$8B in loan guarantees to go to build 2 reactors

$8B in loan guarantees to go to build 2 reactors

WASHINGTON — More than $8 billion in new federal loan guarantees to build two nuclear reactors in Georgia could be the first step toward a nuclear renaissance in the United States, three decades after the Three Mile Island nuclear accident halted all new reactor orders.

With the nuclear industry poised to begin construction of at least a half-dozen plants over the next decade, President Barack Obama announced the first loan guarantees Tuesday, casting them as both economically essential and politically attractive. He called nuclear power a key part of comprehensive energy legislation that assigns a cost to the carbon pollution of fossil fuels, giving utility companies more incentive to turn to cleaner nuclear fuel.

Newly released film shows JFK arriving in Dallas

DALLAS — A museum curator says that new color video footage showing President John F. Kennedy’s arrival in Dallas the day he was assassinated is the best home movie ever made of the event.

Sixth Floor Museum curator Gary Mack says that the short clip, shot on 8mm film by a 15-year-old student, makes you feel as though you were there. The museum put the film on display for public viewing Monday.

Kennedy was killed Nov. 22, 1963, as his motorcade made its way through downtown Dallas.

The newly released footage shot by 61-year-old Dallas businessman William Ward Warren mainly shows Air Force One and Air Force Two arriving and briefly features the Kennedys making their way through the crowd at the airport.

Body recovered from Mount St. Helens crater

SEATTLE — The body of a veteran climber who fell 1,500 feet into the crater atop Mount St. Helens has been recovered after he spent more than a day in the snow, authorities said Tuesday.

Clouds and wind had hampered efforts to reach Joseph Bohlig, 52, who was posing for a picture Monday on the rim of the dormant crater when a snow overhang gave way and he fell into the volcano.

A Navy helicopter found the body on its second pass of the day at the mountain.

The National Weather Service said the overnight temperature Monday on the mountain likely dropped to the upper 20s.

Hospitalized senator has bleeding ulcer

TRENTON, N.J. — A bleeding ulcer is behind the hospitalization of longtime New Jersey Sen. Frank Lautenberg, an aide said Tuesday.

Chief of staff Dan Katz said that no discharge date is set but that he expects the 86-year-old Democrat to be released soon.

The senator was taken to a hospital Monday after becoming lightheaded and falling at his Cliffside Park home. He later underwent a successful endoscopy procedure, spokesman Caley Gray said.

Lautenberg was expected “to make a full recovery and will be back to work soon,” Gray said.

Russia, US, France urge Iran to stop enrichment

VIENNA — Russia, the U.S. and France have urged Iran to stop enriching uranium to higher levels and suggested the project reinforces suspicions that Tehran is seeking to make nuclear weapons. The joint statement, made public Tuesday, reflects unified Russian and Western opposition to Iran’s increased enrichment.

Shrugging off international concerns, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad announced the country was moving ahead to expand its enrichment capacities by installing more advanced machinery at its main enrichment facility.

Officials at the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency said they had no comment. The latest IAEA report on Iran in November said that as of early October no advanced centrifuges had been installed at the plant, although some were being tested in a separate area of the facility.

Police investigate vandalism at synagogue

BOCA RATON, Fla. — Police on Tuesday were investigating the vandalism of a Boca Raton synagogue as a hate crime after burglars broke in, damaged property and left behind anti-Semitic and racist messages.

Firefighters responding to a fire alarm around 10 p.m. Monday at Temple Beth El found damage throughout the synagogue, said Officer Sandra Boonenberg, spokeswoman for the Boca Raton Police Department. Vandals had broken chairs and four vases at the mausoleum.

They also found several messages scratched into doors in the temple’s bathroom: a swastika, “KKK,” “Hail Hitler” and the “n” word.

Combined dispatches