nuclear-news

Solar system lights up desert town 9 News by Tara Ravens 18 Feb 09

The largest solar power system ever mounted on a building in the southern hemisphere has been switched on in the red heart of Australia.

The rooftop solar photovoltaic (PV) installation is expected to generate 40 and 80 per cent of the energy requirements of the Crowne Plaza hotel in Alice Springs.

Speaking from the desert town on Wednesday, hotel general manager Adam Glass said the system would help the Crowne Plaza reduce its annual carbon footprint by 420 tonnes of carbon dioxide

The solar power system would generate enough electricity to serve 60 family homes.

“The water and energy savings that will result from our plans are staggering,” said Mr Glass.

“We are located in one of the hottest parts of the country…

“This means on one hand that we are a large consumer of energy, but on the other, we have access to a ready renewable resource to significantly offset that consumption.”………………….

The solar system is accompanied by a $50,000 in-house energy efficiency program, including a system that regulates the heating and cooling of rooms.

“The system is smart enough to detect a room is occupied, even when a guest is sleeping,” said Mr Berger.

Tata, CLP Bet on Australian Hot Rocks for Emission-Free Energy By Angela Macdonald-Smith

Feb. 18 (Bloomberg) — Sheep shearers and tourists calling at the Innamincka Hotel in Australia’s outback will soon have their beer chilled by energy from rocks 5 kilometers (3.1 miles) underground.

The South Australian township (population 12) has been chosen by Brisbane-based Geodynamics Ltd. for a one-megawatt pilot project that will tap hot underground granite to generate electricity. The company says the area could produce as much as 10,000 megawatts of emission-free power, equivalent to 10 nuclear plants.

Tata Power Ltd., India’s biggest non-state electric utility, and Hong Kong’s CLP Holdings Ltd. are among those betting more than $750 million on geothermal exploration in Australia over the next 5 years. If it works, hot-rock technology could provide 5 percent of the country’s electricity by 2012, according to Melbourne-based consulting firm McLennan Magasanik Associates.

“It’s quite a marvel of nature,” said Jo Fort, co-owner of the hotel in Innamincka. “What to some eyes would be desolate country on top has this massive wealth underneath in the form of energy.”

IAEA Chief: Iran Not Cooperating By VOA News17 February 2009 The head of the United Nations’ nuclear agency says Iran is not helping resolve questions about any possible military aspect of its nuclear program.

IAEA, the International Atomic Energy Agency, Director General Mohamed ElBaradei said Tuesday in Paris that Tehran is not providing any access or clarification on the issue.  Western nations have accused Iran of working on nuclear programs in the past, as well as possibly continuing such efforts. The U.N. has placed Tehran under three sets of international sanctions for its nuclear work.  

Iran says its nuclear program is, and always has been, for peaceful, civilian purposes and argues that it cooperates with the IAEA.

ElBaradei’s comments come one day after he said that Israel’s refusal to sign the nuclear weapons non-proliferation treaty is undermining the treaty’s legitimacy in Arab public opinion.

Writing in the International Herald Tribune newspaper Monday, the IAEI chief said that Israel is the only state in the Middle East known to have nuclear weapons.

Israel has never confirmed or denied that it has nuclear weapons.  But ElBaradei says Israel’s position creates a perceived double standard. 

Nuclear power station had 14-year radioactive leakA company which ran an Essex nuclear power station has been fined £250,000 for allowing radioactive waste to leak into the ground for 14 years.

Magnox Electric Ltd was found guilty of breaching laws on the disposal of radioactive waste by failing to inspect a holding tank that had been leaking liquid from the Bradwell nuclear power station in Maldon since 1990

IAEA Chief: Iran Not Cooperating By VOA News17 February 2009 The head of the United Nations’ nuclear agency says Iran is not helping resolve questions about any possible military aspect of its nuclear program.

IAEA, the International Atomic Energy Agency, Director General Mohamed ElBaradei said Tuesday in Paris that Tehran is not providing any access or clarification on the issue.  Western nations have accused Iran of working on nuclear programs in the past, as well as possibly continuing such efforts. The U.N. has placed Tehran under three sets of international sanctions for its nuclear work.  

Iran says its nuclear program is, and always has been, for peaceful, civilian purposes and argues that it cooperates with the IAEA.

ElBaradei’s comments come one day after he said that Israel’s refusal to sign the nuclear weapons non-proliferation treaty is undermining the treaty’s legitimacy in Arab public opinion.

Writing in the International Herald Tribune newspaper Monday, the IAEI chief said that Israel is the only state in the Middle East known to have nuclear weapons.

Israel has never confirmed or denied that it has nuclear weapons.  But ElBaradei says Israel’s position creates a perceived double standard. 

IAEA Chief: Iran Not Cooperating By VOA News17 February 2009 The head of the United Nations’ nuclear agency says Iran is not helping resolve questions about any possible military aspect of its nuclear program.

IAEA, the International Atomic Energy Agency, Director General Mohamed ElBaradei said Tuesday in Paris that Tehran is not providing any access or clarification on the issue.  Western nations have accused Iran of working on nuclear programs in the past, as well as possibly continuing such efforts. The U.N. has placed Tehran under three sets of international sanctions for its nuclear work.  

Iran says its nuclear program is, and always has been, for peaceful, civilian purposes and argues that it cooperates with the IAEA.

ElBaradei’s comments come one day after he said that Israel’s refusal to sign the nuclear weapons non-proliferation treaty is undermining the treaty’s legitimacy in Arab public opinion.

Writing in the International Herald Tribune newspaper Monday, the IAEI chief said that Israel is the only state in the Middle East known to have nuclear weapons.

Israel has never confirmed or denied that it has nuclear weapons.  But ElBaradei says Israel’s position creates a perceived double standard. 

North Korea running secret nuclear plant
channelnewsasia.com 18 Feb 09 SEOUL: North Korea is operating a secret underground plant to make nuclear bombs from highly enriched uranium (HEU) despite denying that such a programme exists, a South Korean newspaper said Wednesday.

Dong-A Ilbo, quoting an unnamed senior government source, said South Korea and the United States have shared intelligence on the plant in Yongbyon district……………………
…………. Dong-A said both countries believe the facility can produce HEU for nuclear bombs. It said the plant is located at Sowi-ri in Yongbyon, North Pyongan Province, where the North’s plutonium-based nuclear complex is situated.

The source was quoted as declining to give further details such as the technological level and the output of highly enriched uranium.

The North in 1994 signed a deal with the United States to shut down its admitted plutonium-producing reactor complex at Yongbyon in return for various incentives………….
………….. US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who visits Seoul on Thursday and Friday, told a Senate confirmation hearing last month Washington is still concerned about the HEU programme.

“Our goal is to end the North Korean nuclear programme — both the plutonium reprocessing programme and the highly enriched uranium programme, which there is reason to believe exists, although never quite verified,” she said.