2012 December 26 « nuclear-news

Probe into EDF – China deal to develop a new type of nuclear reactor

EDF declines comment on China nuclear probe report PARIS http://uk.reuters.com/article/2012/12/25/uk-edf-china-nuclear-idUKBRE8BO03K20121225 by Lionel
Laurent and Gerard Bon Dec 25, 2012
Electricite de France (EDF.PA) on Tuesday declined to
comment on a report of a probe into its recent partnership with a
Chinese utility to develop a new type of nuclear reactor.

Several French news websites cited a forthcoming article in satirical
weekly Le Canard Enchaine, due to appear on Wednesday, as saying that
French finance-ministry inspectors had begun an inquiry into the terms
of the China agreement.

“We have no reaction,” a spokeswoman for EDF said, adding she had not
seen the forthcoming article. The French finance ministry was
unavailable for comment.EDF had said in November that the agreement
with China Guangdong Nuclear Power Corporation Holding GDNCP.UL was to
develop a concept for a 1,000-MW reactor. This would be cheaper and
smaller than the 1,600-MW EPR reactor blamed for the loss of a
landmark project in Abu Dhabi in 2009.

December 26, 2012 Posted by Christina Macpherson | business and costs, France | Leave a comment

With Japan’s new government, nuclear energy may be back
http://www.startribune.com/business/184510891.html?refer=y
December 23, 2012
Liberal Democratic Party’s big win may give nuclear industry a
reprieve.In the two days after the election the shares of Tokyo
Electric (TEPCO), the owner of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power
plant, surged by 56 percent. Investors bet that the new government
would allow Japan’s reactors, almost all of which have been idle since
being struck by an earthquake in 2011, to restart.

That may be wishful thinking. Abe may want to steer clear of the
sensitive nuclear issue until upper-house elections in mid-2013. If
so, a time frame agreed with TEPCO’s 77 banks for restarting the first
of its seven Kashiwazaki-Kariwa reactors in Niigata prefecture may be
missed.
TEPCO says each stalled reactor costs it $1.2 billion in lost profit each year.
Furthermore, the nuclear industry now has an independent watchdog, the
Nuclear Regulation Authority, which is showing teeth. Its
investigators have so far issued seismic warnings against two nuclear
power plants, which may lead to their permanent mothballing.

By law, even an LDP government should be unable to boss the watchdog around.

Yet a share-price rally may still be warranted. TEPCO’s share price is
barely a tenth of what it was before the disaster.

That reflects a genuine fear that the company may go bust. Surely,
investors mutter, the LDP remains chummy enough with Japan’s nuclear
utilities not to let any of them collapse into bankruptcy?

December 26, 2012 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Japan, politics | Leave a comment

Radiation danger in recycling of radioactive products

U.S. officials and metal experts say evidence is mounting that radioactive metal from abroad is increasingly — and intentionally — being sent to the United States, sometimes decades after the contaminated material was first detected and returned to its source.

Some experts say the United States bears some blame for the infiltration of tainted metal and products. Even though there is little debate that radiation-laced material is unwelcome, neither Congress nor federal agencies have established a “safe” level of contamination, despite two decades of wrestling with the issue

Recycled radioactive metal contaminates consumer products: “It’s your worst nightmare,” Engineering Evil, October 20, 2012
2009 report posted for filing Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, http://www.scrippsnews.com “……The global dimension of the recycling of radiation problem is large, and growing, experts say. Continue reading →

December 26, 2012 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Uncategorized | Leave a comment

USA’s anti-missile system in Europe creating greater enemies

Nuclear Shield: What Is USA Afraid Of?
Market Leader, 25 December More and more experts forecast that Russia and China will eventually unite against the USA. If the USA keeps deploying its anti-missile systems in Europe, it may get a union of its most powerful adversaries. Continue reading →

December 26, 2012 Posted by Christina Macpherson | general | 1 Comment

Now we are in a second, more dangerous, nuclear weapons age

Living dangerously in a second nuclear age
Constitution Daily, 25 DEc 12,
By Paul Bracken
Many academic conferences and government panels have been convened
this year to recall the 50th anniversary of the Cuban missile crisis
of 1962. This was the most dangerous crisis of the Cold War, and it’s
surely worth studying for this reason.But the Cuban Missile Crisis
gets too much attention. Focusing on any single crisis distorts the
central problem of the Cold War for the United States. The Cold War
was a long-term competition, stretching over five decades……
Presidents Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, and Jimmy Carter built their
foreign policies around détente. But in the 1980s this was followed by
the Ronald Reagan build-up, nuclear threats by both sides, accidents
like the shooting down of Korean Airliner 007, and serious nuclear
mishaps inside the Soviet command and control system.