Thursday, February 25, 2010

British Army Officials Skeptical of Need for Nuclear Deterrent

High-level British army officials yesterday played down the importance of the United Kingdom's submarine-based nuclear arsenal, the London Guardian reported ...
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Radiation Errors Reported in Missouri

A hospital in Missouri said Wednesday that it had overradiated 76 patients, the vast majority with brain cancer, during a five-year period because powerful new radiation equipment had been set up incorrectly even with a representative of the manufacturer watching as it was done...
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Obama Sees the Light on Nuclear Power

The president announced $8.3 billion in loan guarantees for two nuclear power plants in Georgia that Southern Co. is proposing to build. The earliest they could be operational would be 2016 and 2017...
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Vermont Senate opposes plant licence renewal

The Vermont Senate has voted against the extension of the operating licence of the US state's only nuclear power plant - Entergy's Vermont Yankee plant - for a further 20 years beyond 2012...
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Uranium in South Texas

Newly released resource figures for the Palangana in situ recovery (ISR) uranium project in South Texas show the deposit has "very substantial potential", while a major study on uranium mining in Virginia is about to proceed...
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Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Loan guarantees pave way for first new U.S. nuclear reactors in years

President Obama announced $8.3 billion in loan guarantees Tuesday for two nuclear reactors to be built in Burke County, Georgia. A new nuclear power plant has not been built in the United States in three decades...
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Lithuania is Decommissioning

The closure of the last functioning reactor at Lithuania's Ignalina nuclear power plant on 31 December 2009 has laid focus on the daunting decommissioning process currently underway with the help of several international agencies...
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Monday, February 15, 2010

Jordan and U.S. Move Closer to Nuclear Pact

Jordan is in advanced talks with the Obama administration to conclude a civilian nuclear-cooperation agreement with the U.S., according to Jordanian and U.S. officials. Successful completion of the negotiations would make Jordan the second Arab state in less than a year, following the United Arab Emirates, to secure nuclear assistance from Washington. Any pact would constitute an international treaty and need the approval of Congress...
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Ohio, Duke considering nuclear plant

President Barack Obama's call for a new generation of nuclear power plants could weigh on decisions about a possible new nuclear facility at the former uranium processing reservation in Piketon...
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Thursday, February 11, 2010

Emerging nuclear countries share perspective

Representatives from countries thinking about using nuclear power are working on the thorny problem of developing a national nuclear infrastructure with the help of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)...
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MidAmerican pushes for legislation to help build nuclear power plants

MidAmerican Energy is pushing for new legislation that could result in new nuclear power plants in Iowa. There is currently one nuclear power plant in the state, the Duane Arnold Energy Plant at Palo, near Cedar Rapids. A recent federal study ranked Iowa last in nuclear capacity among the 31 states which have nuclear power plants...
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NRC nominees won't stand in way of Yucca Mountain shutdown

Three officials nominated to fill seats on the Nuclear Regulatory Commission indicated this week that they would not stand in the way of a shutdown of the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste program.But one suggested that because it now looks as if radioactive spent fuel will remain at power plants for the foreseeable future, their steel-and-concrete storage canisters should be checked for safety...
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Thursday, February 4, 2010

Yucca's death spiral might hit NEI snag

The nuclear industry's trade group is signaling it might not go along with the Obama administration's plan to withdraw from Yucca Mountain and make it difficult if not impossible to revive the proposed nuclear waste repository ever again...
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Lithuania to sign nuclear plant deal at end 2010

Lithuania plans to sign a shareholders agreement to build a new nuclear power plant at the end of this year, the country's energy minister said on Wednesday...
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Comanche Peak could benefit from Obama's push on federal loan guarantees

A proposed two-reactor expansion of the Comanche Peak nuclear power plant could get a big push as a result of President Barack Obama's call to nearly triple federal loan guarantees for new nuclear reactors to $54.5 billion...
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Wednesday, February 3, 2010

Iran Hints at Accepting Bulk Uranium Transfer

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad yesterday said his country was willing to ship much of its low-enriched uranium to other countries for further refinement, a key principle of a U.N. proposal aimed at easing international concerns that the Middle Eastern state could produce material for a nuclear weapon, Reuters reported...
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NPT Review Conference Workshop Held in Philippines

A two-day workshop focused on global nuclear disarmament efforts was conducted this week in the Philippines in preparation for the upcoming Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty review conference, Kyodo News reported...
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Deal Set "In Principle" on START Successor, U.S. Officials Say

The United States and Russia have made an "agreement in principle" on a successor to the 1991 Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, the Wall Street Journal reported today...
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China to Build 6 Nuclear Facilities Near Mt. Baekdu

A total of six nuclear power plants are expected to be built near Mt. Baekdu, which is regarded as a mystic mountain for Koreans, in 2012, according to the Korea Energy Economics Institute (KEEI)...
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Time to Embrace the Nuclear Option (Oleg Deripaksa)

It is 50 years since the first commercial nuclear power plants began to generate electricity. Even in the dark days of the Cold War, these reactors, in France and the U.S., were seen as vital to the world's future. They were expected to mark the beginning of a new peaceful atomic age that would help meet our energy needs...
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Areva wins U.S. approval for nuclear safety system

Areva (CEPFi.PA) has won U.S. approval to upgrade a nuclear safety system at a plant in the country, a move that could help ease concerns over the security systems of a new generation of French nuclear power reactors...
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The Administration Puts Its Own Stamp on a Possible Nuclear Revival

The Obama administration's 2011 budget proposal gives its distinctive endorsement to a revival of American nuclear power.As reported last week, the administration wants to triple the size of the Energy Department's loan guarantee program to $54 billion, which could support the construction of seven to 10 new reactors, Chu said, if their designs are approved and the developers raise their share of the capital...
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Monday, February 1, 2010

Pentagon to Augment Anti-WMD Capabilities

The U.S. Defense Department said today in the 2010 Quadrennial Defense Review that it intends to enhance its capabilities to prevent the spread and use of weapons of mass destruction...
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NRG Might Exit Nuclear Project

NRG Energy Inc. said it might be forced to take a $400 million charge and pull the plug on its nuclear-development efforts in Texas if it is unable to settle a dispute with its partner, a city-owned utility company in San Antonio...
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Federal panel to examine nuclear waste storage

The Obama administration continued its march away from Yucca Mountain on Friday with the naming of a 15-member panel of experts to chart new paths to manage highly radioactive nuclear waste...
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