2009 January 07 « nuclear-news

The dark side of nuclear

The dark side of nuclear
Fairview Post K. Norman Dyck 7 Jan 09 – “……………….. The dead, but once pristine lakes of the Blind and Serpent River communities of Ontario, spilling their toxic contents into Lake Huron, by-products of the milling process that turns uranium ore into yellow cake reactor fuel while the uninitiated are exposed to the radioactive dust live and die with compromised health.

– The abandoned salt mines of Germany’s Asse 11 site, that documents what had been undisclosed until recently, that radioactive waste has leached out of the supposedly secure waste canisters and is now leaking radioactive tritium into aquifers.

– The mounting evidence as documented in the April 23, 2008 issue of the New Scientist citing 17 separate research papers from 136 nuclear facilities from around the world — namely Canada, the U.S., Germany, Japan and Spain — that confirm elevated cases of leukemia for children living next to nuclear facilities, because releases of tritium are routinely emitted from reactors.

– The truth that lamb from once productive sheep farms in regions of the northern U.K. is still unsafe to eat, years after the radioactive fall-out from Chernobyl………………….

………the irradiated battle fields of Iraq. U.S. military shells laced with depleted uranium have now contaminated once productive soils for centuries. The effects of that depleted uranium will haunt the lives of innocent children yet unborn with genetic defects attributable to radioactive isotopes of uranium as it ravages their bodies. This depleted uranium originated from stockpiles of spent reactor fuel from around the U.S., and possibly Canada………………….

………the hundreds of thousands of tonnes of radioactive waste worldwide and the mounting security risk which that bomb making material presents?

The dark side of nuclear – Fairview Post – Alberta, CA

January 7, 2009 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Paying in advance for a nuclear plant is unthinkable

Paying in advance for a nuclear plant is unthinkable
In TampaBay.com January 7, 2009 – “…………………..o charge consumers in advance for the cost of construction of a power plant is unheard of. What were the legislators thinking when they allowed this? These nuclear plants may not go on line for eight to 10 years or longer. Furthermore, no nuclear power plant has ever come in on budget, therefore the monthly billing cost to the consumer will definitely increase.

Lastly, all the people who will be paying for the plant and have died or moved away will never reap the benefits of the supposedly lower electricity rates. Will they get a rebate?

The status of our current economy would welcome a bond issue to cover the cost of these plants and be a much better and safer investment than other corporate stocks.

Robert Furletti, Clearwater

Paying in advance for a nuclear plant is unthinkable – St. Petersburg Times

January 7, 2009 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Yucca budget facing big cuts over 2009-10, Reid says

Jan. 06, 2009Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journa
Yucca budget facing big cuts over 2009-10,
Reid saysBy STEVE TETREAULTSTEPHENS WASHINGTON BUREAU A few weeks after Sen. Harry Reid declared that the Yucca Mountain project was going to “bleed real hard” in the coming year, he said Monday that the already reduced budget for the controversial nuclear waste plan will be cut “significantly” for the remainder of 2009, and that a 2010 White House spending request will contain “little if anything at all.”

The Nevada Democrat made the declaration after he brought up Yucca Mountain in a meeting with President-elect Barack Obama earlier in the day.

The two have spoken about the project on several occasions since the election. After Monday’s meeting, Reid said Obama reiterated his opposition to the project, which he campaigned against during the presidential race.

Afterward, the Senate majority leader disclosed plans for what he characterized as a crippling attack on the proposal to store nuclear waste at the site, 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas

ReviewJournal.com – News – Yucca budget facing big cuts over 2009-10, Reid says

January 7, 2009 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Arbitration over delays in nuclear build

Arbitration over delays in nuclear build
World Nuclear News 05 January 2009The row over delays at the Olkiluoto 3 new-build project has grown more serious after constructing consortium Areva-Siemens took their customer Teollisuuden Voima Oyj (TVO) to arbitration…………………
……In the first half of last year, TVO submitted a claim to Areva-Siemens for compensation for “losses and costs incurred due to the delay” in completing the construction project. TVO has also rejected a claim presented to it by Areva-Siemens, and it is this claim for which the consortium has filed a request for arbitration with the International Chamber of Commerce. Areva said that it initiated the proceedings on 5 December 2008; TVO announced that it had received notification on 30 December 2008.

Arbitration over delays in nuclear build

January 7, 2009 Posted by Christina Macpherson | business and costs | Leave a comment

The Credit Crisis and Nuclear Markets

The Credit Crisis and Nuclear Markets
UX Weekly 7 Jan 09 The news that is currently gripping the United States and the world at large is the credit crisis in the U.S. Financial institutions have failed in the U.S. and Europe, and there is concern that more will fail. Things will likely get worse before getting better now that the U.S. House of Representatives voted 228-205 against the financial bailout plan. However, even if this legislation were passed and signed into law, it is not seen as a panacea for the crisis, the effects of which will likely be felt for some time. Pretty much all parts of the world economy have been or will be impacted by it, even the uranium market and nuclear power.
Below we look at both the near-term and the long-term implications for the nuclear industry.

Recently, the uranium market has experienced a great amount of activity as sellers have adopted a more aggressive posture to the market. These sellers have included hedge funds and companies owned by funds or financial interests, and companies facing cash flow issues. One of the major changes in the spot uranium market over the past several years has been a greater involvement of hedge funds and other financial entities in the market. This makes the market more subject to the vicissitudes of the financial sector……………………………. The credit crisis has longer-term effects as well, as it certainly does not bode well for the future of nuclear power. Nuclear power plants are extremely capital intensive and thus require a great deal of financing, which will now be even more expensive and difficult to obtain. The other aspect of the crisis is that economic growth will likely be much slower in the future, and thus there will be less need for new electricity generating capacity, including that based on nuclear power………………………………….

Similar to financing new nuclear power plants, it will be more difficult and more expensive to finance new mines, if they are financed at all. Uranium mining costs, as is the case with all mining costs, have greatly exceeded the general inflation rate even before the recent crisis, and this relationship will likely be maintained or exacerbated in the aftermath of the credit crisis.

The rate of uranium production expansion will be cut back due to both the recent fall in price and higher production costs. Because of this, many prospective projects which were questionable at recent price levels are even more problematic now. Further, the dimmer prospect for a nuclear renaissance in the wake of the credit crisis makes it that much less likely that investments in uranium production infrastructure will be made…………………………….

Finally, the credit crisis reminds us of the very real possibility that markets can fail. We have discussed the concept of market failure as it pertains to the uranium market a number of times in this publication. It is revealing, if certainly not heartening, to see a market failure scenario being played out on such a grand scale, with the government again right in the middle of things.