Nuclear Power & Radiation

"French anti-nuclear campaigners claim a new power plant being built in Normandy carries an accident risk of 'Chernobyl proportions'."

"Alongside a multitude of pending applications for new nuclear reactors, there is a move to restart construction at sites where the work began decades ago only to be abandoned before completion." The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is considering reinstatement of construction permits for the Tennessee Valley Authority's two Bellefonte nuclear reactors, started near Hollywood, Ala., in 1974 but never finished.

"Hopes for a nuclear revival, fanned by fears of global warming and a changing political climate in Washington, are running into new obstacles over a key element -- money. A new approach for easing the cost of new multibillion-dollar reactors, which can take years to complete, has provoked a backlash from big-business customers unwilling to go along."

Utah has refused shipments of depleted uranium from the Department of Energy's Savannah River nuclear materials processing center in South Carolina.

"South Carolina Attorney General Henry McMaster said on Wednesday he would take legal action to stop President Barack Obama from dropping plans to build a nuclear waste storage facility in Nevada."

A proposal to build Utah's first nuclear plant along the Green River is running into a host of skeptical questions -- among them: where it will find cooling water in the middle of a desert.

"The Vermont Senate blocked efforts by Entergy Corp. to win a 20-year license renewal for its Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant, an action that could encourage opponents of nuclear energy in other states."

"Thirteen national labor organizations are urging Vermont’s Senate to take a timeout and to not vote on whether Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant should be allowed to continue to operate after its original license expiration date in 2012."

"The Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission says as many as 217 workers may have been exposed to radioactivity at the Bruce nuclear power station on the shores of Lake Huron while refurbishing a reactor in late November."