Washington Post: At least 40 developing countries from the Persian Gulf region to Latin America have recently approached U.N. officials here to signal interest in starting nuclear power programs, a trend that concerned proliferation experts say could provide the building blocks of nuclear arsenals in some of those nations. At least half a dozen countries have also said in the past four years that they are specifically planning to conduct enrichment or reprocessing of nuclear fuel, a prospect that could dramatically expand the global supply of plutonium and enriched uranium, according to U.S. and international nuclear officials and arms-control experts. Much of the new interest is driven by economic considerations, particularly the soaring cost of fossil fuels. But for some Middle Eastern states with ready access to huge stocks of oil or natural gas, such as Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, the investment in nuclear power appears to be linked partly to concerns about a future regional arms race stoked in part by Iran's alleged interest in such an arsenal, the officials said.
New York Times: The sprawling site, known as Natanz, made headlines recently because Iran is testing a new generation of centrifuges there that spin faster and, in theory, can more rapidly turn natural uranium into fuel for reactors or nuclear arms. The new machines are also meant to be more reliable than their forerunners, which often failed catastrophically. On April 8, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad visited the desert site, and Iran released 48 photographs of the tour, providing the first significant look inside the atomic riddle.
Daily Telegraph: Pensioned-off engineers will have to be brought out of retirement if the revival of nuclear power is not to be hit by serious delays, the UK government has been warned by members of the British Nuclear Energy Society. A shortage of professional engineers and skilled trades is threatening plans to build new nuclear power stations around the country to ensure security of electricity supply and avoid the risk of blackouts, they claimed.
Japan Times: Full-fledged reinforcement of the international nuclear nonproliferation framework is of vital importance for facilitating peaceful use of nuclear power and thereby for addressing the pressing global challenges of energy supply and global warming, according to a private policy study group. To attain this goal, all nations, regardless of whether they have nuclear capability, must work on nonproliferation initiatives, such as stepped-up disarmament efforts and reinforcement of nuclear site inspections, according to the Study Group on Nuclear Nonproliferation. The proposal by the 12-member expert group, headed by Shunji Yanai, former ambassador to the U.S., was submitted to Chief Cabinet Secretary Nobutaka Machimura last Wednesday
allAfrica.com: Hamstrung by unpredictable climatic changes that have reduced the water levels in Lake Victoria and the amount of hydroelectricity generated by dams along the River Nile, the Ugandan government is turning to the more predictable nuclear power. The country's Energy and Mineral Development Minister, Daudi Migereko, estimates that Uganda will be in a position to generate nuclear energy from its uranium deposits within the next 10 to 15 years.
The Independent: The French nuclear safety agency has uncovered a series of defects in the construction of a European Pressurized Water Reactor (EPWR) in Normandy considered to be the template for the next generation of stations due to be built in Britain. The agency, ASN, says that a quarter of the welds seen in its steel liner – a crucial line of defence if there were to be an accident – are not in accordance with welding norms, and that cracks have been found it its concrete base, also essential for containing radioactivity. The reports – in a series of letters covering inspections made between December and last month – will cause particular concern because similar defects have been listed in a previous report by the Finnish safety authority into the only other reactor of its type being built anywhere in the world.
The Guardian: Britain and France are to sign a deal to construct a new generation of nuclear power stations and export the technology around the world in an effort to combat climate change.
The pact is to be announced at the "Arsenal summit" next week when prime ministers Gordon Brown and Nicolas Sarkozy will meet at the Emirates stadium in north London.
Britain hopes to take advantage of French expertise to build the power stations that do not rely on fossil fuels. Nearly 79% of France's electricity comes from its highly-developed nuclear power industry. The UK's ageing nuclear plants are ready for decommissioning and supply 20% of its energy needs.
Brown hopes the partnership will create a skilled British labour force who would then work in partnership with France to sell nuclear power stations to other countries over the next 15 years.
Die Welt: The idea of bringing the production and storage of nuclear fuel under international control is gaining support once again argues Matt Dupuis. The US should take the lead in creating a global fuel bank which would make it possible to test countries’ intentions while limiting their access to nuclear technology.
The Guardian: British Energy is in talks with a number of rivals, which could lead to a tie-up or a takeover offer that some say would value the country's main nuclear power generator at more than US$14 billion.
Shares in the British company soared by nearly 20% after it confirmed the discussions but declined to identify any of the potential partners or predators.
EDF of France, E.ON of Germany and Centrica, owner of British Gas, are among the key players known to have been holding partnership talks that have turned into something more substantial.
British Energy is in demand because it generates about a sixth of Britain's electricity but, more importantly ,has the most attractive potential sites to build a new generation of nuclear plants.
The move comes as the UK government announced that the four new designs being considered for future nuclear reactors in the UK (the European Pressurised Reactor, Westinghouse's AP1000, ESBWR and Atomic Energy of Canada's ACR1000) have all passed initial safety tests.
The Guardian: The government's Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) has come under fire from the private sector for the allegedly slow speed with which it is handling the award of the second-biggest procurement contract ever - the £1bn-a-year Sellafield clean-up.
Amec, which, with Washington Group and Areva is part of one of the four consortiums shortlisted for the work, said it was increasingly assessing overseas opportunities because of delays. Final bids for the work must be in next month and the contract is expected by the end of the year.
"I am lucky," said Samir Brikho, Amec's chief executive. "This is a very small part of our business but if it was a very large part then I would be worried that it was continually delayed; that I was waiting and waiting and nothing was happening."
It was not as though the clean-up agency was having to decide on which design of reactor it should choose, he added. "What are we fighting over? How to close a plant? They need to take a decision."
Brikho speculated that the delay was a result of "turbulence" inside the NDA, with the departure of two chairmen in six months and a swathe of senior staff more recently.
The NDA said it was inevitable, with so much riding on a contract that could have a total value of well over £10bn, that there would be statements such as those of Brikho but it denied there were any significant delays.
Bloomberg.com: From a windswept corner of Hokkaido, Japan's northernmost island, Japan Steel Works Ltd. manufactures the central part of a nuclear reactor's containment vessel in a single piece, reducing the risk of a radiation leak. It is the only plant of its type in the world, and it can only produce four steel forgings a year.
Utilities that won't need the equipment for years are making $100 million down payments now in order to get in line. Even after Japan Steel doubles capacity in the next two years, there won't be enough production to meet building plans.
"If there are 50 to 100 reactors or more to be built, there will be a real shortage and real delays in deliveries," says Ron Pitts, senior vice president for nuclear operations at the construction and engineering company Fluor Corp. in Irving, Texas.
The news comes as Russia announced plans to build four more nuclear power plants over the next twelve years at Tver, Nizhny Novgorod, Chelyabinsk and Yaroslavl or Kostroma regions.
Washington Post: Iranian nuclear engineer Mohsen Fakhrizadeh lectures weekly on physics at Tehran's Imam Hossein University. Yet for more than a decade, according to documents attracting interest among Western governments, he also ran secret programs aimed at acquiring sensitive nuclear technology for his government.
Experts at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) have repeatedly invited Fakhrizadeh to tea and a chat about Iran's nuclear work. But for two years, the government in Tehran has barred any contact with the scientist, who U.S. officials say recently moved to a new lab in a heavily guarded compound also off-limits to U.N. inspectors.
The Guardian: The most wide-ranging sell-off of British nuclear assets was under way last week, with the private sector being offered everything from stockpiled uranium to atomic fuel manufacturing plants and land at 18 sites.
The Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA), which is nursing a £300m budget overrun for 2006-07 alone, is attempting to raise cash to help pay for a £72bn clean-up bill. It looks set to win bids from E.ON of Germany and other power companies that are keen to build nuclear generating plants next to some of the NDA's key locations, such as Sellafield in Cumbria and Wylfa on Anglesey.
The government's clean-up agency confirmed yesterday that controversial fuel reprocessing plants such as Thorp and the Sellafield Mox Plant - as well as the fuel manufacturing facility at Springfields in Lancashire - could all be included in any sale. This is despite operating problems at the first two which are held largely responsible for the latest budget overrun.
Reuters: South Africa's advanced nuclear reactor technology programme will include U.S.-based Westinghouse Electric as a partner and a new shareholders' contract is expected by the end of the month, an official said last week.
South Africa is currently testing elements of the Pebble Bed Modular Reactor (PBMR) and wants to build 24-30 PBMR reactors for its own energy needs.
Lynette Milne, chief financial officer of Pebble Bed Modular Reactor (Pty) Ltd (PBMR) set up in 1999 to develop and market the technology, said a new shareholders' contract will also include South Africa's government, the Industrial Development Corporation and power utility Eskom.
Washington Post: Nearly two years ago, President Bush decided to open a new era of civilian nuclear cooperation with Russia. The two governments negotiated an agreement and initialed it last summer. A senior Russian official came here last month for what some thought would be a signing ceremony, only to have the administration pull back. Now the nuclear pact, once a symbol of closer U.S.-Russia ties, has stalled amid a quiet struggle in Washington over whether to trust Moscow.
Financial Times: A leading university will today announce plans for a Centre for Nuclear Energy Technology to help plug severe skills gaps in Britain's nuclear sector.
RIA Novosti: Russia and India have upgraded their unique cooperation in building civilian nuclear facilities by initializing an intergovernmental agreement on the construction of four additional energy units at the Kudankulam nuclear power station in Tamil Nadu and on joint work at other sites. Deputy Director of the Federal Atomic Energy Agency Nikolai Spassky, and head of the Indian Nuclear Power Corporation S.K. Jain confirmed the viability of this agreement in New Delhi on February 11. Now the document has to go through the last channels and be approved by the heads of state.
Bloomberg: The U.K. Nuclear Decommissioning Authority, created in 2005 to clean up atomic sites, should do more to quantify costs after budget estimates rose 18 percent, the National Audit Office said.
Various: The increasing cost of concrete, steel, copper, labor and impact of the weakening dollar on nuclear technology purchases, is having a knock-on effect on plans to build new nuclear power plants in the US. According to the The Tampa Tribune, the electrical utility Progress Energy Florida, which is planning to build two nuclear reactors in Levy County may see costs approach two to three times their original estimate. Similar costs increases at some of the other sites for building nuclear reactors, may scuttle the so-called nuclear renaissance. In Georgia, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports that negotiations between nuclear power plant builder Westinghouse and Georgia Power almost collapsed two weeks ago due to new concern over price increases.
The Associated Press: Nuclear reactors across the Southeast could be forced to throttle back or temporarily shut down later this year because drought is drying up the rivers and lakes that supply power plants with the awesome amounts of cooling water they need to operate.
The Baltimore Examiner: Thousands of canisters of highly radioactive waste from the world's most nuclear-energized nation lie, silent and deadly, beneath this jutting tip of Normandy. Above ground, cows graze and Atlantic waves crash into heather-covered hills.
Guardian Unlimited: The government's white paper on expanding nuclear energy is generating power for the higher education sector, finds Anthea Lipsett
Nature: In the first of a series of articles covering nuclear issues, Declan Butler looks at the nuclear non-proliferation treaty and finds that there has never been a better climate for negotiation.
BBC: A new generation of nuclear power stations in the UK has been given formal backing by the government.
cnews: The head of the Nuclear Safety Commission is accusing Natural Resources Minister Gary Lunn of improper interference with the agency.
Guardian Unlimited: Academics say safety concerns of new generation of plants not yet addressed
NPR: Over the past year, tensions between Iran and the United States have risen to unprecedented levels. At the same time, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad faces more criticism internally than at any time since he took office more than two years ago. Mike Shuster takes a year-end look at the ongoing controversy and diplomacy surrounding Iran's nuclear program.
Venture Beat: Nuclear power is a bit of a land mine in the field of clean technology. Mention it in any given room of environmentalists, and opinions will explode. Some say nuclear’s terminally unsafe. Others say it’s the only true cleantech solution.
The Wall Street Journal: Even as interest grows in a potential new generation of U.S. nuclear-power plants, scrutiny of existing ones is intensifying.
Bloomberg: China is gearing up to become the world's biggest producer and operator of nuclear plants. The country plans to build about 30 new reactors by 2020, at a cost totaling 450 billion yuan ($61 billion). Deals signed this year with Westinghouse Electric Co. and Areva SA will put the Chinese in position to copy the latest technology. Its biggest threat may be as a competitor in selling the $3 billion to $5 billion nuclear plants at home and abroad. China's atomic industry may follow the copy-and-compete blueprint laid out by local makers of cars, drugs and coal-fired power plants says Bloomberg's Dune Lawrence and Alan Katz.
See also:
Stronger Future for Nuclear Power Physics Today, February 2006
Nuclear Power to Explode in India, but China Prefers Coal New Picks, October 2007
Africa's Pursuit of Nuclear Power, Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, November 2007
Guardian Unlimited: Gordon Brown will call for an acceleration of nuclear power today in a speech to business leaders designed to show he is focused on the long term and will not buckle in the face of negative headlines.
The Economist: America wants to ensure that its nuclear warheads would go bang rather than pop—but without letting them off to test them
Wired: A recent application to build the first American nuclear power plant in nearly 30 years has the nuclear community aglow with talk of possible industry resurgence.
The New York Times: The Energy Department has not finished plans to consolidate storage of nuclear bomb fuel and other high-risk materials now spread among numerous sites, even though the department said in 2005 that it would do so within about a year, according to a Government Accountability Office report to be released Monday.
Forbes: Russia, the world's second nuclear power, has long had an active nuclear-energy industry, including exporting reactors to countries such as India and Iran. Yet until recently, the Kremlin devoted far less attention to nuclear energy than to the country's massive and profitable oil and natural-gas industries. In 2005, President Vladimir Putin indicated his interest in the sector by appointing former Prime Minister Sergei Kiriyenko to head Russia's Federal Atomic Energy Agency (Rosatom).
The San Francisco Examiner: A panel of the National Academy of Sciences urged President Bush on Monday to abandon an ambitious plan to resume nuclear waste reprocessing that is the heart of the administration's push to expand the civilian use of nuclear power.
The New York Times: The mystery surrounding the construction of what might have been a nuclear reactor in Syria deepened yesterday, when a company released a satellite photo showing that the main building was well under way in September 2003 — four years before Israeli jets bombed it.
Wired.com: To curb greenhouse gas emissions, India is poised to dramatically increase its reliance on nuclear energy -- but there'll be no overall benefit to the planet if China's coal binge continues.
A new report by the International Atomic Energy Agency forecasts India will increase nuclear production eight-fold by 2030 to account for 26 percent of its power grid.
Xinhua: The International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER), a landmark multinational fusion energy project involving the European Union (EU), got started on Wednesday, the European Commission announced here.
NC State University: Successes like this at a university reactor are actually starting to drive big ideas and big thoughts around the country and around the world.
BBC: Nearly half of Britain's nuclear power reactors have been out of action due to breakdowns and maintenance.
The Washington Post: Two decades ago, after Duke Energy abandoned its partly built nuclear power reactors here, the site was sold and turned into a movie set. Director James Cameron used it to film "The Abyss," a 1989 movie about civilian divers who encounter aliens while trying to rescue a stricken nuclear submarine. Cameron filled the unused nuclear containment building with water and hauled a section of an oil rig, a tiny submarine and fiberglass rocks inside to make convincing underwater scenes.
The Guardian: Britain's worst nuclear accident, the Windscale fire in Cumbria, released twice as much radioactive debris as was previously thought. Scientists studying weather patterns and amounts of radioactive material distributed after the 1957 blaze say previous estimates have played down its deadly impact.
As a result of this re-evaluation, scientists say the fire - which sent a plume of caesium, iodine and polonium across Britain and northern Europe - may have caused several dozen more cases of cancer than had been estimated previously.
NPR (audio): NRG Energy will request permission to build two new nuclear reactors. It's the first request to build a new nuclear power plant in the U.S. in three decades. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has geared up for a flood of applications. NRG's press release.
The Baltimore Sun: or a decade, Dorthe Matowitz worked as a piping inspector at nuclear power plants, but tired of all the travel and switched occupations three years ago.
She is now in demand by a revitalized nuclear power industry scrambling for skilled help.
Guardian Unlimited: Ukraine is to cover the site of the Chernobyl nuclear reactor with a vast metal shelter in a long overdue operation designed to prevent the further leak of deadly radiation. Officials in Kiev yesterday said they had hired a French firm to replace the crumbling concrete sarcophagus that has stood at Chernobyl since 1986 - when it was the scene of the world's worst ever nuclear disaster.
New York Times: At the invitation of North Korea, an international delegation of nuclear experts from Russia, China and the United States will travel to the North this week to inspect nuclear sites that are to be shut down, said Assistant Secretary of State Christopher R. Hill, the chief American envoy to North Korea.
The Sunday Times: Jonathan Leake and Elizabeth Gibney look at the long and convoluted history of fusion research in the UK, particularly in light of last week's announcement of a new 500 million pound program for a civilian-based European version of the US's National Ignition Facility.
Los Angeles Times: A federal judge rules against Energy officials, who say they need 8 million gallons to continue work on the Yucca Mountain site.
Washington Post: As policymakers promote alternative energy sources to reduce the United States' emissions of greenhouse gases and its dependence on foreign oil, entrepreneurs are becoming increasingly inventive about finding novel ways to power the economy.
The Times: A British-led team of scientists has won European Union approval to seek to make nuclear fusion using high powered lasers.
The decision paves the way for a seven-year, £500 million programme to construct an experimental reactor. The prototype for the Hiper (high energy laser fusion research) project is likely to be built in Britain, using the world’s most powerful laser to generate temperatures of millions of degrees at which fusion can occur.
The prototype will build on research at the US-based National Ignition Facility which is expected within the next five years to use a form of laser fusion to produce more energy than it consumes. Hiper will then develop a slightly different laser technique that is more suitable for commercial energy production.
NPR: Edward McGaffigan, Jr., the longest-serving member of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, has died after a long battle with skin cancer. He was 58. McGaffigan, a strong advocate for nuclear power, said the government should scrap its plan to store the country's nuclear waste at a site in Yucca Mountain, Nevada.
BBC: The UN nuclear watchdog says Iran has agreed to a plan aimed at clearing up questions about its controversial nuclear activities.
The IAEA says the development is "significant", but adds that for the plan to work, it is essential to get full and active co-operation from Iran.
It also says Iran is continuing its enrichment programme, but at a slower pace than before, despite UN sanctions
Miami Herald: A three-year veil of secrecy in the name of national security was used to keep the public in the dark about the handling of highly enriched uranium at a nuclear fuel processing plant - including a leak that could have caused a deadly, uncontrolled nuclear reaction.
The Register: It is 21 years since the nuclear plant at Chernobyl went bang, and the extent of the damage wrought by the radioactive fallout is still becoming clear.
Various: NPR investigates the latest news on the nuclear industry. In one report, Emily Harris visits the worlds first deep underground waste storage in Finland. The dump is scheduled to open in 2020, but some Finnish groups are concerned how the waste will cope with being buried for thousands of years. In a separate report John Ydstie talks to Fortune magazine's David Whitford about the future of the nuclear power industry. See also a Stronger Future for Nuclear Power, Physics Today February 2006, page 19.
Energy Firms Plan New Nuclear Power Plants
Concerns Linger for 2020 Nuclear Dump Openingt
BBC: A team of UN nuclear experts has begun a four-day inspection of a Japanese atomic power plant damaged in a powerful earthquake last month.
The Washington Post: A team of experts from the U.N.'s nuclear watchdog agency will inspect next week the Japanese nuclear power plant damaged in an earthquake, after pressure from local authorities in the area worried about safety.
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