April 25, 2012 - San Luis Obispo Tribune - Diablo Canyon nearly idle after jellyfish-like creatures cause clog - Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant is nearly idle today from the combination of one reactor shut down for refueling and the other operating at only 15 percent capacity due to an influx of small jellyfish-like animals clogging the facility's cooling water intake structure. Plant operators reduced power on the operating reactor last night when large numbers of salp entered the intake structure, said plant spokesman Tom Cuddy. "We will not increase power until intake conditions improve," he said. Salps are small barrel-shaped plankton called tunicates, similar to jellyfish, that can grow to nearly four inches in length. They move by pumping water through their bodies. They often float in the water in string- or rope-like fashion. The other reactor was shut down earlier this week for a regularly scheduled refueling outage.
April 25, 2012 - Telecom TV - Radiation from mobile phones: Tumour rumours return - Over past years reports upon reports have been published claiming to prove either that radiation from mobile handsets does cause brain cancers or that it doesn't. Basically you read the research, meld it with your personal prejudices pro or con the arguments and take a stance accordingly. For, in the house of mobile technology there are many mansions peopled by apologists for one side or the other, as Martyn Warwick reports. Yesterday, London saw the launch of the three-day "Children With Cancer" conference whereat scientists and medics are calling for yet more "completely objective and independent" research to be carried out into this emotive subject. That's apparently because all the studies undertaken to date " are split 50:50" in concluding that mobiles do/do not cause cancers. The conference is being held shortly after new figures from Britain's Office of National Statistics(ONS) show that in the UK there was a big ncrease in the incidence of frontal and temporal lobe brain tumours between 1999 and 2009, with many delegates believing the mass uptake of mobiles over that decade is hardly co-incidental to the rise in cancer cases.
April 25, 2012 - Times-Tribune - Nuclear plant turbine blades crack again - Some of the same blades that cracked and were repaired last year on a turbine at the PPL Susquehanna nuclear power plant near Berwick have cracked again. The cracks, less extensive than those repaired in 2011, were discovered as part of a follow-up inspection of the plant's Unit 1 turbine, which has been shut down since March 31 for refueling and maintenance, PPL said in a press release Tuesday. The cracks at the nuclear power plan do not pose any immediate dangers, PPL spokesman Joe Scopelliti said. PPL plans to replace one row of blades on the Unit 1 turbine and will shut down and inspect Unit 2 sometime after mid-May. The turbine cracks and upcoming repairs will not impact customers' electric rates, Scopelliti said.
April 25, 2012 - Northumberland News - Port Hope radioactive waste cleanup to get started - Port Hope families will soon be able to play with their little ones on a grassy hill, where they can throw frisbees for their dogs, or enjoy a Sunday picnic in the warm sun, while 1.4 million cubic metres of low-level radioactive waste rests safely underneath them. That was the message conveyed by the Port Hope Area Initiative (PHAI) during a media tour on April 18 of the entire project, including: contaminated sites in Port Hope; the future site of the long-term waste management facility on Baulch Road; and the routes trucks will take when transporting contaminated soil. "When the contaminated soil is placed in the mound and capped and closed, it will be covered with grass, available for the entire community to visit and enjoy afterwards," said Glenn Case, director of safety and design authority for the PHAI. "It will be available for passive community uses, such as walking trails, to fly a kite or walk their dog."
April 25, 2012 - The Telegraph - Pacific Highway excess soil to be tested - Soil that was given to property owners living near the Pacific Highway upgrade works in New South Wales will be tested after a group of road workers fell sick while unearthing an unknown substance. During work on the upgrade of the highway near Laurieton, south of Port Macquarie, nearby property owners were given some excess top soil from the site, the Roads and Maritime Services (RMS) said. The soil will now be tested as a "precautionary measure", RMS said today. "Arrangements have been made with property owners to establish exclusion zones around the soil until test results become available." The tests, which will continue tomorrow, come after five road workers began vomiting when they dug up an unknown, clay-like substance from the section of the highway just before Easter. The event initially sparked fears that the workers had hit upon decades-old radioactive material. It was reported that chemical waste was buried at the site more than 30 years ago after a truck carrying radioactive isotopes from Sydney to Brisbane was involved in a crash. But so far the soil has tested negative to radioactive material, as well as pesticide, hydrocarbon, biphenyl and other metals.
April 25, 2012 - Associated Press - AZ legislators favor nuke waste storage site - The Arizona Legislature is going on record as saying it wants the federal government to consider establishing a site in Arizona to store spent nuclear fuel. The House on Tuesday approved a Senate-passed memorial that says placing a permanent storage site for spent nuclear fuel in Arizona would create thousands of jobs both during construction and afterward. The legislation sponsored by Republican Sen. Al Melvin of Tucson has no binding effect. Passage means the memorial will be sent to congressional officials. Democratic Rep. Tom Chabin of Flagstaff says the legislation is a waste of time and irresponsible. He says most Arizonans don't want nuclear waste in their backyard.
April 25, 2012 - Las Vegas Review-Journal - 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. The Department of Energy would be given the authority to get started on a search for one or more volunteer states or tribes to host above-ground storage for used nuclear fuel, according to the fiscal 2013 spending bill for Department of Energy programs. Feinstein, D-Calif., is the chairwoman of the Senate energy and water subcommittee that approved the bill and sent it to the full Appropriations Committee for review on Thursday. The nuclear waste provisions are a small part of the $33.4 billion measure that funds the DOE and also the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Feinstein said the nuclear waste authority in the bill is a "very limited" pilot program. It directs DOE to initiate a new "consent based" search for locations where nuclear fuel now stored in pools and in casks at 78 sites around the country could be consolidated at one or more complexes. >