Waste

Experts say Macedonia needs safe, permanent nuclear waste depot

Saturday, July 26, 2008

Macedonia, under international regulations applying to countries with nuclear waste, must construct a depot to store radioactive materials. However, opposition by residents of potential locations has thwarted the country from complying with the requirement. The struggle to find a depot site has continued for five years.

The latest case attracting public attention is that of Sopiste Municipality, outside Skopje, which refuses to allow construction of a depot on its territory. The facility would store residues from devices using radioactive elements -- such as old lightning rods or laboratory and X-ray residue. Currently, temporary dumps in unsafe urban locations, namely, the grounds of the Brazing Institute and former Radioisotope Centre, contain the country´s nuclear waste.

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Waste storage issue continues to dog German nuclear debate

Saturday, July 26, 2008

GERMANY: With a return to nuclear power set to be a key election topic next year, a leaking waste site has refocused attention on safety, writes Derek Scally .

ST BARBARA has learned to be flexible in her job description.

For 40 years, a statue of the patron saint of miners has watched from an illuminated shrine in the wall of the Konrad mine shaft, one kilometre underground near the German city of Braunschweig.

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SEPA backing for £110m Dounreay dump

Friday, July 25, 2008

SCOTLAND'S environment regulator has given a boost to plans to build a new low-active nuclear dump at Dounreay.

The £110 million scheme earmarked for ground adjoining the former fast-reactor complex is being fought by residents of the small adjoining settlement at Buldoo. But the Scottish Environment Protection Agency on Wednesday gave notice of its conditional backing for the development.

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Bill for Britain's nuclear clean-up increases by another £10bn

Friday, July 18, 2008

The credibility of the nuclear industry was shaken last night after the estimated cost of cleaning up Britain's atomic waste was raised by a further £10bn.

The latest clean-up estimate from the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) suggests the commonly accepted figure of £73bn should rise to £83bn. But the agency insisted that £10bn of income from generating and fuel reprocessing plants should also be taken into account.

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Accidental uranium waste spill at French nuclear plant

Wednesday, July 9, 2008

MARSEILLE -- An accidental spillage of waste containing uranium occurred Tuesday at one of France's top nuclear plants but authorities said there was no immediate cause for concern, authorities said.

Some 30 cubic meters (over 1,000 cubic feet) of effluents containing 12 grams (easily less than half an ounce) of uranium per liter spilled out at the Tricastin Nuclear Power Centre in Bollene in southern France.

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German Leaks Raise More Nuclear Fears

Tuesday, July 8, 2008

BERLIN, July 8 (IPS) - Confirmation that radioactive brine has been leaking for two decades from a German underground deposit for nuclear waste is yet another blow to the idea that nuclear power can safely increase electricity generation and simultaneously reduce emissions.

Radioactive leaks from the nuclear waste deposit Asse II near Braunschweig in Lower Saxony, some 225 km southwest of Berlin, were first discovered in 1988. The state-owned Helmholtz Institute for
Scientific Research, which operates the centre, officially admitted the leaks only Jun. 16, under pressure from the German press.

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Councils offer talks about repository

Thursday, July 3, 2008

LOCAL authorities in Cumbria have been offering to start talks with Whitehall about a possible nuclear dump for Cumbria.

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Senators join effort to block EnergySolutions' nuke waste imports plan

Wednesday, July 2, 2008

America's landfills for low-level nuclear waste should be conserved for America's waste, according to a new, bipartisan bill to be introduced next week in the U.S. Senate.

The bill targets efforts by Salt Lake City-based EnergySolutions to use its Tooele County landfill for contaminated cleanup waste from Italy's defunct nuclear reactors and maybe other foreign waste in the future. And it echoes a bill proposed in the House of Representatives by U.S. Rep. Jim Matheson, D-Utah, and two colleagues.

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Flooding nuclear dump "too risky" - German agency

Wednesday, June 4, 2008

Sealing radioactive waste at an underground disposal site in Asse, Germany, by flooding is the cheapest of several waste management options but would produce dangerous amounts of radioactive methane in
groundwater within 150-750 years, according to a forthcoming report from the German radiation protection agency (BfS). The findings are significant because the site, an ex-salt mine containing nuclear research waste, is geologically similar to the planned long-term disposal site at Gorleben. The report could influence calculations of nuclear waste disposal costs.

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Energy firm offers deal to start nuclear clean-up

Sunday, June 1, 2008

Energysolutions and its partner Toshiba propose taking ownership of Magnox sites and building new reactors on them

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