Odds and ends, 4/16/08

So lately I've been saying we need to look at building more nuclear power plants. Here is the dark side of that industry:

Utah nuclear waste company ramps up campaign contributions

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — A Utah disposal company seeking federal permission to import more than 20,000 tons of nuclear waste from Italy has raised its campaign contributions to lawmakers by hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Kentucky Congressman Ed Whitfield is co-sponsoring a bill that would ban the importation of low-level radioactive foreign waste, which would be processed in Tennessee and disposed at its dump in western Utah’s desert.

Salt Lake City-based EnergySolutions Inc. is aggressively donating to members of key energy committees in Congress as it increasingly seeks lucrative federal contracts and legislation beneficial to the nuclear power industry.

Federal Election Commission reports show since 2005, the company’s political action committee, executives and investors have poured nearly $400,000 into congressional campaigns through January, up from about $40,000 in the four previous years.

Back in the 1980s, some people in McDowell County wanted to have a "temporary" nuclear waste dump in their county. I believe it was called "monitored retrieval and storage." For whatever reason, it was never built.

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U of Louisville hears concerns about rising tuition

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — Students and parents upset about rising tuition got a chance to voice their concerns to the president of University of Louisville President Dr. James Ramsey.

At a campus forum Tuesday, Ramsey said he was not happy about state cuts to higher education funding. Since 2000, the university has raised tuition by an average of 9 percent every year and last month, hundreds of students demonstrated on campus.

Ramsey said he tried to create a budget recommendation that did minimal damage, but the school is still proposing a 9 percent tuition increase.

He said the university is looking at ways to offset the cuts from state funding, such as fundraising, increasing hospital income and building private partnerships.

I don't know how many businesses can get away with raising their prices 9 percent a year. Granted, universities offer financial aid to take away some of the impact, but still, 9 percent a year is a pretty good clip.

Here in WV, students at Concord University protested a proposed 6 percent increase, and the administration cut it to 3.7 percent.

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More to come.