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Unique problem in managing depleted uranium wastes

At issue is the unique composition of depleted uraniumm — a byproduct of the process that enriches uranium, in this case from weapons production — that results in the material becoming more radioactive over time.

Weather slows unloading of depleted uranium at EnergySolution By Arthur RaymondDeseret News , Dec. 22, 2009 Continue reading →

December 23, 2009 Posted by Christina Macpherson | USA, wastes | antinuclear, depleted, nuclear, nuclear costs, nuclear secrecy, nuclear wastes, uranium, wastes | Leave a comment

EU and Russia: nuclear pact

EU to negotiate nuclear agreement with Russia http://www.chinaview.cn BRUSSELS, Dec. 22 (Xinhua) — The Council of the European Union on Tuesday mandated the European Commission to negotiate a broad nuclear partnership agreement with Russia. The European Atomic Energy Community and the Russian Federation will negotiate an agreement for the peaceful uses of nuclear energy, according to an official press release…………..The negotiations for a broad nuclear agreement are necessary because of recent developments, such as the latest EU enlargements and the renewed interest in nuclear energy as an alternative to reduce CO2 emissions from energy generation, the press release said. Russia is one of the main global suppliers of nuclear materials and equipment. It is also a key supplier of nuclear fuel and related nuclear fuel cycle services to nuclear power plant operators in the EU.

EU to negotiate nuclear agreement with Russia_English_Xinhua

December 23, 2009 Posted by Christina Macpherson | EUROPE, politics international | antinuclear, nuclear, nuclear costs, nuclear wastes | Leave a comment

Nuclear reactors that look good, but don’t really work

Nuclear reactor cutaway diagrams companion Nuclear Reaction Justin on December 21, 2009 Thanks to the Boing Boing website, we’ve found these very cool cutaway diagrams of nuclear reactors. They’ve been executed with love and care, and point to a future that was supposed to promise unlimited, clean and safe electricity.

Unfortunately, the diagrams lack the individual reactor designs’ histories. So, here is the handy cut-out-and-keep Nuclear Reaction nuclear reactor cutaway diagrams companion……. Continue reading →

December 22, 2009 Posted by Christina Macpherson | 2 WORLD, spinbuster | antinuclear, nuclear, nuclear costs, nuclear wastes, radiation, radioactive | Leave a comment

Arizona nuclear reactor closing permanently

Univ. of Ariz. plans to shut down research reactor Google News By BOB CHRISTIE (AP)22 Dec 09 The University of Arizona plans to shut down its 51-year-old nuclear reactor by mid-2010, ending a half-century of specialized nuclear research and training at the Tucson school.The writing has been on the wall for the reactor’s demise since the late 1990s, said the professor who runs the UA Nuclear Research Lab. That’s when falling demand for nuclear engineers led the university to end specialized degree programs that had fed hundreds of engineers into the nuclear Navy and private nuclear industry.The reactor’s license from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission expires next year, and with a rigorous re-licensing process, the decision was made to shut the reactor down.

December 22, 2009 Posted by Christina Macpherson | business and costs, USA | antinuclear, nuclear, nuclear costs, radiation, radioactive, wastes | Leave a comment

Nuclear energy not cheap, not clean,

Greenpeace debunks nuclear benefit – “expanding global nuclear capacity would be accompanied by costs of nearly $10 trillion.” Malaysia Business Insight BY PAUL ICAMINA

NUCLEAR’S contribution in easing climate change is “too little, too late,” the anti-nuclear group Greenpeace said. Continue reading →

December 18, 2009 Posted by Christina Macpherson | 2 WORLD, business and costs, climate change | antinuclear, AREVA, Copenhagen, EDF, France, nuclear, nuclear costs, nuclear spin | Leave a comment

India going into big debt for nuclear power program

India’s Nuclear Power Plans to Borrow $6.5 Billion By Archana Chaudhary Dec. 17 (Bloomberg) –– Nuclear Power Corp. of India, the nation’s monopoly atomic generator, plans to borrow as much as $6.5 billion to fund six new reactors. The state-run company will raise about 140 billion rupees ($3 billion) from loans and bonds to build four 700-megawatt plants, Chairman Shreyans Kumar Jain said in a phone interview from Mumbai today. It will also seek about $3.5 billion in loans for two 1,000-megawatt reactors it’s developing in Kudankulam with Russia’s Rosatom Corp., he said…… Continue reading →

December 18, 2009 Posted by Christina Macpherson | business and costs, India | antinuclear, AREVA, nuclear, nuclear costs, nuclear spin | Leave a comment

Nuclear pork cash starts rolling out

Southern Co. Said to Be First in Line for Nuclear Aid

By Daniel Whitten

Dec. 16 (Bloomberg) — Southern Co. is in line to win tentative approval for a federal loan guarantee financing a nuclear power plant as the government moves to revive U.S. reactor construction stalled for 30 years,…. Continue reading →

December 17, 2009 Posted by Christina Macpherson | politics, USA | antinuclear, nuclear costs | Leave a comment

Russia’s nuke sales to India, as Russia’s control laws not strict

Russia to build 12 nuclear reactors in India Moscow’s ambassador urges increasing nuclear cooperation with India Daily Times By Iftikhar Gilani 15 Dec 09 NEW DELHI: Russia is planning to set up 12 to 14 nuclear reactors in India, with the Russian Ambassador to India Alexander Kadakin saying his country had no issues with transferring enrichment and reprocessing technologies (ENR) to New Delhi.”We do not have domestic laws as strict as in some other countries. We do not see many problems in this field,” he said.

Daily Times – Leading News Resource of Pakistan – Russia to build 12 nuclear reactors in India

December 16, 2009 Posted by Christina Macpherson | politics international, Russia | antinuclear, nuclear, nuclear costs, nuclear weapons | Leave a comment

Utah doesn’t want depleted uranium wastes

Utah gov to DOE: Halt depleted uranium shipment By BROCK VERGAKIS (AP) 16 Dec 09 SALT LAKE CITY — Utah Gov. Gary Herbert sent Energy Secretary Steven Chu a letter Tuesday asking him to halt the shipment of nearly 15,000 drums of low-level radioactive waste from South Carolina for disposal in Utah.Herbert’s letter was released hours before the DOE was scheduled to begin the first of three shipments from the Savannah River Site near Aiken, S.C………… Continue reading →

December 16, 2009 Posted by Christina Macpherson | USA, wastes | antinuclear, depleted, nuclear, nuclear costs, nuclear secrecy, nuclear wastes, radiation, radioactive, uranium, wastes | Leave a comment

France’s nuclear agency gets euro-billions and a changed nam

France puts into future nuclear World Nuclear News 15 December 2009 ...Next-generation nuclear is to receive a billion-euro boost thanks to a French investment program. Meanwhile the country’s main nuclear research body has been re-branded. Initial details of a spending plan worth €35 billion ($51 billion) were announced by President Nicolas Sarkozy yesterday………

…..the organisation is from now on to be known as the Commission of Atomic Energy and Alternative Energy – for which French officials have decided to use the same initials, CEA.

France puts into future nuclear

December 16, 2009 Posted by Christina Macpherson | France, spinbuster | antinuclear, France, nuclear costs, nuclear wastes | Leave a comment

Cooling water dilemma for nuclear plant

Atomic Insights Blog December 15, 2009 Focused Effort to Increase Cost of Nuclear Energy From Oyster Creek by Rod Adams Yesterday, the New Jersey senate held hearings lasting more than three hours on proposed legislation that would force Oyster Creek, the oldest currently operating nuclear power plant in the United States, to install cooling towers. The plant currently operates with the required steam condenser cooling water being drawn from a local surface water supply and then returned to that water supply somewhat warmer than it was before. There are limits assigned to the amount of temperature rise allowed and to the maximum discharge temperature.

Atomic Insights Blog: Focused Effort to Increase Cost of Nuclear Energy From Oyster Creek

December 16, 2009 Posted by Christina Macpherson | USA | antinuclear, nuclear, nuclear costs, nuclear technology | Leave a comment

France’s grand nuclear loan to increase global debt

France to Tap Financial Markets for EU35 Billion Grand Loan By Francois de Beaupuy and Helene Fouquet
Dec. 14 (Bloomberg) –– French President Nicolas Sarkozy’s government will earmark 35 billion euros ($51 billion) for its “Grand Loan” to aid manufacturers such as Areva SA, raising the bulk of the money in financial markets.

The government will sell 22 billion euros of debt to finance the loan with the remaining 13 billion euros coming from banks reimbursing the government aid they received to help weather the country’s worst economic slump in 60 years, Sarkozy said at a press conference in Paris today……………….Sarkozy’s grand loan, which may benefit companies including European Aeronautic, Defence & Space Co. and jet-engine maker Safran SA, will add to the country’s debt, which rose to 1.43 trillion euros, or 74 percent of gross domestic product, at the end of the second quarter. Government stimulus spending is boosting global debt levels and threatening to undermine the creditworthiness of some the world’s safest sovereign borrowers………………..As part of the grand loan the government will earmark 5 billion euros for sustainable development, including for fourth- generation nuclear power plants being built by Areva.,,,,,,,,,,The plan will also trigger 25 billion euros of investment from private companies, local governments and European agencies, he said.

France to Tap Financial Markets for EU35 Billion Grand Loan – Bloomberg.com

December 15, 2009 Posted by Christina Macpherson | 1 NUCLEAR ISSUES, politics | AREVA, cancer, nuclear, nuclear costs | Leave a comment

France to boost its nuke industry, seeks foreign investors

France seeks foreign cash to grow nuclear sector

PARIS, Dec 14 (Reuters) By Nina Sovich – France pledged 1 billion euros ($1.5 billion) to support next generation reactor design and said it would seek foreign capital to back its move to the forefront of nuclear energy expansion.

The investment is part of a 35 billion-euro spending plan French President Nicolas Sarkozy Sarkozy unveiled on Monday aimed at improving France’s competitiveness. ………………. The French government, which owns majority stakes in both nuclear reactor maker Areva (CEPFi.PA) and utility giant EDF (EDF.PA), is trying to position France as the market leader in designing and running these power plants…………… To fund these costs, the French government recently asked Areva to sell its electricity business for some 4 billion euros. It has also invited foreign utilities to take stakes in new plants being built in France…………………..

Last month Proglio blasted French energy companies bidding on a contract to build nuclear power plants in Abu Dhabi for its lack of coherence.

December 15, 2009 Posted by Christina Macpherson | business and costs, climate change, France | antinuclear, AREVA, EDF, France, nuclear, nuclear costs, nuclear spin | Leave a comment

Delay in notifying Three Mile Island radiation leak

Concern at Three Mile Island leak THE AUSTRALIAN Brad Norington, November 24, 2009 LOCAL authorities have defended their decision to delay the disclosure of a radiation leak at the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant in Pennsylvania that forced the removal of 150 workers at the weekend.About 20 employees were contaminated by radiation on the site of the worst US nuclear accident near the state’s capital, Harrisburg, in 1979……………Questions have been raised why officials from the local Emergency Management Agency were not notified about the radiation leak for five hours after an airborne radiological contamination alarm sounded at 4pm on Saturday, Pennsylvania time.

December 15, 2009 Posted by Christina Macpherson | safety, USA | antinuclear, nuclear costs, radiation, radioactive | Leave a comment

USA committed to its nuclear arsenal

Guarding the U.S. nuclear arsenal Tehran Times 14 Dec 09 Interviewee: Lt. Gen. Frank G. Klotz, commander of Air Force Global Strike CommandU.S. President Barack Obama has made nuclear nonproliferation and arms control a centerpiece of his foreign policy. But until the United States gives up on its policy of nuclear deterrence, stewardship of atomic assets will be a centerpiece of Pentagon planning…….. Continue reading →

December 14, 2009 Posted by Christina Macpherson | USA, weapons and war | antinuclear, nuclear, nuclear costs, nuclear weapons | Leave a comment