nuclear-news

US Reviews New Preconditions For The Iran Uranium Swap because of shortage of medical isotopes

…..Currently, Canada’s only source of the isotope is the reactor in Chalk River, Ont., which produces about a third of the world’s supply. But the reactor has been plagued with safety and operational problems, leading to worldwide shortages, and its license is set to expire in 2016………

Image source ; http://seekingalpha.com/article/1317151-medical-isotope-producers-could-be-lucrative-investment-ventures?source=google_news (diagram only shows Canada producing 4 percent instead of 33 percent ???)

Noam Chomsky in conversation with Jonathan Freedland

From 1.36 mins for Chomsky`s statement on the Brasil/Turkey brokered deal

In a deal brokered by Turkey and Brazil, Iran has agreed to turn over more than half (2,640 pounds) of its low-enriched uranium to Turkey in exchange for 265 pounds of medium-enriched fuel for medical isotopes for treating Iranian cancer patients. Under the terms of the agreement, the fuel will remain the property of Iran but will be monitored by the UN. David Cortright, a nuclear policy expert, says the swap is a positive development that the U.S. should support… 

http://kroc.nd.edu/newsevents/quickquestions/iran-s-proposed-nuclear-fuel-swap-621

• US Intelligence
• April 7, 2013

Brokering a deal to swap Iranian uranium stockpiles, Brazilian and Turkish leaders started a collision between Tehran and Washington; utimately starting a fourth round of sanctions. Securing a crucial agreement with all the permanent members of the UN Security Council, the United States was moving into it’s fourth round of sanctions. Addressing the reporters the P-5 (US, Russia, China, Britain, and France) spoke to them after a closed door meeting drafting a resolution that was presented to the council’s 10 non permanent members.

Alu scholars selected a case in which to analyze their international relations elective. They were given a short time frame with which to come up with varied solutions. The solutions were then ran thru simulation to test the results.

The Brazil–Turkey initiative allows Iran to move ahead with it’s uranium enrichment. The P5 had reached a point of no return. Turkey and Brazil, both being non permanent members met with Iran and signed an agreement to ship 1.2 tons of low enriched uranium to Turkey in exchange later for 120kg of enriched isotope for it’s medical nuclear reactor in Tehran. Considered a breakthrough, in the aftermath of the long stalled negotiations over Iran’s nuclear program, it failed to allay western concerns the Turkey is working secretly violating international agreements to seek nuclear weapons technology.

The Brazilian and Turkish leaders claimed a diplomatic goal and filed a motion for the sanctions to be lifted; this was followed by a draft resolution by the US to all their members of the Manhatten based chamber the next day. A New York based Foreign Council analyst Steven Cook stated, “The central thrust of US diplomacy has been that Iran is not trustworthy, that Iranian intentions regarding weaponization are clear and the deal isn’t as good as the Turks and the Brazilians were making it out to be.”

The Iranian strategy was to divide the United Nations Security Council during the late stages. Acting in good faith, the Turks and the Brazilians should have suspected Irans willingness to make the deal as evidenced by their history. All permanent council members, after months of negotiations drafted a 10-page sanctions text that is targeting Iran’s banks and calls for the inspection of vessels suspected of carrying Iran’s nuclear or missile programs.

In accordance with the west’s standards, the text between the US and it’s European allies is a compromise. Crippling sanctions are leveled against Tehran; with Russia and China trying to compromise even further to avoid putting a halt to Iran’s downturned economy.

Some analyst argue that the US should have not dismissed the fuel swap deal so readily, and continue moving toward diplomatic solutions while threatening a new round of sanctions (self proclaimed twin-track route).

The Washington-based Institute for Science and International Security senior analyst Jacqueline Shire was quoted as saying, “I think that the US and others, assumes-clearly incorrectly-that the process would not work. The full story has not been told. I’ve read that Turkey and Brazil clearly believed they were keeping the US fully in the loop and negotiating on their behalf.” The fuel swap deal was irritating to the US.

The sanctions, not working as well as expected have pushed President Barack Obama in a new avenue with Iran; Starting with getting Iran’s cooperation and support for middle east stability in Iraq and Afghanistan. Offering compromise Iran is working towards “trust” in the Middle East.

A comparable situation to the uranium swap deal occurred when an exchange bargain with the US, France, Russia was proposed by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) last year was rejected by Tehran. Amassing larger stockpiles, Iran would still have the material to make a bomb after sending 1.2 tons of low enriched uranium to Turkey, was quoted by an unamed source who is the Director of the Middle East Economic and Political Analysis Company.

Pushing ahead with sanctions, in lieu of the fuel swap deal the US is forging ahead despite the reluctance of Russia, China, and the P5 nations to impose new sanctions possibly leading to withdrawing support for their initiative. They are already committed to the sanctions plan and cannot back out. Fearing Iran’s nuclear ambitions, Russia and China, fearing replacement as key players are even more concerned about Brazil and Turkey’s influence in the region.

China’s scenario planners didn’t look upon scuttling the sanctions, because their interest would be served if a solution presents itself for the US to minimally meet their desire for action while Iran can avoid the damaging sanctions. They are in a position to strike this balance. Still denying western allegations to build nuclear weapons, Iran maintains it’s nuclear ambitions are for peaceful generation of electricity and refuses to suspend uranium enrichment.

US President barack Obama has garnered global support against the Iranian nuclear threat, and further retorted that countries such as Brazil and Turkey cannot match the P5+1 in diplomatic muscle. Having the world behind him, he initially reached out to the Iranians and they didn’t take his hand. The US President is taking a harder stance to the situation.

The draft resolutions states, “Calls upon states to take appropiate measures that prohibit” the opening of new Iranian bank branches or offices abroad, if they suspect they are in league with aiding Iran’s nuclear or missile programs. It further urges that countries be on their guard dealing with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, saying some members and companies it controls will be added to existing lists of individuals and firms facing assets freezes and travel bans.

The fourth round of UN sanctions against Tehran is drafted as follows; Expansion of the already existing arms embargo which includes more heavy weapons types. Lebanon like Turkey and Brazil has stated that they will not support a new round of sanctions against Iran. Abstaining from a vote on the resolution, Lebanese diplomats reasoned it is because of the Iran backed militant group Hezbollah deeply entrenched within their government.

Alu scholars suggested on their initial run that preconditions of simultaneous transfer of uranium, backed up by a third party so that Iran does not come out financially burdened, uranium swap for other materials, and minimum interference from the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, could be satisfied by both sides (P5+1 and Iran; since Turkey and Brazil are nonmembers), and no need to close the underground facility near the Holy City of Qom. The next run suggested a periodic lifting of sanctions against the financial and energy industries outside the country (ones that primarily deal with Iran), with the need to provide humanitarian support for the Iranian population in accordance with Islamic traditions. Another group ran their series of rules through simulation to suggest outside design of the fuel rods to only purify 3.5 percent uranium and tracers to monitor the progress, and another design for 20 percent uranium rods for medical isotope development-these rods need to be specially designed. Another train of thought is that Russia, China, Us, and Europe (Turkey and Brazil included) set up a uranium fuel swap with any country within the world who is interested in nuclear energy for peaceful purposes.

http://www.examiner.com/article/us-reviews-new-preconditions-for-the-iran-uranium-swap?cid=rss

Medical isotope shortages could become commonplace

Dec 3, 2010

Supply shortages of molybdenum-99 could become commonplace over the next decade unless longer-term actions are taken. That is the main conclusion of a report from the Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. Published by the NEA’s High-level Group on the Security of Supply of Medical Radioisotopes (HLG-MR), the report points out that more than 90% of the world’s molybdenum-99 is produced by just five research reactors. These facilities are all 43–50 years old and two – NRU in Canada and OSIRIS in France – are expected to stop production by 2016.

Molybdenum-99 is used to produce technetium-99m, which is used in 30 million medical imaging procedures every year. Technetium-99m is bound into radiopharmaceuticals, which are injected into the body and target specific tissues or biological processes. Technetium-99m decays producing just a gamma ray, which can easily leave the body and be detected. The isotope is well suited for this application because it does not emit harmful charged particles and has a relatively long half-life (6 h) for a gamma emitter.

The HLG-MR was set up in April 2009 in the wake of short-term isotope shortages caused by scheduled and unscheduled shutdowns of several reactors worldwide. The most significant disruption occurred in 2009–2010 when a leak put the NRU reactor in Canada out of commission for more than 13 months.

Constraints on processing capacity

Currently, all of the world’s nine major isotope-producing reactors are running – one each in Canada, South Africa, Australia and Argentina and five in Europe. However, the HLG-MR report cautions that shortages could be expected as demand continues to grow, some reactors are shut down and constraints remain on regional processing capacity.

Molybdenum-99 has a half-life of 66 h, which is not long enough for the isotope to be stockpiled. It is produced by irradiating a target containing uranium-235 inside a nuclear reactor. The molybdenum-99 is then extracted from the target in a processing facility. The uranium targets cannot be transported by air, which means that processing should be located less than 1000 km from the reactor.

There are currently six major processing centres worldwide – all near major reactors. The report points out that the processing capacity in some regions is not enough to support increased target irradiation in those locales. Indeed, during a recent global isotope shortage, reactors in Europe could not crank out targets at full capacity due to a lack of processing facilities. As a result, the HLG-MR recommends that production and processing capacities should be coordinated on a regional level.

Investment in processing needed

A new large processing facility would cost about $200m to build. According to the report, this is a “significant investment to be made for an industry where there is uncertainty around reliability of irradiation services and a revenue stream that does not currently support the economic sustainability of the industry”.

Another challenge facing processors is the ongoing shift from using highly enriched uranium (HEU) targets – which could be used to make weapons – to low-enriched uranium (LEU) targets. LEU targets produce less molybdenum-99 produced by HEU targets and therefore require greater processing capacity as well as the ability to dispose of more nuclear waste.

Medical isotope suppliers believe that demand for technetium-99m will grow by about 1–2% per year. Ignoring any problems with processing, demand is expected to outstrip supply from existing reactors by about 2017.

Impending crunch

As a result of this impending crunch, there are currently about a dozen new facilities on the drawing board, most of which are expected to come online by 2015. If all proposed facilities are built, no supply problems are expected assuming 2% growth in demand. However, when problems of processing capacity and the possibility that some projects will not proceed are factored in, the world could again face shortages by about 2021.

According to Ronald Cameron, head of the NEA’s Nuclear Development Division, many of the industry’s woes are related to the fact that the current economic model of production is not sustainable. Molybdenum-99 production began as a sideline for research reactors and as a result many facilities were locked into long-term supply contracts at low prices, he says. In some cases, according to Cameron, the price of the isotopes does not cover the operating cost of the reactor. Indeed, the HLG-MR report says “current economic return on producing molybdenum-99 at the reactor is not sufficient to support the development of new infrastructure for the production of molybdenum-99; a new multi-purpose research reactor has been estimated to cost more than €400m”. However, Cameron stresses that new facilities could be cost-effective if they pursued different business models.

Not all production methods currently under development require new reactors. TRIUMF in Canada, for example, is working on an accelerator-based method for producing the material. Another option is to use some of the world’s many power reactors to make isotopes – however, Cameron points out that this could prove difficult because it would require changes in how power reactors are regulated.

http://physicsworld.com/cws/article/news/2010/dec/03/medical-isotope-shortages-could-become-commonplace

April 8, 2013 - Posted by arclight2011 | Uncategorized