Nuclear Power & Radiation

"Some 60,000 metric tons of radioactive waste is stored at nuclear power plants across the country, awaiting federal action that’s already a decade late."

"Italian authorities have discovered a ship that was sunk by the mafia off the coast of southern Italy with 120 barrels of radioactive waste on board, a local prosecutor said Monday."

"Workers at the nation's most contaminated nuclear site have finished excavating a leaky pool built in the 1950s to hold spent fuel from nuclear reactors."

"The Environmental Protection Agency agreed Friday to update its standards on radon emissions from uranium mills."

"Craftsmen who cut granite for kitchen countertops can be at risk of radiation exposure thousands of times above the federal safety limit, according to new research."

"Areva, a French nuclear construction company, said this week that its project to build the world's most powerful reactor remained mired in delays and was over-budget by 2.3 billion euros, or about $3.3 billion."

With the proposed Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository now dead, "local leaders and lawmakers from the sites where the waste is now stored, however, are increasingly concerned that the Energy Department will leave it in place, even though that might violate legally binding cleanup agreements."

"The Nuclear Regulatory Commission ... is urging nuclear plants to embrace a more systematic approach to assessing fire risk -- one that relies on a computer program."

A simple brass plaque in Tarusa, Russia, stands as a reminder of an epic tale of scores of nuclear disasters in the former Soviet Union that were hidden, or never completely reported.

Canada faces a monumental challenge in finding a way to store or dispose of highly radioactive spent nuclear fuel. The problem has dragged on unsolved for decades, and any solution is likely to prove costly.