uranium « nuclear-news

Uranium mining executive boasted on political upheaval in Australia

‘Policymakers around the world can learn a lesson when considering new taxes to plug a revenue gap or play to local politics,” he said.

Indeed they can, particularly if they note the ousting of a sitting prime minister by his own party.

Big-talking giants may come down with a thud, Sydney Morning Herald, Ian Verrender, July 13, 2010 If the European Union had reservations about the iron ore tie-up between the mining giants BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto, it no doubt would have been stunned by Tom Albanese’s extraordinary remarks in London last week…….. Continue reading →

July 14, 2010 Posted by Christina Macpherson | AUSTRALIA, politics | antinuclear, AUSTRALIA, nuclear, nuclear costs, nuclear secrecy, nuclear technology, uranium | Leave a comment

China quietly investing in USA enriched uranium company USEC

Fuel Maker for Reactors Has China as Investor – NYTimes.com, Matthew Wald, June 2010, A Hong Kong company that is partly owned by the Chinese government has quietly purchased a 5.1 percent stake in the only American-owned provider of enriched uranium for use in civilian nuclear reactors, Continue reading →

July 14, 2010 Posted by Christina Macpherson | politics international, USA | antinuclear, enriched, nuclear, nuclear costs, nuclear secrecy, nuclear technology, reactors, uranium | Leave a comment

Report on uranium in hair and urine of Punjab children

14 July 2010. Abstract: Our test results documented that hair and urine mineral analysis results support each other. This is of interest, because hairanalysis evaluates past exposure while urine analysis detects immediate exposure. Continue reading →

July 14, 2010 Posted by Christina Macpherson | health, India | antinuclear, nuclear, nuclear wastes, uranium | Leave a comment

Unprecedented heavy rains made Ranger uranium pit wall unstable

The company said access to higher-grade ore in the lower levels of the open pit had been reduced, due mainly to instability on one of the pit walls and record rainfall at the mine in April.

Uranium output to fall 18 per cent: ERA | The Australian, 14 July 2010, ENERGY Resources of Australia (ERA) has flagged a drop in uranium oxide production of up to 18 per cent a year after its first-half output slumped, due largely to record rainfall affecting operations. Continue reading →

July 14, 2010 Posted by Christina Macpherson | AUSTRALIA, climate change | antinuclear, AUSTRALIA, climate change, uranium | Leave a comment

USA’s ‘Blue Ribbon’ Nuclear Waste Commission at Hanford

Even if Yucca had opened as planned 10 years ago, it would not have enough space for all of Hanford’s wastes,……there is no final resting place for these “vitrified” wastes……..

A Watchdog’s Warning on Nuclear Waste, NYTimes.com, By MATTHEW L. WALD, July 12, 2010, “…. a new report suggests that Hanford has a lot more plutonium waste that the Energy Department had acknowledged.This week, a blue-ribbon commission on nuclear waste established to seek alternatives to Yucca will hold two days of hearings near Hanford. Continue reading →

July 13, 2010 Posted by Christina Macpherson | USA, wastes | antinuclear, nuclear, nuclear costs, nuclear wastes, nuclear weapons, plutonium, radiation, radioactive, uranium, water | Leave a comment

USA Nuclear Weapons Modernization to Cost $275 Billion

the NNSA intends to spend more than $175 billion (in then-year dollars) over the next two decades on building new nuclear weapons factories, testing and simulation facilities, and modernizing and extending the life of the nuclear weapons in the stockpile…..The plan does not include the more than $100 billion the Department of Defense is expected to spend in 2010-2030 on the platforms needed to deliver the warheads.

Nuclear Plan Shows Cuts and Massive Investments » FAS Strategic Security Blog, By Hans M. Kristensen, 12 July 2010, The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) has sent Congress the FY 2011 Stockpile Stewardship and Management Plan (SSMP) with new information about what the administration plans to spend on maintaining and modernizing nuclear weapons and facilities over the next 15-20 years…. Continue reading →

July 13, 2010 Posted by Christina Macpherson | USA, weapons and war | antinuclear, nuclear, nuclear costs, nuclear secrecy, nuclear spin, nuclear weapons, uranium | Leave a comment

Three times more plutonium waste than they thought, at Hanford!

.“What is reasonably foreseeable is that there are people who will be drinking the water in the ground at Hanford at some point in the next few hundred years,” Mr. Pollet said. “We’re going to be killing people, pure and simple.”

Analysis Triples U.S. Plutonium Waste Figures, NYTimes.com, by Matthew Wald, 12 July 2010, The amount of plutonium buried at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation in Washington State is nearly three times what the federal government previously reported, a new analysis indicates, suggesting that a cleanup to protect future generations will be far more challenging than planners had assumed. Continue reading →

July 13, 2010 Posted by Christina Macpherson | USA, wastes | antinuclear, cancer, nuclear, nuclear costs, nuclear secrecy, nuclear spin, nuclear weapons, plutonium, radiation, radioactive, reprocessing, uranium | Leave a comment

Continued battle to save Colorado Valley from uranium mining

Geologists have warned that mining could deplete and contaminate aquifers that discharge into Grand Canyon and that cleaning them up would be next to impossible.

Appeal Filed in Lawsuit to Protect Grand Canyon From Uranium Mining, Center For Biological Diversity, July 12, 2010, GRAND CANYON NATIONAL PARK, Ariz.— Conservation groups and Native American tribes today appealed a federal court decision that denied a request to halt uranium mining just six miles north of Grand Canyon National Park. Continue reading →

July 13, 2010 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Legal, USA | antinuclear, nuclear, nuclear costs, nuclear technology, nuclear wastes, radiation, radioactive, uranium | Leave a comment

USA taxpayer liable for costs of French owned new reactor

Paris-based Areva would provide the reactor technology. Electricite de France and Areva are 85 percent owned by the French government…..“To build the plant with the loan guarantee in today’s power market would be an assurance the taxpayers would get stuck with part of the loan obligation,”

(USA) Maryland nuclear reactor raises foreign ownership concerns, Washington Examiner, By: Hayley PetersonExaminer StaffJuly 12, 2010 “……….. the project at Calvert Cliffs faces many hurdles.

Nuclear energy opponents are challenging the reactor’s licensing qualifications with charges that the amount of foreign ownership violates the Atomic Energy Act — which bars nuclear projects with “foreign ownership, control or domination.” Continue reading →

July 13, 2010 Posted by Christina Macpherson | business and costs, USA | antinuclear, AREVA, EDF, nuclear, nuclear costs, nuclear spin, nuclear technology, reactors, uranium | Leave a comment

Nuclear radiation risk in highly populated Delaware

they [NRC officials] also have acknowledged in public documents that it is “virtually certain” that radiation exposures will occur more than 150 miles from big reactors in a serious accident…………….

(USA) Nuclear growth puts region at risk The Daily Times, By Jeff Montgomery • July 11, 2010 Port Penn resident Julie L. Harrington is surrounded by nuclear reactors. So is Dae Y. Kwak in Hockessin and Carl Cook in Middletown. Continue reading →

July 12, 2010 Posted by Christina Macpherson | general | antinuclear, nuclear, nuclear costs, nuclear technology, radiation, radioactive, reactors, uranium | Leave a comment

World’s planned biggest uranium mine getting too costly

The recent softening prices for Olympic Dam’s key minerals, especially uranium, and a significant increase in the required capital is also understood to be weighing on BHP,

BHP’s Olympic Dam expansion under pressure, Business Spectator 12 Jul 2010 BHP Billiton Ltd’s $US20 billion Olympic Dam expansion in Australia may be delayed by a protracted environmental assessment and cost, Continue reading →

July 12, 2010 Posted by Christina Macpherson | AUSTRALIA, business and costs | antinuclear, AUSTRALIA, nuclear costs, uranium | Leave a comment

AREVA’s financial problems with new nuclear reactors

Finnish delays headache for French nuclear firm PARIS (AFP) 28 June 2010, – Standard & Poor’s said on Monday it had lowered its rating on French nuclear group Areva by two notches because of delays to the construction of a reactor in Finland.The agency downgraded Areva to BBB+/A-2 from A/A-1, citing the company’s announcement of an additional provision of 400 million euros (493 million dollars) for the Finnish European Pressurised Reactor project…… Continue reading →

July 10, 2010 Posted by Christina Macpherson | business and costs, France | AREVA, AUSTRALIA, France, nuclear, nuclear costs, nuclear spin, nuclear wastes, reactors, uranium | Leave a comment

AREVA’s untested nuclear reactors not likely to go ahead in Canada

.…they do not believe the Areva-New Brunswick project will see the light of day.New Brunswick is too small for such an expensive nuclear reactor and does not need the power to meet its own power usage, they argued. “The designs Areva is proposing are untested prototypes so I doubt the private sector would ever assume the risks,”….(CAnada) N.B. overhaul attracts skeptics, Nicolas Van Praet, Financial Post · , Jul. 8, 2010 Paris-based Areva SA, the world’s biggest builder of nuclear reactors, said it will study the feasibility of building a second nuclear generating station in New Brunswick and of creating a new “clean energy” park on the same site. Continue reading →

July 10, 2010 Posted by Christina Macpherson | business and costs, Canada | antinuclear, AREVA, nuclear, nuclear costs, nuclear technology, reactors, uranium | Leave a comment

New Colorado clean-up law could put the brakes on uranium industry

The new Colorado law requires Cotter to restore polluted groundwater to safe levels before restarting operations. ….Ripple effects of the Colorado law could reach beyond state lines.

Mopping up uranium’s mess, High Country News, States push to clean up mine and mill sites, July 09, 2010 by Nathan Rice When Sharyn Cunningham moved to Cañon City, Colorado in 1994, no one told her the groundwater was contaminated – not her real estate agent, not the county health department, not state regulators. Continue reading →

July 10, 2010 Posted by Christina Macpherson | USA, water | antinuclear, nuclear, nuclear technology, radiation, radioactive, uranium, water | Leave a comment

Ever more radioactive – they don’t know what to do with Depleted Uranium

Depleted uranium, unlike other forms of nuclear waste, grows more dangerous as it ages, making storage difficult.

DOE seeks home for depleted uranium, SALT LAKE CITY, July 9 (UPI) — The U.S. government is looking for even a temporary storage site for 10,000 drums of depleted uranium from a South Carolina nuclear plant, Utah officials said.The waste was supposed to have been stored permanently in Utah by EnergySolutions Inc. But the state intervened as the first shipment arrived, seeking more information from the Salt Lake City company and a review of the site………

Depleted uranium, unlike other forms of nuclear waste, grows more dangerous as it ages, making storage difficult.

The first shipment from the Savannah River site, 5,400 barrels, is now in an EnergySolutions storage cell in Utah. The rest is still in South Carolina.….DOE seeks home for depleted uranium – UPI.com

July 10, 2010 Posted by Christina Macpherson | USA, wastes | antinuclear, depleted, nuclear, nuclear costs, nuclear secrecy, nuclear spin, nuclear weapons, radiation, radioactive, uranium | Leave a comment