Vermont Yankee future dogged by doubt

’Vermont’s 37-year-old nuclear power plant is constantly in the public spotlight these days as the 2012 expiration date on its license approaches. Entergy Corp., owner of Vermont Yankee, wants to keep the plant operating for another 20 years and has applied to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission for permission to extend its operating license until 2032. Vermont Yankee, located in the southeast corner of the state, produces one-third of the electric power Vermonters use each year. Whether it continues to operate or closes, consumers have much at stake. Decisions that impact the plant’s future are being made in a host of arenas. Here’s an overview of the latest developments and next steps...’

"Hot" nuclear waste could still be shipped to Hanford under proposed settlement

’When Oregon and Washington's governors announced a settlement with the U.S. Department of Energy in August for cleanup of radioactive tank waste at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation, they said it included a "moratorium" on shipping new radioactive waste to Hanford until a plant to treat the tank wastes was up and running. But in fact a big chunk of radioactive waste – including contaminated metal from decommissioned U.S. nuclear plants -- isn't included in that proposed moratorium, Oregon officials confirmed Friday.’

Energy fear over nuclear waste dumps

’Former senior government advisers on nuclear power have accused ministers of being "cavalier" and "cherry-picking" their advice to bolster the case for a new generation of nuclear power stations. They and other industry experts say the government should not embark on building any new atomic facilities without properly tackling the unsolved problem of how to deal with radioactive waste from existing power plants. In 2006 the Committee on Radioactive Waste Management published recommendations on how the UK should dispose of nuclear waste. A key idea was that long-term disposal would be best carried out by identifying suitable sites at which the waste could be buried, a process called deep geological disposal.’

Sellafield’s High Level Waste (HLW) Evaporators in trouble again

’Sellafield Ltd has reported today that the site’s HLW waste Evaporator ‘B’ has had to be taken out of service because of yet another failure of one its internal cooling coils. Under normal circumstances, the process of evaporating the liquid HLW produced by Sellafield’s THORP and Magnox reprocessing plant would be transferred to the site’s two other Evaporators A and C. Neither Evaporator A or C however are currently available for use – leaving the Sellafield site with no way of processing (condensing) any HLW prior to its transfer to the Vitrification Plant for conversion to a solid glass form. By way of lucky coincidence for Sellafield, both reprocessing plant are also currently out of action – THORP having closed in July (for an engineering overhaul of its own newer Evaporator C) and Magnox being closed down, somewhat suspiciously, ‘for routine engineering not long before the Evaporator B failure’.’