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Researchers at Idaho State University said they’ve lost a small amount of weapons-grade plutonium. Federal officials aren’t pleased.

In addition to shutdowns of national parks (including Alcatraz and Yosemite) and the supplemental nutrition program for women, infants and children, the mandatory furloughs are affecting a wide range of government science and health agencies.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission stopped its review process when the Obama administration ditched the project. The court ruled the move was illegal.

The prefabricated nuclear reactors, which would be small enough to build in a factory and ship on trucks, would generate about one-tenth the power of a typical nuclear power plant. It's potentially a growth opportunity for American industry, but critics say the reactors carry a host of safety, security, environmental and economic concerns.

The federal government promised almost 30 years ago to find a place to bury nuclear waste from power plants. It hasn't. So 70,000 tons of waste is piling up at power plants around the country, and a federal appeals court has told the government it needs to prove the temporary solution is truly safe.

Top stories include a private rocket is launched into space, carrying supplies for the international space station; the International Atomic Energy Agency says a tentative deal was struck permitting inspectors to review Iran's nuclear program.

Gregory B. Jackzo submitted his resignation after a tumultuous three-year chairmanship.

The Palisades Power Plant, one of Van Buren County's biggest employers, has one of the worst safety records in the country. After five unplanned shutdowns in 2011, the plant is now trying to prove to federal regulators that it's up to their standards.

Southern Co. will build the reactors at its Vogtle site in Georgia. An industry-backed group hopes it's the first wave of new reactors, but a coalition of groups plans to sue to stop the project. Among its arguments: Engineers are still figuring out what went wrong at the Fukushima meltdown in Japan last year.

The last time the Nuclear Regulatory Commission approved a plant was in 1978, a year before the partial meltdown of Three Mile Island.