For the second consecutive year in 2013, the Committee to Protect Journalists has announced Turkey as the world’s leading jailer of journalists, followed closely by Iran and China.
This message and the following letter is sent from Turkey by NKP.
NKP is a broad and all-embracing alliance of NGO’s and activists against nuclear power in Turkey. It represents the largest joint effort in the environmentalist movement in the country.
Attached letter has been written for DIET members, to enable them to discover the backdrop of
“Agreement between the Government of Japan and the Government of the Republic of Turkey for Co-operation in the Use of Nuclear Energy for Peaceful Purposes “
signed by Mr. Abe and Mr. Erdogan in Istanbul.
We – the citizens-firmly believe this agreement must be scrapped when it is brought to the attention of the Japanese Parliament for ratification.
We also believe, as the leaders of a country who are still in battle against the Fukushima disaster, Japanese MP’s will act sincerely and reject ratifiying this agreement.
It is crucial that our motives for opposing this agreement are well understood by you,hopefully this letter conveys our message well .
In May 2013, Turkey and Japan signed an agreement to construct a nuclear power plant in Sinop on Turkey’s western Black Sea coast. Mitsubushi Heavy Industries and the French Areva are supposed to be working on this project jointly. In 2010, Turkey signed a similar agreement with Russia to build the country’s first nuclear power plant in Akkuyu. Questionable “build-own-operate” model of Russia is unusual in nuclear industry and leaves many uncomfortable questions in mind about safety.
As Turkey moves toward these serious, potentially hazardous projects in a hurry, it fails to factor in the social, geological and environmental implications and seem unaware of potential lethal risks for millions of people living in the region as well as the vulnerable ecological communities in case something goes wrong just as it did in Fukushima recently and Chernobyl earlier. Turkey’s active fault lines in its political and economic structure, coupled with its inefficiencies in the areas of technology, regulations, infrastructure and shortage of qualified personnel pose a big threat to the efficient and safe execution of any such project. Turkey, just like Japan is in a seismically very active geography yet unlike Japan, she is quite unprepared for the risks of major earthquakes. Turkish safety culture is very different from Japan’s and risk management concepts are also perceived differently. This alone massively amplifies the risks of operating nuclear power plants in Turkey.
Our letter is calling the MPs representing Japanese people to scrap the intergovernmental nuclear agreement with Turkey that will soon be brought to the attention of DIET members for deliberation. The reasons behind this sincere call are detailed in the following paragraphs.
Turkey is deviating from practices of a modern democracy, as it becomes more and more authoritarian under the current government; people’s will on vital issues is dismissed. Evading ecologically sustainable energy options, the government has imposed obscure nuclear plans on the nation without any due debates either within its party program or in the parliament.
The method of promoting these nuclear agreements are very much in line with the rest of the un-democratic practices of the Justice and Development Party (AKP), which has been in power for a decade.
Majority of Turkish people are against nuclear power plants and nuclear weapons. “Global Citizen Reaction to the Fukushima Nuclear Plant Disaster”, a survey conducted by IPSOS in April 2011 documents the fact that 80% of Turks are against acquiring nuclear energy.
Yet, people and NGOs cannot find outlets for voicing their true concerns or objections on neither nuclear nor other similarly vital issue; democratic channels through which the citizens may promote change are blocked by the AKP regime.
For the second consecutive year in 2013, the Committee to Protect Journalists has announced Turkey as the world’s leading jailer of journalists, followed closely by Iran and China.
Sister Megan Rice, left, with co-defendant Michael Walli on Sept. 12, 2012, at the Catholic Worker in Washington, D.C. Rice’s wrists were in casts because of a fall during her release following the initial set of charges for the 2012 break-in at Y-12. (photo by Mary Finnerty)
The recommended sentence against Sister Megan Rice, the Catholic nun who at age 82 traversed a ridge in the middle of the night and, along with two co-activists, broke into the inner-most sanctum of the Y-12 nuclear weapons plant and vandalized federal property, is 70 to 87 months. Her sentencing is set for the morning of Jan. 28.
As have the other defendants in the internationally followed case, Rice — who turns 84 years old this month – is seeking a lighter-than-recommended sentence for her conviction on felony charges of sabotage and depredation of government property related to the July 28, 2012 break-in at Y-12.
In a motion filed Jan. 14, Rice’s attorney, Francis Lloyd, said the sentencing for the nun “differs greatly” from other cases that follow the federal sentencing guidelines that are based on the seriousness of the crime to promote respect for the law and to protect the public from further crimes by the defendant.
“The Defendant Megan Rice is 83 years old, and has served most of her life as a sister of the Society of the Holy Child Jesus, a Roman Catholic order,” the motion states.
“Her conduct in this case was motivated by her unshakeable conviction, based on her studied and devoted understanding of Christian principles of nonviolence, that nuclear weaponry is inescapably evil. Megan Rice has been open throughout this case about her affiliation with the Plowshares Movement. Like-minded individuals in this movement have engaged in similar expressive conduct in the past, and no doubt will do so in the future.”
Here’s an additional part of the argument for a lighter sentence: “As the evidence at trial showed, Megan Rice nd her co-defendants were completely nonviolent when they were arrested. They used the occasion to present symbolically their passion for nuclear disarmament.”
The motion said the seriousness of the act does not match up with the seriousness of the charge in which the three were charged and convicted. According to the defendant’s filing, the federal charges do not recognize the difference between spray-painted biblical references that nations “shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruninghooks” and tossing a Molotov cocktail.
“The conduct that led to the convictions in this case was, of course, mostly trespass and graffiti, and nothing to do with explosives,” the motion states.
It concluded: “The requirements of promotion of respect for the law and just punishment therefore do not require even the advisory Guidelines terms of imprisonment in Megan Rice’s case. This elderly individual, committed unreservedly to her moral convictions, and possessed of wisdom gain through long experience and contemplation, has already been behind bars for months. The world has seen the law upheld through her incarceration. Additional imprisonment, especially to the extent recommended by the advisory Guidelines calculation in her case, would exceed the mandate . . .”
Thousands of letters and postcards and petition signatures and messages have been submitted to the U.S. District Judge Amul R. Thapar, who has presided in the case and will conduct the sentencing later this month.
Fukushima inner leaks possibly from cracks
Officials of Tokyo Electric Power Company say water leaks inside the No. 3 reactor building likely came from cracks in the containment vessel.
They said high radiation levels in the leaked water suggest the water is most likely from that used for cooling down melted fuel after the accident in March 2011.
They spotted the leak on the first floor of the reactor building last Saturday when watching images filmed by a camera on a remote-controlled robot.
They suspect the water is leaking from around an opening in the containment vessel which holds a steam pipe, as they found a puddle nearby.
They said the extra space around the opening had been tightly sealed with resin. But they said the substance may have deteriorated after being exposed to the heat of the melted fuel and to salt from sea water poured into the vessels immediately after the accident.
Volunteers Crowdsource Radiation Monitoring to Map Potential Risk on Every Street in Japan
Safecast is a network of volunteers who came together to map radiation levels throughout Japan after the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant disaster in 2011. They soon realized radiation readings varied widely, with some areas close to the disaster facing light contamination, depending on wind and geography, while others much further away showed higher readings. Safecast volunteers use Geiger counters and open-source software to measure the radiation, and then post the data online for anyone to access. Broadcasting from Tokyo, we are joined by Pieter Franken, co-founder of Safecast. “The first trip we made into Fukushima, it was an eye-opener. First of all, the radiation levels we encountered were way higher than what we had seen on television,” Franken says. “We decided to focus on measuring every single street as our goal in Safecast, so for the last three years we have been doing that, and this month we are passing the 15 millionth location we have measured, and basically every street in Japan has been at least measured once, if not many, many more times.” http://www.democracynow.org/2014/1/17…
Govt. lists candidate sites for radioactive debris
Japan’s Environment Ministry has chosen 3 possible locations for disposing highly radioactive materials spread by the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster.
The 3 are in Miyagi Prefecture, north of Fukushima.
Ministry officials made the announcement at a meeting attended by local mayors from the prefecture on Monday.
Storage built on the site will contain contaminated ash and mud with more than 8,000 becquerels of radioactive cesium per kilogram.
Ministry officials say they chose the sites after taking into account the distance from water sources and residential areas. Environmental protection was also considered. Geological surveys will be conducted.
The government drew criticism after presenting candidate sites in 2 prefectures in 2012 without consulting local authorities.
The government reviewed its selection process and agreed to involve the mayors.
Miyagi is the first prefecture that has chosen candidate sites under the revised process.
The final plan is to build a storage site in Miyagi and sites in 4 other prefectures in eastern Japan.
Navy Sailor after Fukushima: I’m in a wheelchair, now it’s spreading to my arms and hands — Photo of skin with intense red burns after being in sun, suspects radiation intensified impact (AUDIO) http://enenews.com/navy-sailor-after-…
Physician: Canadian gov’t withholding testing data; “Less confident about eating Pacific seafood now” — Top Scientist: “Sense of potential widespread disaster” from Fukushima http://enenews.com/physician-canadian…
Officials by West Coast Speak Out on Fukushima: Concerns about cancer, illness from contaminated food — ‘Low-level’ radiation being reported in fish — “We cannot sit by and watch and wait” — National gov’t appears to not be taking it seriously http://enenews.com/officials-near-wes…
But my concern, all along, has been different. France is a nuclear state. The French president is a critical part of his country’s nuclear command and control system. Like the American president, he must authenticate a nuclear war order.
[….]
I mean, I understand why he felt he had to. But this particular situation is not zero-sum. He gets sexual and romantic companionship; France is endangered…..
Pity the historian who attempts to write about the way world leaders are bodyguarded. Every country, it seems, protects its dignitaries differently. How they protect them is as much a function of political culture as it is security.
Case in point: The contretemps over whether French President Francois Hollande’s bodyguards failed to adequately protect him before, during, and after his sexual liaison with a French actress. Reportedly, only two security agents from the presidential bodyguard, the GSPR, accompanied him. They failed to check out the apartment’s owners, who are (allegedly) connected to the Corsican mob. They failed to notice a photographer snapping pictures of the presidential party as he got off his unmarked scooter to go get off with his mistress.
I’ll get to the nitty-gritty of protective methods in a second. But my concern, all along, has been different. France is a nuclear state. The French president is a critical part of his country’s nuclear command and control system. Like the American president, he must authenticate a nuclear war order. The French keep secrets better than we do, and so the amount of public information about such matters is limited. The constitution, ratified in 1959, is clear about his essential role, however. No decision can be made without his assent, even though the army exists in the constitution as an independent entity. France is also a charter member of NATO, and I would assume that decisions about whether to use strategic and tactical weapons in Europe would be part of his portfolio.
So: Who carries the French president’s “football?” In the U.S., a military aide is always near the president’s side. During emergency situations, the Secret Service will (probably) crash the military aide along with the president before anyone else for obvious reasons. In France, even though the tryst apartment was close to the Elysee Palace, there seems to have been no military aide in sight. Mid-coitus, if the French president had to make a nuclear decision, could he do so over an unsecured phone line? When President Obama walks across the street to Blair House, the military aide, supported by a team of Emergency Actions officers, will be near him, within a few dozen feet at most. Unless Hollande’s chief bodyguard had a nuclear decision handbook with him and a secure, redundant telephone, the president’s irresponsibility is most manifest.
Russian President Vladimir Putin is considering visiting Japan at the request of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told a press conference Tuesday.
While the specific details have yet to be worked out, the leaders will discuss the visit when Abe travels to Russia next month to attend the Feb. 7 opening ceremony of the Sochi Winter Olympics.
When Abe visited Moscow last April and invited Putin to visit Japan in 2014, the two agreed to “accelerate negotiations to work out a solution acceptable to both sides” regarding the longstanding territorial dispute between the two countries………… Subscription only but there is this for free 🙂
Vietnam has outlined plans to build seven nuclear power plants by 2030, but there have been fears over nuclear power technology following the 2011 Fukushima disaster in Japan.
HANOI, Vietnam—Vietnam will delay the construction of its first nuclear power plant by six years, state media reported Thursday, amid concerns over safety and efficiency.Faced with increased demand for power, Vietnam needs to develop new energy sources as its domestic coal and hydropower production is levelling off. The Asian Development Bank has said domestic electricity demand may rise by up to 14 percent per year until 2015 and plateau at 11 percent growth until 2020.
The country had awarded the construction contract for its first nuclear power plant to Russian companies. The second was given to companies from Japan. Construction of the first plant in Ninh Thuan province on Vietnam’s central coast was originally slated to start this year.
However, Tuoi Tre newspaper on Thursday quoted Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung as telling a government conference that construction will probably have to be postponed until 2020 to ensure the highest safety and efficiency standards.
Dung ordered the Vietnam National Oil and Gas Group, also known as PetroVietnam, to ensure gas supplies to feed a planned 5,000 megawatt power plant to offset the 4,000 MW of delayed nuclear generation capacity, it said.
Vietnam has outlined plans to build seven nuclear power plants by 2030, but there have been fears over nuclear power technology following the 2011 Fukushima disaster in Japan.
The Supreme Council of the junior coalition partner, the Polish Peasants’ Party (PSL) has prepared a resolution calling for withdrawal from Poland’s plans to build its first nuclear power plant. According to unofficial sources of the Polish Press Agency , the Council – the party’s top authority – is due to vote the document during its next sitting in three months’ time.
According to the news agency, the resolution’s advocates include the Council’s head Jaroslaw Kalinowski (former vice-premier) and PSL’s parliamentary caucus head Jan Bury (former vice-minister of treasury).
Poland plans to launch the first 3000 MW nuclear power block in 2023 or 2024 and the second peer block – two years later. However, a few months ago, PM Donald Tusk admitted that this plan should be realised in a slightly more distant future.
The nuclear project is to be carried out by Poland’s biggest power utility Polska Grupa Energetyczna (PGE). Earlier, PGE signed a letter of intent concerning participation in the preparation, construction and operation of a nuclear power plant with blue-chip copper and silver producer KGHM and two other power utilities: Tauron Polska Energia and Enea. The document’s validity ended at the end of 2013, but the firms pledged to continue cooperation in this field.
Nuclear power plants won’t be coming to Indiana any time soon, after all.
A key state senator has pulled his bill that would have provided financial incentives to utilities to build nuclear plants.
Sen. James Merritt, R-Indianapolis confirmed today he won’t hold hearings on his bill this session, and said construction of a nuclear plant is “probably more than a decade away.”
The move amounts to a sudden reversal of Merritt’s push for nuclear energy in Indiana. Less than two weeks ago, Merritt introduced bill. Last week, the bill was sent to the Senate Utilities Committee, which Merritt chairs.
Senate Bill 302 would have allowed utilities to build a nuclear plant or a small modular reactor and pass along the engineering and construction costs to customers years before the plant goes into operation.
Indiana is one of the few Midwest states with no nuclear power plants. It has long relied on abundant coal reserves for energy.
In a statement today, Merritt said the bill would not be heard in committee or considered this session because no utility or large energy user, such as a steel mill, has shown interest.
“This topic, though, needs to be kept fresh in the minds of Hoosiers because the Environmental Protection Agency’s rules do not favor coal as a future energy source,” Merritt said in a statement. “Nuclear energy is expensive to build but cheap to operate. I am interested in nuclear power as a whole — both small and large power packs.”
Call Star reporter John Russell at (317) 444-6283 and follow him on Twitter @johnrussell99.
I accidentally happened upon this photo while researching some things about the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster and I freaked out! How did this worker get so close to this mass of melted nuclear fuel in the basement of Chernobyl without receiving several lethal doses of radiation?
Approaching it would mean certain death. The individual shown in the below image is either completely insane or outright suicidal.
I am quite certain that this worker, as well as the person who took the photograph, are now both deceased. Probably from either cancer or acute radiation sickness.
Russian state nuclear power corporation Rosatom is willing to use Belarusian companies that have gained good reputations in the construction of the first nuclear power plant in Belarus for projects in third countries, Rosatom Chairman Sergei Kirienko said in a meeting with Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko on Monday.
During the meeting Lukashenko proposed that Rosatom use Belarusian companies to build nuclear power plants in third countries.
“I am counting on this that we learn something here [in the construction of the first Belarusian nuclear power plant] and can build at other sites with you,” the Belarusian president said. “If we learn to build nuclear power plants, we are willing to use your technology and move with you where you are building throughout the world,” he added.
Lukashenko asked Kirienko if Russia would invite Belarusian companies to other sites.
“That is so. We, honestly, also looked at the [joint] experience with a view to the future,” Kirienko said. “And we really are willing to use the most qualified organizations that have proved themselves in the building of the first Belarusian nuclear power plant,” he said.
He added that this would include building plants in third countries as well as Russia.
“We already have 22 blocks contracted out throughout the world in our portfolio currently,” he said.
A deal was recently signed with Hungary and tenders were won for construction of reactors in Finland and Jordan. “
On January 18, 2014 activists from a Puget Sound-based nuclear abolition group engaged in a nonviolent direct action at the US Navy’s West Coast nuclear submarine and nuclear weapons base.
Members of Ground Zero Center for Nonviolent Action held a peaceful vigil and nonviolent direct action at the main gate to Naval Base Kitsap-Bangor in Silverdale, Washington. They protested the U.S. government’s continued deployment of the Trident nuclear weapons system, and increasing military presence in Asia due to its Asia-Pacific Pivot. Its continued reliance on nuclear weapons as an instrument of foreign policy by force projection is in contravention of both U.S. and international laws.
The Trident submarine base at Bangor, just 20 miles from Seattle, contains the largest concentration of operational nuclear weapons in the US arsenal. Each of the 8 Trident submarines at Bangor carries up to 24 Trident II (D-5) missiles, each capable of being armed with as many as 8 independently targetable thermonuclear warheads. Each nuclear warhead has an explosive force of between 100 and 475 kilotons (up to 30 times the force of the Hiroshima bomb). 60 percent of the Trident fleet is based at Bangor, with 40 percent at King’s Bay, Georgia.
On Saturday afternoon the group maintained a peaceful vigil on the roadside outside the base entrance. Honoring Martin Luther King Jr’s strong stand against war and nuclear weapons, participants held a large banner with a quote from Dr. King: “When scientific power outruns spiritual power, we end up with guided missiles and misguided men.”
Two participants entered the roadway, symbolically closing the base, and were removed by Washington State Patrol officers. Cited for traffic violations – “Pedestrian on Roadway Illegally” – were Gilberto Perez, Bainbridge Island, WA and Michael Siptroth, Belfair, WA. Perez, a Buddhist monk who has visited Jeju Island in South Korea, held a banner (in Korean) calling for “No Naval Base on Jeju.”
Another participant, Tom Krebsbach, Brier, WA walked onto the base in an attempt to deliver a message, in the form of a poem, to the base commander. Naval security authorities arrested Krebsbach, and took him to a base facility for processing. He was released a short while later, after having been cited for Trespassing (18 USC 1382).
The 22-year old political prisoner, journalist of Bobrujskij Courier Yauhen Vaskovich is sent to the solitary cell, a fine for bad behavior in prison, almost every month. By now, he has spent 247 days in solitary confinement, report human rights defenders, which means nearly ten months out of less than three years of imprisonment.
Last time Yauhen was placed in the isolator before the New Year, on December 27, for ten days.
Such regime of serving the sentence (he is allowed only one food parcel up to two kilos a year) made impact on the physical state: being 186 cm tall, he weighs only 65 kilos.
His mother says he does not complain in letters; she supposes it is not allowed to write things like that. The lawyer meets him regularly. After January 20 the mother is going to pay a visit to his son, which is allowed only once a year.
Meanwhile, Yauhen’s colleagues from the Belarusian Christian Democracy are worried by the situation and alarm human rights defenders and international organizations to protest against the tortures of the prisoner.
We remind that Yauhen Vaskovich, and his friends Artsiom Prakapenka and Pavel Syramolatau, were sentenced to 7 years in prison for attacking the KGB building in Babruysk (on the night of October 17, 2010). They were found guilty of hooliganism and causing costly damage to property (the damage to the outer façade was estimated at 253 000 Br, which was in 2010 about 85$). Now Yauhen Vaskovich is in Mahilou prison No4. Pavel Syramalotau pleaded for pardon and was released in September 2012. Yauhen Vaskovich and Artsiom Prakapenka are refusing to appeal for pardon.
The prominent Belarusian human rights activist has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize for the third time.
Polish MPs, members of the ruling Civic Platform and the opposition Law and Justice party, collect signatures to submit his nomination.
“Like the Polish Solidarity movement represented by Lech Walesa received the Nobel Prize, Belarusian human rights activists represented by Bialiatski should be given the Nobel Peace Prize,” he says.
As many as 160 Polish MPs signed for Bialiatski’s nomination, Nasha Niva newspaper reports referring to Gazeta Wyborcza.
Bialiatski has been remaining a nominee for the last few years in prison.
Bialiatski used his bank accounts to help victims of repressions of the Lukashenka regime. Activists from Viasna human rights centre offered aid to all wrongfully convicted people regardless of their political views.
The Belarusian authorities received details of Bialiatski’s bank accounts from the judicial bodies of Lithuania and Poland. He was imprisoned on accusations of tax frauds.
Loren Thompson, head of the Lexington Institute, a defense-oriented public policy advocacy group, said he thinks part of the problem may be the “diminished status” of the nuclear mission in the post-Cold War era.
“Although missile forces remain crucial to deterring nuclear attack, they are no longer seen as a prestigious assignment in the Air Force,” he said. He noted that in 2008, then-Defense Secretary Robert Gates expressed worry about stewardship of the mission.
“This suggests these latest problems are part of a broader pattern,”
Air Force says latest missteps don’t equate to failure; others cite worrying pattern
WASHINGTON — At what point do breakdowns in discipline put the country’s nuclear security in jeopardy?
And when does a string of embarrassing episodes in arguably the military’s most sensitive mission become a pattern of failure?
Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel is now concerned “there could be something larger afoot here,” according to his chief spokesman, and “wants this taken very, very seriously.”
The disclosures of disturbing behavior by nuclear missile officers are mounting and now include alleged drug use and exam cheating. Yet Air Force leaders insist the trouble is episodic, correctible and not cause for public worry.
The military has a well-established set of inspections and other means of ensuring the safety of its nuclear weapons. But as in any human endeavor, military or civilian, the key to success is the people, not the hardware.
Until recently, Hagel had said little in public about the setbacks and missteps in the nuclear missile force reported by The Associated Press beginning last May.
Last week, Hagel made the first visit to a nuclear missile launch control center by a Pentagon chief since 1982. He praised the force’s professionalism, even though minutes before, officials had informed him that a few missile launch officers at another base were suspected of illegal drug use.
Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James, just four weeks into her tenure as the service’s top civilian official, told reporters Wednesday that the Air Force’s chief investigative arm is investigating 11 officers at six bases who are suspected of illegal drug possession.
She said that probe led to a separate investigation of dozens of nuclear missile launch officers for cheating on routine tests of their knowledge of the tightly controlled procedures required to launch missiles under their control.
At least 34 launch officers, all at Malmstrom Air Force Base, Mont., have had their security clearances suspended and are not allowed to perform launch duties pending the outcome of the investigation.
They stand accused of cheating, or tolerating cheating by others, on a routine test of their knowledge of how to execute “emergency war orders.” Those are the highly classified procedures the officers would use, upon orders from the president, to launch their nuclear-tipped missiles.
The alleged cheaters are said to have transmitted test answers by text message to colleagues. That is a violation not only of their own personal integrity but also of security classification rules.
“We note all the technologies being considered have pros and cons and that no “perfect” solution exists. It may be that a multi-track approach offers best value for money.”
[…]
“The Nuclear Decommissioning Authority’s advice on plutonium management and on the potential options for its implementation are essential to the overall delivery of a final solution for plutonium disposition,” she said. “As we noted in our 2011 consultation response, there will be many steps to go through before we reach the point of taking a final decision on the technology for plutonium disposition. This will include a competitive tendering and procurement process to help secure best value to the taxpayer.
GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy PRISM technology back in the running as a means of generating energy from UK plutonium stockpile
By James Murray
21 Jan 2014
The UK’s ambitious plans for a new generation of nuclear reactors that could be fuelled using the country’s stockpile of waste radioactive material took an important step forward yesterday, as the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) announced that it had identified three “credible” approaches for reusing separated plutonium.
The NDA last year undertook a review of the government’s “preferred option” of reusing plutonium as MOX fuel, and also looked at the credibility of alternative proposals put forward by GE-Hitachi and Candu.
The agency yesterday published a position paper on its review, indicating that a possible a U-turn could be on the cards as each of the three proposals represents a “credible reuse option” for the UK’s plutonium stockpile.
“This work has resulted in NDA concluding that reuse remains the preferred option and, based on the information provided and against our definitions, there are three credible reuse options: – reuse as MOX in light water reactors, reuse in CANDU EC6 reactors and reuse in PRISM fast reactors,” the NDA stated. “We note all the technologies being considered have pros and cons and that no “perfect” solution exists. It may be that a multi-track approach offers best value for money.”
nuclear-news 