Anchorage Daily News

Uranium mine near Ketchikan could reopen. The Fairbanks Daily News-Miner reports that a mine that operated from 1957 to 1971 about 40 miles from Ketchikan is under scrutiny again. Landmark Alaska Limited Partnership, a subsidiary of Ucore Uranium Inc. of Canada, is spending $4 million to explore Bokan Mountain mine.

The mine delivered about 1.3 million pounds of uranium before power generator accidents at Three Mile Island and Chernobyl cooled interest in nuclear power. But renewed interest in nuclear power and the expanding use of "rare earth elements" in products such as the Toyota Prius hybrid car and laptop computers has rejuvenated prices for minerals. The U.S. Geologic Survey estimates Bokan could contain 11 million more pounds of uranium.

A Landmark spokesman said the mine could translate into 1,000 jobs. Permitting and construction are due to start in 2011.

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Russia's oil tanker/icebreaker signals dash for Arctic wealth. The Calgary Herald launches a story about Canada's own resource exploration in the Arctic with an anecdote about a new vessel commissioned by the Russians.

The Vasily Dinkov is perhaps the most advanced Arctic oil tanker in the world. Weighing 70,000 tons, it has an icebreaking bow on one end and a conventional open-sea bow on the other. A propeller system that can rotate 360 degrees lets it use either bow. This summer it successfully delivered crude from an oil terminal off the Barents Sea to Newfoundland.

The Canadians say BP has put up $1.2 billion to explore for oil in the Beaufort Sea, and Exxon Mobil has pledged another $585 million to search off the Northwest Territories coast.

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Canada reports record number of cruise ship visits to the Arctic. The Canadian numbers are small compared with what Greenland sees, the Canadian Press reports. Villages in the eastern Arctic are expecting 26 ships, up four from last year. That's minor compared to Greenland, which sees 55,000 visitors in vessels that can accommodate 2,000 travelers.

"They're usually horrified by the price we pay for groceries and necessities," said Michael Richards of Baffin Island. "They just kind of wander around looking at these shabby old buildings and think, "How do people live like this?"

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Pipeline of Mississippi college students to Cooper Landing. The Clarion Ledger.com tells the story of how Dianne and Charles Owen of Laurel, Miss., linked 100 college kids in their state with Alaska jobs on the Kenai.

For five years, Owens has managed the Russian River Ferry near Cooper Landing and a nearby campground. The opportunity will be expanding in 2009, Dianne Owens said.

"I will be moving to more of a district supervisor and that will include, for one thing, more campgrounds. It is possible more positions will be available, and I like Mississippians."

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Alaska Web site to use new speech technology to save Alaska Native stories. CNNMoney.com reports that new software from IBM will help preserve Native Alaskan language and culture.

At LitSite Alaska, the story says, more than 1,000 pages of text have been enhanced with audio files using IBM WebSphere Voice Server text-to-speech software. The files include uncommon pronunciations of Alaska Native names and words. Examples cited include KwaashKiKwaan, Tlingit and Inupiaq.

"We bring people together through storytelling and are using IBM's technology to give voice to hundreds of stories about Alaska and the lives of Alaskans contained within our vast and growing archive," said Ronald Spatz, dean of the Honors College at UAA.

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Yorkshire farmer drives a modified Land Rover 110 pickup across the Bering Strait. Alaskans are familiar with adventurers attempting crossings of the Bering Sea in boats and cars and bicycles. The Sunday Times says Steve Burgess, who maintains an English beef herd as a day job, managed it this summer, though he got stuck for a month on Little Diomede before driving ashore at the village of Wales in early August.

They were the first people to cross the strait in a land vehicle. "I got the idea back in 1992," said Burgess, speaking from Nome, where he has stopped to recuperate. "I was in Africa, and I wanted to be in South America, so I opened a map up and saw that actually, if I could just get across the Bering Strait, I could go all the way by land."

Burgess adapted a road vehicle for the sea crossing by adding enormous floats to keep the truck stable in water. Burgess left his farm in January and departed Russia July 7 but only made it nine hours to Little Diomede before a gale forced them to shelter. There the vehicle sat a month, and Burgess went home to fundraise again. With the extra cash, he was able to depart Little Diomede on Aug. 7 and, six and a half hours later, came ashore at Wales. Now, he's planning his drive to Cape Horn.

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Entrepreneurs test energy-harnessing turbines in Alaska rivers. With crushing fuel prices disrupting village economies, new ways of tapping renewable energy are coming to life.

Already a small river turbine is being tested in the Yukon River at Ruby. Jim Norman of ABS Alaskan in Fairbanks placed a 5-kilowatt turbine in the river a week ago and is feeding 500 to 600 watts of power to Ruby.

Another hydrokinetic project in Eagle is planned for next spring, and a Texas company already has federal permits to place turbines at nine Alaska river sites, reports the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner.

"We know Alaska has an abundance of rivers - it has fast-moving rivers," said Mark Stover, vice president of Hydro Green Energy. "And, one of the things that has certainly driven us to the state is the energy situation. We think we've got a product that is superior to the diesel generation approach, both from an environmental perspective and an economic perspective."

Challenges include finding out how the equipment in rivers affects migrating salmon and or modifies the river bottom. Also, in Tanana, some villagers who've grown interested in hydro projects discover that hydrokinetic rights near their village had already been secured by Hydro Green Energy.

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Other headlines of interest to Alaskans:

> Bear attacks hit record high in Alaska (Washington Post)

> Alaska unemployment up in July (KTUU)

> Alaska oyster farms poised to take off (Juneau Empire)

> Moose Pass unhappy over property sale (Peninsula Clarion)

> Soldotna says food tax worth $710,000 (Peninsula Clarion)

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