Nuclear Waste

A state court of appeals has reinstated the operating license for the proposed Ward Valley nuclear waste dump, rejecting claims by Native Americans in the Mojave Desert. In an opinion released Friday, the 2nd District Court of Appeal turned down arguments by the Fort Mojave Indian Tribe that the state Department of Health Services failed to consider evidence that long-lasting radioactive waste could leak into the ground and make its way from the dump to the Colorado River, about 20 miles away.

The California Coastal Commission reluctantly agreed Tuesday to allow nuclear waste to be stored for 20 years at the San Onofre power plant south of San Clemente. The federal government's inability to find a permanent repository for used nuclear fuel makes the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station one of a growing number of nuclear power plants facing the issue of what to do with their spent uranium rods, which will be radioactive for thousands of years.

Highly radioactive nuclear waste from an undisclosed Asian country will be shipped to the Port of Long Beach and then trucked to South Carolina for reclamation beginning in March, federal officials said Saturday. Department of Energy officials informed port authorities of the decision Friday, said James McJunkin, executive director of the Long Beach Harbor. While harbor officials were not "overjoyed" by the news, McJunkin said Saturday that there is no plan to try to divert the shipments.

President Vladimir V. Putin signed into law Wednesday a plan to permit Russia to import spent nuclear fuel for reprocessing, but he proposed setting up a special council to have final say on the imports. Liberals and environmentalists argue that the plan would turn Russia into a nuclear dump. The legislation won parliamentary backing last month despite polls showing that most Russians were against the idea.

An agreement struck between the Wilson Administration and Senate Democrats will delay opening of a proposed low-level nuclear waste dump in the Mojave Desert by at least one year, state and industry officials said Friday. The delay, which would violate federal law requiring the dump to be operational next January, may leave California hospitals and businesses without a licensed dump to dispose of low-level radioactive waste.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission says it doesn't have the authority to prevent foreign radioactive waste from being imported into the United States. The NRC wrote in an April 9 letter to Reps. Jim Matheson (D-Utah) and Bart Gordon (D-Tenn.) that the Atomic Energy Act doesn't distinguish between domestic and foreign waste. The NRC says that as long as the material can be imported safely and someone is willing to accept it, the commission can't keep it waste out.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission Wednesday unveiled plans for systematically exempting very low-level radioactive materials from regulatory control, opening the possibility of recycling such waste, disposing of it in landfills or reusing nuclear sites with some residual contamination. Commission Chairman Kenneth M.

If the United States is at a loss over what to do about nuclear waste, it may be time to check out the Swedish model. A symposium at the annual meeting of the American Assn. for the Advancement of Science in San Diego last week highlighted the Swedish power industry in gaining public support for a geological repository for high-level radioactive waste. The Scandinavian success comes in stark contrast to efforts in the U.S., where spent nuclear fuel rods have remained for decades in temporary storage at power plants around the country.

No radioactive leaks have been found following an explosion Monday at a nuclear-waste facility in southern France that killed one person and injured four others — including one person who was left with serious burns. None of the injured were exposed to radiation, and the cause of the blast remains unknown, according to a statement from France's Nuclear Safety Authority. The explosion was said to be under control within an hour of the blast that occurred shortly about 12:37 p.m. The explosion took place within an industrial oven used at the nuclear-waste processing facility called Centraco.

More than 1,000 protesters demonstrated Saturday against a planned nuclear waste recycling plant near this small Bavarian town, police said. Police said the protesters marched to the fence surrounding the construction site before dispersing peacefully. No violence or arrests were reported. It was the second protest at the site in three days.