uranium « nuclear-news

Nuclear Security Summit lifts commercial prospects for ‘Megatons to Megawatts’

USEC Inc., a global energy company, is a leading supplier of enriched uranium fuel for commercial nuclear power plants.

USEC CEO: Nuclear Security Supported by Innovative Industry Program – MarketWatch 13 April 2010, ProgramMegatons to Megawatts on Schedule to Eliminate Equivalent of 20,000 Nuclear Warheads USEC Inc. President and CEO John Welch issued the following statement today in support of President Barack Obama’s Nuclear Security Summit:

“This week’s historic summit in Washington is a timely reminder of the threat facing our world from potential nuclear action by terrorists. USEC and others in the commercial nuclear industry have worked for many years in close coordination with our governments to support the security and elimination of nuclear weapons material around the world in order to reduce this threat….. Continue reading →

April 14, 2010 Posted by Christina Macpherson | business and costs, technology, USA | antinuclear, disarmament, enriched, nuclear, nuclear costs, nuclear secrecy, nuclear spin, nuclear technology, nuclear weapons, reactors, uranium | Leave a comment

International walk for a nuclear free world

“Part of our thing is also to talk about nuclear power. Uranium mining is destroying indigenous communities throughout the world. It’s something people just aren’t aware of”

Nuclear-free group stops in Carlisle. By Becca Gregg, Sentinel Reporter, The Sentinel , April 13, 2010 They’ve already made their way through Tennessee, Kentucky, Ohio and western Pennsylvania, and on Monday, participants of the International Peace Walk marched their way into downtown Carlisle. The group, which began its journey on February 13, is trekking nearly 1,100 miles on foot, from the Oak Ridge Y-12 Nuclear Weapons Facility in Oak Ridge, Tenn., to the United Nations in New York City for the 2010 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty Review Conference on May 3. Continue reading →

April 14, 2010 Posted by Christina Macpherson | general | antinuclear, nuclear, nuclear spin, nuclear weapons, peace, peaceful, uranium | Leave a comment

Weapons plutonium for USA and Russia’s fast neutron reactors

US, Russia, Sign Protocol to Dispose of 17 Thousand Weapons’ Worth of Plutonium, Political Punch April 13, 2010 As the first Nuclear Security Summit began coming to a close, Secretary o f State Hillary Clinton and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov agreed that their countries would each dispose up at least 34 metric tons of excess weapon-grade plutonium – 68 metric tons total — enough material for approximately 17,000 nuclear weapons. Continue reading →

April 14, 2010 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Russia, technology, USA | antinuclear, enriched, fast breeder, nuclear, nuclear costs, nuclear renaissance, nuclear secrecy, nuclear spin, nuclear technology, nuclear weapons, radioactive, reactors, uranium | Leave a comment

Mexico sending its highly enriched uranium to USA

Mexico agrees to give up highly enriched uranium Los Angeles Times April 13, 2010 The nations of North America said they will work to eliminate highly enriched uranium from Mexico’s research reactors, an effort to protect against the proliferation of nuclear materials, the White House announced on Tuesday.The agreement was announced on the second
“The conversion of the reactor’s use of highly enriched uranium to low enriched uranium fuel will enable the elimination of all the remaining highly enriched uranium from Mexico. Mexico agrees to give up highly enriched uranium | D.C. Now | Los Angeles Times

April 14, 2010 Posted by Christina Macpherson | SOUTH AMERICA, technology | antinuclear, enriched, nuclear, nuclear costs, nuclear technology, reactor, uranium | Leave a comment

Enriched uranium to USA – Canada joins the move

Canada to Transfer Enriched Uranium to U.S. ABC News , April 12, 2010 As President Obama’s Nuclear Security Summit kicked off Monday, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced that his government had agreed to return to the United States highly enriched uranium from the nuclear reactor at the Chalk River Laboratories in Ontario. Canada to Transfer Enriched Uranium to U.S. – Political Punch

April 14, 2010 Posted by Christina Macpherson | business and costs, Canada | antinuclear, enriched, nuclear, nuclear costs, uranium | Leave a comment

18 countries sending weapons grade uranium to USA

U.S. a Popular Destination for the World’s Unwanted Nuclear Supply, By Judson Berger – FOXNews.com13 April 2010, The United States rapidly is becoming the hottest destination for unwanted nuclear fuel, as the Obama administration steps up efforts to relieve other countries of their weapons-grade nuclear supplies…… Continue reading →

April 14, 2010 Posted by Christina Macpherson | business and costs, USA | antinuclear, enriched, nuclear, nuclear costs, nuclear spin, uranium | Leave a comment

The economic and social realities of nuclear energy

Waste not … or get nukes — High Country News, Eric Jantz Apr 13, 2010 “……..To begin with, there’s the issue of who benefits from increasing nuclear power generation. At every point along the nuclear fuel chain, the flow of money reinforces current economic and social power disparities. Continue reading →

April 14, 2010 Posted by Christina Macpherson | 2 WORLD, Religion and ethics | antinuclear, AREVA, energy efficiency, nuclear, nuclear costs, nuclear renaissance, nuclear spin, nuclear wastes, radiation, radioactive, reactors, renewable energy, uranium | Leave a comment

Dismantled bombs provide nuclear fuel, keeping uranium prices down

Radioactive Warning – WyattResearch.com, 14 April 2010, Why haven’t prices spiked yet? Where is the supply coming from to meet current demand?The answer is: nuclear bombs. A New York Times article from November 11, 2009, revealed that nuclear power plants in the United States get a large amount of their fuel from dismantled Russian and U.S. bombs….

April 14, 2010 Posted by Christina Macpherson | 2 WORLD, business and costs | antinuclear, nuclear, nuclear costs, uranium | Leave a comment

Attempted illicit sales of uranium in Georgia

Georgia says foiled attempt to sell uranium, Israel News, Ynetnews: 04.14.10, Georgia said Tuesday it had foiled the attempted sale of bomb-grade uranium on the black market in March, the latest in what it said was a series of such cases over the past 10 years. Georgia disclosed the latest attempted illicit sale during a 47-nation nuclear security summit in Washington that aims to prevent terrorists and criminal gangs getting their hands on material that could be used to make a nuclear bomb. (Reuters) Georgia says foiled attempt to sell uranium – Israel News, Ynetnews

April 14, 2010 Posted by Christina Macpherson | EUROPE, safety | antinuclear, uranium | Leave a comment

Old Russian nuclear warheads to become fuel for U.S. commercial nuclear reactors

Nuclear twist sees Russian warheads warming US homes Herald Sun AFP , April 13, 2010, IN A strange twist of Cold War enmity on the melt, uranium from what once were Russian nuclear warheads is used to heat and light American homes, thanks to the Megatons to Megawatts Program – a successful example of nuclear non-proliferation. Continue reading →

April 13, 2010 Posted by Christina Macpherson | politics international, Russia | antinuclear, disarmament, enriched, nuclear, nuclear costs, nuclear secrecy, nuclear spin, nuclear technology, nuclear wastes, nuclear weapons, radiation, radioactive, reactors, uranium | Leave a comment

Ukraine will get rid of its Highly Enriched Uranium (HEU)

Ukraine to dispose of enriched uranium, Sydney Morning Herald April 13, 2010 – AFP Ukraine pledged on Monday to dispose of its stocks of highly enriched uranium by 2012, as the United States vowed to work with the nation still haunted by the Chernobyl accident over two decades ago….

Ukraine to dispose of enriched uranium

April 13, 2010 Posted by Christina Macpherson | politics international, Ukraine | antinuclear, enriched, nuclear, nuclear spin, nuclear technology, nuclear wastes, nuclear weapons, radioactive, uranium | Leave a comment

Nuclear near misses

Nuclear near misses,The Age, by Daniel Flitton, April 13, 2010. Nuclear near misses- THE most infamous accident involved a US Air Force B-52 bomber colliding with a refuelling aircraft at high-altitude above Palomares, Spain, in 1966. The bomber dropped two nuclear weapons – one fell to the ground, another into the Mediterranean, setting off what was described as ”the most expensive, intensive, harrowing and feverish underwater search for a man-made object in world history”. The other bomb exploded on impact. No nuclear detonation occurred, but radioactive plutonium was scattered across a wide area. Continue reading →

April 13, 2010 Posted by Christina Macpherson | 2 WORLD, safety | antinuclear, nuclear, nuclear secrecy, nuclear spin, nuclear wastes, nuclear weapons, plutonium, radioactive, uranium | Leave a comment

Kazakhstan has paid a high price for hosting nuclear weapons

Why Kazakhstan Is Front and Center at the Global Nuclear Security Summit THE HUFFINGTON POST, Al Eisele, 11 April 2010, “………..The radioactive fallout from all the above ground and atmospheric tests left Mrs. Koloskova with health problems and occasional nightmares. “I don’t know what happened with me, but from that moment, I felt headaches and nervous disorders, and I imagined it many times,” she said.

But she was one of the lucky ones. Still vigorous and able to walk with aid of a cane, she was not afflicted with any of the horrific tumors or the radiation-caused genetic mutilations and birth defects that affected many residents of Semey and other settlements near the 7,000-square-mile test site known as the Polygon, Russian for “firing range.”

Her story, and those of thousands of others like her, is the reason why Kazakhstan, a Central Asia country unknown to most Americans, is standing front and center among the 47 nations represented at the two-day Global Nuclear Security Summit beginning Monday in Washington…….

[Kazakhstan President Nursultan Nazarbayev] was the first foreign leader to renounce the possession and use of nuclear weapons. Al Eisele: Why Kazakhstan Is Front and Center at the Global Nuclear Security Summit

April 13, 2010 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Kazakhstan, politics international | antinuclear, enriched, nuclear, nuclear secrecy, nuclear weapons, radiation, radioactive, uranium | Leave a comment

International “nuclear fuel bank” a part of nuclear security strategy?

President Obama intends for American to bankroll an international nuclear fuel bank to dissuade countries from building their own uranium enrichment facilities.

President Obama’s Next Nuclear Disarmament Move? Enriched Uranium Handouts – Big Government, by Marinka Peschmann 13 April 2010, President Obama is convening a Global Nuclear Security Summit in Washington beginning on Monday. “The purpose… would be to achieve the highest levels of nuclear security, which the president believes is essential for enhanced international security and for the peaceful development and the global expansion of nuclear energy…” (italics mine) Continue reading →

April 13, 2010 Posted by Christina Macpherson | politics international, USA | antinuclear, enriched, nuclear, nuclear costs, nuclear secrecy, nuclear spin, nuclear weapons, uranium | Leave a comment

Old nuclear weapons fuel to be used in commercial nuclear reactors

the US and Russia will today sign a long-delayed agreement to dispose of 34 tonnes of plutonium from decommissioned weapons, by using it in power stations.

US summit expected to back Barack Obama’s plan to prevent nuclear theft | World news | The Guardian 12 April Leaders from more than 40 countries will tomorrow back Barack Obama’s plans to prevent the theft of nuclear material from vulnerable stockpiles around the world. Continue reading →

April 12, 2010 Posted by Christina Macpherson | 2 WORLD, technology | antinuclear, enriched, nuclear, nuclear costs, nuclear wastes, nuclear weapons, plutonium, reactors, uranium | Leave a comment