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OPERATIONS and work practices at Sellafield will be put under the microscope by the site's new owners. af nuke lab Nuclear Management Partners (NMP), which took control in November, said it is now ready to "engage and energise" the workforce. That means high-powered teams of experts from NMP's consortium companies in America, France and the UK will be called in to scrutinise and assess methods being used across six core areas of the site over the next three months, starting in February.

"Namibia's Chamber of Mines, which represents the mining industry in the southern African country, is concerned that power and water supply shortages and royalty tax legislation could hamper investment. Mike Leech, president of the industry body in one of the world's top uranium producers, said a royalty tax passed at the end of 2008 would "increase rather than reduce investor risk". "(The tax) is likely ... to make it harder for exploration companies to get projects past the credit committees of the banking institutions they will have to raise the money from," he said in an annual review the chamber published last week."

U.S.-based Bechtel Power Corp is leading a shortlist of firms and consortia bidding to design Egypt's first nuclear power station, an official at the ministry of electricity said. Speaking on condition of anonymity, the official said the other firms on the shortlist included Australia's WorleyParsons, Sweden's AF Consult, a consortium of Spain's Iberdrola and Empresarios Agrupados, a consortium of Finland's Poyry and Invap of Argentina, a consortium including Belgian Tractebel, and a group of U.S. companies with Egypt's Excel.

"President Barack Obama is going nuclear. He announced the initial $8 billion in loan guarantees for construction of the first new nuclear power plants in the United States in close to three decades. Obama is making good on a campaign pledge, like his promises to escalate the war in Afghanistan and to unilaterally attack in Pakistan. And like his "Af-Pak" war strategy, Obama's publicly financed resuscitation of the nuclear power industry in the U.S. is bound to fail, another taxpayer bailout waiting to happen. Opponents of the plan, which includes a tripling of the existing nuclear plant construction-loan guarantees to $54.5 billion, span the ideological spectrum. On its most basic level, the economics of nuclear power generation simply don't make sense. The cost to construct these behemoths is so huge, and the risks are so great, that no sensible investor, no banks, no hedge funds will invest in their construction. No one will loan a power company the money to build a power plant, and the power companies refuse to spend their own money. Obama himself professes a passion for the free market, telling Bloomberg BusinessWeek, "We are fierce advocates for a thriving, dynamic free market.""

"Russia is ready to invest $1 billion in uranium exploration in Namibia, Russia's state nuclear firm said on Thursday as it seeks to compete for projects with global miner Rio Tinto in the African country. "We're ready to start investing already this year," the head of state corporation Rosatom, Sergei Kiriyenko, told journalists. Namibian President Hifikepunye Pohamba was visiting Moscow to meet Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. Kiriyenko said the uranium extracted from Namibia could be used for a nuclear power plant Russia was building in Turkey."

Niger, one of the world's top uranium producers, said on Friday it would study the possibility of building a nuclear power plant to meet its electricity needs. Landlocked and on the southern side of the Sahara, Niger is one of the world's poorest countries. It imports around 80 percent of its electricity from neighbouring Nigeria, Africa's top producer of crude oil.

Barely a few days before the collapse of Lehman Brothers, EDF finally clinched its multi-billion pound acquisition of British Energy. At about the same time, the French state-controlled electricity group also tried - and failed - to counter veteran investor Warren Buffett's bid for control of a US electricity utility, Constellation Energy. The moves seemed logical for a French champion of nuclear energy. With oil prices hitting record highs of nearly $150 a barrel and climate change pushing governments to promote investments in clean and renewable energy, the nuclear lobby felt confident the industry was about to enjoy a renaissance. The US and the UK, countries that have committed themselves to expand significantly their nuclear power generating capacities, seemed the new promised lands of the nuclear revival.

Uranium mining in the Narsaq area faces stiff opposition from many area residents. A citizens' meeting is being held on Monday in Narsaq to protest possible uranium mining in the nearby mountain region of Kvanefjeldet. The meeting is arranged by NGO 'Earth Charter Narsaq' and called for more information on mining plans before the government decided whether to lift the existing national ban on uranium mining.

Henri Bour glances round the courtyard of the old farmhouse his parents restored when they fled Algeria after independence in 1962. "There was nothing here, not even a single vine. They did everything. That's why I don't want to let it go," he says. For 10 years he has run the Grangeneuve vineyard in Coteaux de Tricastin, the arid, southern region of the Rhône Valley. Now, aged 65 and thinking about handing over to the next generation, the former Pernod Ricard executive fears for the future.

ONE of the front runners in the race to build a new nuclear power station at Wylfa looks poised to complete an £12bn deal for British Energy which could cool its interest on Anglesey. UK nuclear firm British Energy is expected to be snapped up by French power giants EDF (Electricité de France), which recently revealed it was buying up farmland around Wylfa, owned by the National Decommissioning Authority.

WINDHOEK, Namibia: Namibia has licensed its third uranium mine, giving the contract to French nuclear reactor builder Areva. Africa's second largest producer of the mineral granted Areva a mining license and environmental clearance certificates Wednesday for the Trekkopje Uranium Project.

Nuclear energy is not the magic bullet to solve global warming and the costs of building reactors far outweigh the benefits, warns a retired University of Regina professor. Jim Harding visited Saskatoon and Prince Albert Wednesday and Thursday to speak against uranium mining and nuclear energy, a hot topic in Saskatchewan since last week's announcement by Bruce Power LP that it is studying the feasibility of a reactor for the province. In his presentation, Harding said now is the time for public debate on whether the province should pursue nuclear power -- and his long-held argument is that we shouldn't.

Russia and Nigeria signed an accord on nuclear energy, allowing the countries to work together on mining uranium, building and testing atomic power plants and sharing knowledge. The agreement may also help Nigeria develop nuclear energy research and generation, Rosatom Corp., the Russian state-run nuclear holding company, said in an e-mailed statement yesterday.

Australia's WorleyParsons signed on Thursday a nuclear power plant consultancy contract with Egypt worth 896 million Egyptian pounds, Egyptian Electricity Minister Hassan Younes said. WorleyParsons won the contract after talks with initial favourite U.S.-based Bechtel Power Corp stalled. The company had come in second after Bechtel in the tender held by Egypt to pick a consultant for its first nuclear power plant.

"Saudi Arabia is not considering developing an atomic energy program, even as neighboring oil producers pursue nuclear plants to meet power demand and diversify domestic energy sources. "We are ruling out nuclear energy for now," Mohammed Salim Sorour al-Sabban, who also heads Saudi's United Nations climate negotiations, said in an interview in Riyadh today. "We are joining the International Renewable Energy Agency and we will focus on solar energy as a renewable." Saudi Arabia aims to boost solar energy projects and export electricity from such plants, al-Sabban said. "