DOE wants Bechtel out of radioactive waste cleanup

The US Department of Energy wants Bechtel removed from a radioactive waste "cleanup" project at the Hanford nuclear weapons site after technical errors were uncovered along with ballooning costs. A DOE memo cites 34 technical problems attributed to Bechtel National, which designed and built the plant to stabilize and contain 56 million gallons of radioactive waste from a half-century of nuclear weapons production at the Hanford Site in central Washington. The memo says the Bechtel engineering performance "places unnecessarily high risk that the (plant) design will not be effectively completed." The project is already three times more expensive than its original estimate, having ballooned to $12.3 billion and the price is expected to soar even higher. Writes Peter Eisler in USA Today: "The sprawling, 586-square-mile Hanford Site was home to multiple nuclear reactors that produced plutonium for U.S. nuclear weapons throughout the Cold War. Cleaning up the waste — a mix of highly radioactive liquid and sludge stored in 177 underground tanks — is considered the nation's most complex and costly environmental restoration project." Many of these tanks have leaked, contaminating the Columbia and Snake Rivers.

Nuclear again a job killer with 730 to be laid off at San Onofre nuke plant

The utility Southern California Edison has announced that by year's end it would eliminate 730 jobs at the San Onofre nuclear power plant, or about a third of its workforce. The two operating reactors have been shut since radiation leaks were detected earlier this year. Under California utility rules, the costs of a plant that is disabled for more than nine months can be taken out of the formula that builds utility rates. That would mean SoCal Edison, its majority owner, can't pass plant costs on to ratepayers.

Thousands of cracks in Belgian nuclear reactor

The Doel 3 reactor in Belgium remains shut down after potentially thousands of cracks were found in the reactor vessel. The cracks could date back 40 years to the reactor's original construction and were found three years before the reactor came on line but were not fixed. Recent ultrasonic tests found hairline cracks in the steel vessel housing the reactor. The fuel has been removed from the plant. Belgium's nuclear regulator said in a statement that, "We are considering these flaw indications very seriously." 

Nuclear power projects on hold in India

NTPC has put its plans to set up nuclear power projects, jointly with Nuclear Power Corporation of India, on the backburner. The company has also begun to relocate employees assigned for the projects due to uncertainty in the nuclear power arena. Nuclear projects country-wide have been facing massive opposition, including prolonged disruption of work at the Kudankulam nuclear plant in Tamil Nadu and at the Jaitapur site south of Mumbai. More.

Australian company shelves expansion plans at uranium mine

Reports Reuters: "BHP Billiton (BHP.AX) has shelved its planned $20 billion Olympic Dam expansion in Australia and put all other approvals on hold as the world's largest miner battles escalating development costs, slumping prices and an uncertain outlook . . . Expanding Olympic Dam, the world's fourth-largest known copper deposit and largest uranium source, was one of three major projects that were due to go to the BHP board for final approval by December 2012 in an $80 billion pipeline of projects that BHP had flagged were likely to be slowed."  Olympic Dam has the largest known single deposit of uranium in the world, though uranium represents only a minority of the mine's total revenue. Activists in Australia have long been fighting to block the expansion. More.