View: Focus on Hanford
May 18: Wash., Ore. oppose hauling more waste to Hanford
May 17: Mountain of ... bluster
May 15: U.S. Panel Suggests Moving Used Nuclear Fuel to Interim Sites
May 13: Q+A: Yucca Mountain nuclear waste controversy
May 12: Nuclear watchdog points to gaps in U.S. safety regulations
May 12: Yucca Shutdown Was Political, Federal Watchdog Says
May 10: Funding to fight Yucca Mountain shrinks as dirt thrown on project
May 9: Waxman breaks own rule by outing whistleblower at NRC hearing
May 6: The Yucca Mountain Nuclear Waste Site Lives on -- in NRC and Capitol Hill Infighting
May 6: GAO predicts Hanford costs will rise if Yucca is closed
May 4: Watchdog group wants DOE to review waste safety at Hanford
May 4: Group questions costs of storing nuclear waste
May 4: House Leaders Seek Political Points in Yucca FightMay 2011
May 2: Issa, Shimkus Question Legality of Yucca Nuke Decision

April 2011

April 25: Pahrump stop possible on lawmaker tour of Yucca
April 25: Report Urges Storing Spent Nuclear Fuel, Not Reprocessing It
April 24: Delegation says Zion storage plans OK — for now
A pril 24: Nuclear plant in Clinton running out of space for spent fuel
April 22: Backers of Yucca Mt. say Obama pays lip service to nuclear while ignoring waste needs
April 13: Nuclear disaster's impact
April 22: Leave me a loan
April 21: Japan and Yucca Mountain
April 20: President Obama Speaks at East Reno Business
April 19: Residents quiz nuclear regulators on Oconee plant's safety
April 17: DOE plans support projects for Hanford vit plant
April 12: Nuclear Power: Fears and Facts
April 8: Lessons from Japan on nuclear waste
April 8: Waxman: Cut Yucca trip
April 8: Radioactive fuel rods: The silent threat
April 5: Republicans Open Inquiry on Yucca Mountain Shutdown
April 4: Sandia National Labs suggests we take another look at underground salt deposits for nuclear waste
April 3: While nuclear waste piles up in U.S., billions in fund to handle it sit unused
April 2: Taxpayers, utility ratepayers face mounting nuclear bills
April 3: Blue Ribbon Commission's nuclear report online
April 1: House panel to probe Obama on Yucca nuclear waste dump
April 1: Yucca Mountain: did politics trump science?
April 1: Salty tombs could contain nuclear waste

March 2011

Mar 29: Fukushima Makes Case For Yucca Mountain
Mar 29: SC Attorney General: President out of line in canceling Yucca Mountain
Mar 29: Nuclear Naysayers and the National Interest
Mar 28: Japan crisis refuels nuclear waste storage debate
Mar 24: Nuclear Nevada?
Mar 24: Three lessons from Japan's nuclear crisis
Mar 22: Obama lacks authority to shutter Yucca site, court told
Mar 21: Nuclear disasters: Is the fear realistic?
Mar 20: Coming in this week's Las Vegas Business Press
Mar 20: Demand for energy certain to outweigh fear
Mar 19: Move SRS waste
Mar 19: Japan crisis revives spent fuel dilemma here
Mar 19: U.S. reactors grapple with spent fuel in shadow of Japan crisis
Mar 18: The danger of spent-fuel rods and the Yucca Mountain project
Mar 18: Japan crisis renews U.S. nuclear fuel storage debate
Mar 18: CUNA's Political Ads Win Awards
Mar 18: Bingaman Says Japan Nuclear Accident No Chernobyl
Mar 17: TVA reactors modified to help avoid explosions
Mar 16: N.J. opposes new rule allowing 60-year storage of spent nuclear fuel
Mar 15: The difficult truth about nuclear power
Mar 13: GOP still pushing for Yucca Mountain as nuclear waste site
Mar 12: NRC senior staffers protest Yucca Mountain shutdown
Mar 12: Former EPA chief touts nukes
Mar 10: Energy Northwest sues to suspend nuclear fuel fee
Mar 10: Double attack on US nuclear waste fees
Mar 8: We Energies lawsuit wins millions
Mar 7: NARUC takes federal government to court over waste fee collection
Mar 4: Obama wastes Yucca Mountain
Mar 4: Action sought on nuclear waste site
Mar 2: Wisconsin Electric receives $45.5 million in used fuel settlement

February 2011

Feb 28: Two orders by panel keep active licensing case for Yucca Mountain
Feb 20: Settlement reached in nuclear case
Feb 18: NRC Censors Flub Opportunity to Move Yucca Debate Forward
Feb 14: Heller pushes back on GOP's pro-Yucca Mountain move
Feb 13: Yucca Mountain or not, nuclear waste resides here
Feb 12: US must move past Yucca dump for nuke waste-Chu
Feb 11: House panel proposes advancing Yucca Mountain, cutting policing program
Feb 11: Proos And Nesbitt H ope For Spent Fuel Storage Solution
Feb 8: U.S. 'falling behind' in nuclear power
Feb 3: Reid appoints longtime nuclear veteran to intelligence panel
Feb 2: NRC chairman says Yucca Mountain closeout to include license panel

January 2011

Jan 27: DOE seeks four-month wait on Yucca Mountain case
Jan 19: Missteps have hurt nuke industry
Jan 19: Shimkus to investigate Yucca Mountain
The Hill got its hands on a copy of the House Energy and Commerce Committee's energy and environment agenda January 19th. Here's one more tidbit to add: Rep. John Shimkus (R-Ill.), who will chair the panel's environment subcommittee, is planning to focus on EPA's superfund program and the Obama administration's efforts to abandon the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository. Shimkus told The Hill Tuesday night that he plans to ask Obama administration officials why they abandoned Yucca Mountain. "We really have to ask the tough questions," he said. "Why did we pull the plug and was it all politics. I think people know the answer to that, but you should go through the process of asking the questions."
Jan 19: Strolin will temporarily lead nuclear projects agency
Jan 18: New chairman sets sight on Yucca hearingsJan 11: Appeals court to hear arguments in Yucca Mountain lawsuit
Jan 11: Dangerous High-Level Nuclear Waste with Nowhere to Go
Jan 11: Nuke Agency Still Believes in Geologic Repository
Jan 5: Blue Ribbon panel to tour SRS, look for solution
Jan 4: Federal attorneys maintain US DOE has authority to kill Yucca
Jan 4: Flirting With Disaster
Jan 4: Natural Gas Industry Sees Little Gain From Obama's Show of Support
Jan 4: Commission lets 36 states dump nuke waste in Texas
Jan 4: NRC wants waste stored for century

Jan 31: Reid: Budget would eliminate Yucca Mountain funds
Jan 31: What Harry Reid may face after June’s primary
Jan 29: Secretary Chu Announces Blue Ribbon Commission on America’s Nuclear Future - The Commission, led by Lee Hamilton and Brent Scowcroft, will provide recommendations on managing used fuel and nuclear waste
Jan 28: Is It Just Politics?

News clip regarding the NRC's Licensing Hearings on January 26 and 27th

Consultant Rex Massey and Governor Bob List attend Yucca Mountain Licensing Hearings.

Jan 27: Energy leader to reveal Yucca expert panel Friday
Jan 27: Yucca project assailed
Jan 26: Licensing Procedures Move Forward on Yucca Mountain
Jan 20: Yucca Mountain Decision Ignores Science
Jan 20: Obama’s flunking science
Jan 20: U.S. says wind could power 20 percent of eastern grid
Jan 15: Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources Secretary Matt Frank touts climate control legislation
Jan 15: Nuclear power: Wonder of new technology may be a dangerous diversion
Jan 15: 2nd UPDATE: Loan-Guarantee Program To Be Sped Up
Jan 15: Blumenthal eyes U.S. Senate
Jan 14: Chu, Orszag at Odds Over Yucca Funding
Jan 14: Court Rules for Utilities in Nuclear Waste Case
Jan 13: Nuclear Utility Awarded More Than $50 Million For Partial Breach Of Contract Claim
Jan 12: Green Ink: Shallow Gas, Electric Cars, and the Future of Yucca Mountain
Jan 12: U.S. Can’t Cite Delays to Defend Nuclear Waste Suits (Update1)
Jan 12: White House aide speaks up for nuclear energy Jan 11:Federal Nuclear Judges Affirm Citizen Intervention
Jan 11: Against New Nuclear Power Reactors on Florida Jan 11: Nature Coast Decision Relegates Hottest Waste in Question to Orphan Status
Jan 09: Dr. Edwin X. Berry and MG Paul E. Vallely – Why Jan 09: we support nuclear power and why you should too
Jan 09: Yucca Haunts Admin's Lagging Efforts on Nuclear Waste Study Panel
Jan 02: Wil Hylton: Why Obama Should Rethink the Closure of Yucca Mountain

December 2009

Dec 30: Nuclear plant near Fresno planned
Dec 30: PETT funds were a cash cow from Yucca project
Dec 22: Yucca Mountain Project experiencing brain drain: WASHINGTON -- The acting head of the Yucca Mountain Project is retiring at the end of the month along with another top official, the latest to depart the shrinking nuclear waste program, the Department of Energy confirmed
Dec 21: Court: nuclear spent fuel can be stored at plants
Dec 19: Harried Reid
Dec 16: City of Houston Reneges on NRG Solar Energy Deal
Dec 15: Yucca Mountain:Licensing efforts continue: Energy Department keeping nuclear repository options open
Dec 10:Nuclear waste: Canada asks its towns if they'll give it a home
Dec 9: Report: Spent fuel storage costs may run $225B
Dec 9: NRC OK with Yankee fund plan
Dec 9:One Million Years of Isolation: An Interview With Abraham Van Luik
Dec 8: Field Notes: The wharf and the wind turbine: Possibilities for
Dec 5: Why import nuclear waste?
Dec 3: High cost for US radwaste alternatives
Dec 5: Why import nuclear waste?
Dec 3: High cost for US radwaste alternatives

November 2009
Nov 29: Private capital awaits “long-term signal” on carbon – Chu
Nov 28: Minn. tribe rallies against nuke plant's expansion
Nov 27: Reviving Prism: the Power Reactor, Innovative Small Module
Nov 24: Nuke waste problem
Nov 18: Republicans on the House Energy and Commerce Committee are angry over the Department of Energy's plans to halt work on the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste site.
Nov 18: Group Concerned High-Lever Radioactive Waste May Be Stuck At SRS
Nov 17: Nuclear industry weighs in on nuke dump license
Nov 16: U.S., Japan to Cooperate on Nuclear Fuel Reprocessing Research
Nov 16: Experts Question Hanford's Waste Treatment Plant
Nov 16: A reprosessing plant is the solution
Nov 15: DOE's Non-Performance on Nuclear Fuel Storage Costs Billions
Nov 15: Nuclear plant expansion clears hurdle
Nov 14: In Nevada, nuclear raises touchy issues
Nov 14: Nuclear plant expansion clears hurdle
Nov 13: A mountain of a problem
Nov 13: Yucca Mountain debated Thursday before chamber of commerce
Nov 11: Leaked memo seems to suggest Yucca Mountain dead
Nov 2: The Nuclear Wait

Op Ed Nov 2: Funds for nuclear reprocessing sit idle as energy needs grow
Nov 1: Udall widens push for nuclear plants

October 2009

Oct 31: FACTBOX: Obama signs energy, water spending bill into law
Oct 30: Red Wing hires lobbyist to deal with nuclear waste issue
Oct 30: Solar, wind not the bright path for Nye
Oct 30: Yucca debate planned
Oct 30: NS New Report Review: “The Outlook for Nuclear Energy in the United States: Dark Ages, Renaissance or Age of Enlightenment?”
Oct 30: U.S. Sen. Mark Udall calling for nuclear plants
Oct 27: Harry Reid's dilemma
Oct 26: Senate Leader Harry Reid faces tough re-election
Oct 26: What to Expect As The Senate Tackles the Energy Bill
Oct 26: Doc to Obama: What about Yucca Mountain for waste? Doc Hastings has sent a timely and important question to President Obama: What about Yucca Mountain? Rep. Hastings, R-Wash., was more delicate, more diplomatic than we phrased it above, but the substance was there.  In a carefully worded letter, Hastings asked Obama to share with Congress his plans for disposing of nuclear waste.  "I write to inquire about the status of your plan to develop a new option for our nation's defense waste and commercial high-level nuclear spent fuel," Hastings wrote. Twice in the one letter he mentions the need for scientific justification for whichever site is chosen. Yucca Mountain was the spot chosen after just such a scientific search, and it was written into law by Congress
Oct 24:Chuck Muth: Rory Reid says Dad wrong; Yucca Mountain is safe?
Oct 24:President and CEO, Nevada Development Authority
Oct 24:Congress Mulls Nuclear Power As A Way To Reduce Emissions
Oct 24:Letter: Nuclear energy debate swirls among PSU faculty members
Oct 21:Boos as Obama taps Yucca supporter President Barack Obama nominated Bill Magwood to the commission, which is charged with regulating and licensing all civilian use of nuclear materials, including the stalled nuclear waste dump proposed for 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas.
Oct 20:Nuclear Power Revival for GE Leaves Waste Unsolved
Oct 20: Radioactive tritium found off nuclear test site for first time
Oct 16: Small space no problem for anti-Yucca Mountain
Oct 23: Costly new nuclear system may cut waste, arms risk
Oct 22: White Pine County to get $500,000 for renewable energy feasibility assessment
Oct 21: What's Holding Nuclear Power Back?
Oct 13: How Tax Codes Negatively Distort Our Energy Choices
Oct 07: Make noise over nuclear storage now
Oct 05: Hanford's Massive Vitrification Plant Nears Halfway Point
Oct 05: The US Left Behind in Nuclear

Is nuclear power green energy?

Oct 2: House OKs 2010 spending for energy-water projects
Oct 1: Late attempt to revive Yucca Mountain plan falls short
Oct 1: Minnesota Groups to MN Congressional Delegation: Reprocessing of Radioactive Waste From Prairie Island, Other Reactors 'Not a Solution'

September 2009

Sep 30: Huebsch wants to end ban on new nuclear power plants
Sep 29: Nuclear may be necessary
Sep 26: Senate Leader Reid Becomes GOP Target in Nevada
Sep 25: NRC rule ~ No rabbits out of a hat

Sep 23: U.S. Panel Shifts Focus to Reusing Nuclear Fuel
Sep 23: U.S. Panel Shifts Focus to Reusing Nuclear Fuel
Sep 22: No easy way to dispose of nuclear waste
Sep 21: Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management: Who is Warren “Pete” Miller, Jr.?
Sep 20: William J. Nieckarz: Nuclear needs to be part of zero-carbon footprint future
Sep 18: Nuclear waste piles up in Michigan, around the country
Sep 18: Nuclear agency needs independent appointees
Sep 16: A nuclear waste solution
Sep 12: Nuclear Regulator May Double Waste-Storage Period to 40 Years
Sep 11: Nevada Files Five More Challenges to Yucca Mountain
Sep 9: A History of America's Nuclear Power Experience: Part Three
Sep 1: Lawmakers warn of de facto nuclear dumping
Sep 1: Home state finds it hard to warm up to Reid

August 2009

Aug 27: Another Major Setback for 'Nuclear Renaissance': Industry Goes 0-6 in 2009 Efforts to Overturn State Bans on New Nuclear Reactors
Aug 26: WASTING INDUSTRY - Re: Max Schulz's Obama Nuclear WasteAug 10: With Yucca Out, Where Does Nuclear Waste Go?
Aug 6:Information center is 'a hell of a benefit' to Nye County
Aug 6:A History of America's Nuclear Power Experience: Part Two
Aug 6:IDAHO DELEGATION, GOVERNOR DECRY FUNDING CUT FOR YUCCA MOUNTAIN
Aug 3: Nevada governor urges Reid do more to kill Yucca Mountain prospects
Aug 2: Government must address nuclear waste disposal
Aug 1: Reid declares Yucca victory
Aug 1: Sen Reid custs $29M from Yucca Mountain funding
Aug 1: Senate cuts funds for Yucca Mountain review:
Aug 24: The search for a nuclear graveyard
Aug 24: Max Schulz: Obama's Yucca budget bungle
Aug 24: Federal inspector: Tighten Yucca Mountain credit card use
AUG 24: Where do we store nuclear waste?
Aug 24: Nuclear Energy group spent $570K lobbying in 2Q
Aug 24: Yucca Mountain Funding Nears Its Demise
Aug 18: Nuclear waste discussion moves to Plan D
Aug 15: Nuclear fuel reprocessing: the benefits

July 2009

Jul 30:Senate passes bill to close Nevada's
Jul 24:RC Still Plans to Review YuccaNuclear Waste Site Application
July 23: Yucca Mountain: lemonade out of lemons
Jul 23 Laboratory advances and the demise of Yucca Mountain
Jul 23:New Fuel Source: Nuclear Waste?
Jul 17: US House Votes Against Eliminating Yucca MountainFunding
Jul 14: Senator Alexander's Nuclear Blueprint, and Reality
Jul 13:Nuclear critics: Is Illinois the new Yucca Mountain?
Jul 12: 33 billion energy bill goes before House
Jul 12: Inside a Nuclear Plant: Skip the Lip Balm
Jul 12 $33.3B Energy and Water Appropriations Bill Heads to House Floor
Jul 8: KC is candidate to store nation's waste mercury
Jul 8:Not So Fast With Those Electric Cars
Jul 8:Utilities Seek to Suspend Nuclear Waste Payments

June 2009

June 29:Deal to build nuclear facility is dead
June 24: Miller to run nuclear division at DoE
June 24: The GOP's "American Energy Act" Is Bad For America
June 24:If Reid, Obama Kill Yucca Mountain, Where Will Nuclear Waste Go? Think Fusion
June 21: Nuclear reactors feel squeeze
June 21:Minnesota Edges Closer to Ending Moratorium on Nuclear Power
June 21: Bennett: U.S. needs 100 more nuclear power plants
June 21: Allison Macfarlane A nuclear expert on life after Yucca.
June 17: Funds to shut nuclear plants fall short
June 14: Governors seek to deter nuclear waste storage in Western US

May 2009

May 24: LAS VEGAS FUNDRAISER: Obama plays up Reid
May 27: UNLV RECEIVES $2.1 MILLION FOR NUCLEAR TECHNOLOGIES RESEARCH
May 27: G.O.P. Eyes Tough Task: Winning Reid’s Seat
May 27: Mr. President, thank you for coming to Vegas
May 26: Obama says he'll meet Gibbons; governor not interested
May 25: President’s course leaves question open: Is it dead?
May 21: Is Nuclear Power Renewable Energy?
May 21: Follow the Science on Yucca
May 20: Radioactive waste
May 19: Waste Knot
May 19: Saying "Harry Reid Is Vulnerable" Doesn't Make It True
May 15: Yucca Mountain plan dead, despite appropriations
May 14: Mineral County High School National Honor Society students complete survey
May 5: NEI's CEO Marv Fertel on Nuclear Jobs
May 5: The Who What Where Why of Yucca Mountain
May 2: Sustainable Energy-without the hot air
May 2: NEI Nuclear Notes
May 2: Moving Forward in Limbo
May 4: Ensign is front and center. Now what?
May 2: Radiation exposure risk study to be presented to board
May 2: Is a salt formation in New Mexico the new Yucca Mountain?

April

Apr 30: GOP senators push back on plans to scrap Yucca project
Apr 30: State urged to keep fighting
Apr 20: Yucca's demise to cost Nevada, Job losses will add to economic woes
Apr 16: County seeking input on renewable energy policy
Apr 16: Energy Department presses for license as if nothing’s changed
Apr 15: In the Great Ship Titanic
Apr 04: Energy Department presses for license as if nothing’s changed
Apr 01: McCain says it's time for Plan B for Yucca project
Apr 02: Obama expected to visit Las Vegas in May
Apr 04: Energy Department presses for license as if nothing’s changed
Apr 01: McCain says it's time for Plan B for Yucca project:

March 2009

Mar 29: Mountain of Trouble Mr. Obama defunds the nuclear repository at Yucca Mountain.Now what?
Mar 29: Idaho legislators question Yucca plansMar 31: Sessions focus on licensing for Yucca site
Mar 28: Reid agrees with study on Yucca Mountain alternatives
Mar 24: US senators worry nuke waste plan could leave government liable
Mar 24: Reid's nuclear waste meeting with energy official delayed
Mar 19: NUCLEAR COMMISSION: Radioactive waste storage is revised
Mar 17: Alaska senator criticizes Obama nuke waste policy
Mar 14: Nuclear industry to fight Yucca Mountain bill
Mar 13: Yucca missing from plan to remake nuclear waste policy
Mar 12: Chu promises to develop Yucca alternative quickly
Mar 10: Group would study alternatives to Yucca
Mar 09: Senator Reid is now saying he wants to look at alternatives to Yucca
Mar 07: Idahoans unhappy with Yucca downsizing
Mar 07: Couple faces coping with Yucca job loss
Mar 06: Official: Nuclear dump is out
Mar 04: Controversy Over Yucca Mountain May Be Ending
Mar 03: Chu: Yucca no longer option for nuclear waste
Mar 03:County Ends Contract with Washington DC Law Firm
Mar 03:County Ends Contract with Washington DC Law Firm
Mar 01:There's dough in that mountain
Mar 01:What Obama and Reid would say in a chat about Yucca, mayor

February 2009

Feb 26: Reid Celebrates Obama's Yucca Mountain Decision
Feb 20: Obama budget to cut Yucca Mountain funds
Feb 17: NRC adopts 1 million year rule for Yucca Mountain
Feb 17: Nuclear industry calls for fallback plan for Yucca Mountain
Feb 14: Yucca workers try to save jobs amid predictions of 500 layoffs
Feb 13: YUCCA MOUNTAIN: Repository comments questioned
Feb 12: Yucca battle backed
Feb 12: DOE distances secretary from Yucca Mountain Project comment
Feb 12: Cuts intensify Yucca concerns
Feb 10: Ethics Commission Says No to Loux Offer / Northern Nevada, Reno
Feb 08: State urged to drop nuclear waste battle
Feb 09: Nuclear industry advised to hush up about Yucca « nuclear-news
Feb 02: Anti-Yucca Mountain strategist catching up

January 2009

Department of Energy Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste has released the National Transportation Plan for public comment. January 2009 DOE's Yucca Mountain Project Decision ScheduleJan 31: Yucca workers urged to fight for their jobs
Jan 30: Yucca funding likely to shrink further
Jan 29: Yucca might be cut more
Jan 22: Nevadans criticize plan to ship waste
Jan 15: Reid, Ensign seek more Yucca cuts
Jan 14: Chu calls nuclear waste 'thorny' issue
Jan 06: Yucca budget facing big cuts over 2009-10, Reid says
Jan 05: Reid discloses plans for crippling cuts to Yucca Mountain projec