Half-built uranium enrichment plant canceled as DOE denies loan guarantee

The half-built uranium enrichment plant in Piketon, Ohio, has been canceled after the U.S. Department of Energy denied the application for a federal loan guarantee submitted by plant owner, U.S. Enrichment Company (USEC). The plant was scheduled to be fully operational by 2010 but had stalled due to uncertainty over funding. Its cancelation marks another step backward by the U.S. nuclear industry whose 21st Century Nuclear Retreat is falsely characterized by the industry as a "renaissance." Read more in the Washington Post.

Bruce Power backs away from new reactors in Canada

The attempted nuclear power relapse has suffered yet another major blow with Thursday's announcement by Bruce Power that it will abandon plans to build five new reactors at its Bruce Nuclear Complex on the Lake Huron shoreline and at its Nanticoke Coal Power Plant on the Lake Erie shoreline. However, Bruce Power reaffirmed its intent to build numerous new reactors in Alberta and Saskatchewan.

A welcome to the all new Beyond Nuclear Web site

The Beyond Nuclear Web site has undergone a complete redesign and upgrade and officially relaunched today, July 21st. Please let us know what you think and email us with any suggestions.

Church Rock: The forgotten nuclear disaster 30 years ago

30 years ago on July 16, likely the worst and certainly most forgotten U.S. nuclear accident happened.

On July 16, 1979, just 14 weeks after the Three Mile Island reactor accident, and just 34 years to the day after the Trinity atomic test, the small community of Church Rock, New Mexico, became the scene of another nuclear tragedy.

Ninety million gallons of liquid radioactive waste, and eleven hundred tons of solid mill wastes, burst through a broken dam wall at the Church Rock uranium mill facility, creating a flood of deadly effluents that permanently contaminated the Rio Puerco river. For more on the disaster at Church Rock and the implications today, read Linda Gunter's essay and see her Blog on the Daily Kos. For more details, see also Killing our Own and Southwest Research and Information Center.

Nuclear tries to kill off renewable energy

"In 2003, the nuclear industry was very nearly killed off in Britain. In 2009, it is so resurgent that captains of the energy industry are arguing it is renewables that should be killed off, or at least kept on a starvation diet," writes Jeremy Leggett in The Guardian.

"Today, the Confederation of British Industry has thrown its weight behind the nuclear industry's calls for the government to scale back "overambitious" wind power targets in favour of atomic energy. Two foreign-owned energy giants, E.ON and EDF, have recently told the government it must essentially choose between new nuclear and major renewables developments. With global warming, energy security and fuel poverty all rendering energy policy a matter of life and death today, in their own ways, this new polarisation in the nuclear debate is a desperately dangerous development." Read more. (Social entrepreneur and author Jeremy Leggett is founder and chairman of Solarcentury, the UK's largest solar solutions company.)