nuclear-news

Worker guilty in bid to sell France nuke secrets

WASHINGTON (Reuters) 26 Jan 09 – A nuclear industry worker who tried to sell uranium enrichment technology to NATO ally France pleaded guilty on Monday to illegally disclosing restricted information, the Justice Department said.

Roy Lynn Oakley, who worked at a facility in Oak Ridge, Tennessee that had formerly been used to produce highly enriched uranium, sought to sell equipment and information for $200,000 to representatives of the French government in 2006, according to his plea agreement with federal prosecutors………………….had been told in a security briefing he was given by his employer Bechtel Jacobs that “a number of nations including France” would be interested in buying parts and information stored at the complex.

The pieces of equipment he tried to sell were related to an advanced “gaseous diffusion” process for enriching uranium. Highly-enriched uranium is a fuel used in nuclear weapons.

The Oak Ridge facility was previously operated by the U.S. Department of Energy and is now run by environmental cleanup contractor Bechtel Jacobs.

Editorial: Nuclear Plant Fine
Nodding off The Philadelphi Inquirer Jan. 12, 2009 A U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission decision last week is another blow to efforts to build greater public trust in nuclear power as an alternative to the nation’s expensive appetite for foreign oil.The NRC proposed a paltry $65,000 fine against the owner of Peach Bottom nuclear plant, where investigators found that security guards routinely napped on the job. The NRC last year issued a color-coded “white” finding – a low-to-moderate safety violation – for the incident.The agency’s actions seem more like a slap on the wrist for Chicago-based Exelon, rather than a strong message about safety and accountability. Exelon says it plans to pay the fine for the NRC’s findings, which were confirmed by its internal investigation at the York County nuclear power facility.It took the utility and its regulators more than a year to reach this disappointing conclusion to what should have been an open-and-shut case, with indisputable evidence.
The investigations were launched in September 2007, but only after a videotape of the sleeping guards had surfaced. After receiving a tip in a letter from a former employee at the nuclear plant, the NRC allowed Exelon to do its own investigation of the allegations. Talk about the fox guarding the hen house! It came as no surprise that Exelon initially found no evidence of guards napping. That quickly changed when the video became public.

Pakistani Nuclear Security Worries U.S. Officials
Global Security Newswire Jan. 12, 2009 Preventing Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal from falling into extremist hands is a more important security priority for the United States than stabilizing Afghanistan and Iraq, according to a Bush administration report delivered to the team preparing for Barack Obama’s presidency, the New York Times reported yesterday

“Only one of those countries has a hundred nuclear weapons,” the report’s lead author said. Concerns persist over Islamabad’s ability to protect the arsenal, according to the Times.

U.S. intelligence officials have briefed Obama on the possibility that some Pakistani scientists with radical Islamic sympathies have sought to join the ranks of the nation’s nuclear elite……………………….The official also expressed concern that militants could try to steal nuclear weapons that were being transferred between facilities. Some U.S. officials were concerned that the recent terrorist attacks in the Indian city of Mumbai might have been intended to spur Pakistan to move tactical nuclear weapons to border positions so they could be stolen, the Times reported.

U.S. targets A.Q. Khan nuclear network WASHINGTON (CNN) — Sanctions will be placed on 13 people and three companies “for their involvement in the A.Q. Khan nuclear proliferation network,” the U.S. State Department said Monday.

Khan, a Pakistani scientist, operated an international black market in nuclear material to a number of states with a history of poor relations with the United States.

He was arrested in February 2004 and eventually pardoned by former Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf.

The sanctions, which follow a U.S. review of the network, “will help prevent future proliferation-related activities by these private entities, provide a warning to other would-be proliferators, and demonstrate our ongoing commitment to using all available tools to address proliferation-related activities.”

The department notes that Khan spearheaded an “extensive international network for the proliferation of nuclear equipment and know-how that provided one-stop shopping for countries seeking to develop nuclear weapons.”

Iran and Libya received centrifuge components, centrifuges, and designs from Khan and his associates, and the United States believes the network “provided centrifuge designs, equipment, and technology to North Korea.”………………”While we believe the A.Q. Khan network is no longer operating, countries should remain vigilant to ensure that Khan network associates, or others seeking to pursue similar proliferation activities, will not become a future source for sensitive nuclear information or equipment.”

Austria furious at re-opening of nuclear plant
Radio Netherlands 12 Jan 09 “We were really aghast when we heard that it’s being taken back into use,” was the angry comment from Herwig Schuster – spokesperson for the Austrian branch of Greenpeace – at the news that the Bohunice V 2 nuclear power station, located just 100 km from Vienna in neighbouring Slovakia, is to re-open. After numerous protests, from Austria in particular, the power station was officially closed at the end of last year. But now, because of the problems with the supply of gas from Russia, the Slovak government has indicated that it wants to bring the reactor back into use.

Greenpeace’s Herwig Schuster argues that the re-opening would involve an enormous risk:

“Bohunice V 2 is an old Soviet-made power station. The casing is porous, and the level of protection so weak that anything that lands on it – an aircraft for example – would damage it”.