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FUKUI--Nuclear fuel was brought Friday into the Monju fast-breeder reactor in Tsuruga, Fukui Prefecture, which had been shut down since a sodium leak accident in December 1995. The last time nuclear fuel was brought into the reactor was in November 1995, shortly before the accident.

The Tennessee Valley Authority has received $4 million to develop a conceptual design for a nuclear waste reprocessing plant that could end up as a demonstration facility built on the former Clinch Breeder Reactor site.

By Michele Boyd and Arjun Makhijani A Fact Sheet Produced by Physicians for Social Responsibility and the Institute for Energy and Environmental Research Thorium "fuel" has been proposed as an alternative to uranium fuel in nuclear reactors. There are not "thorium reactors," but rather proposals to use thorium as a "fuel" in different types of reactors, including existing light-water reactors and various fast breeder reactor designs. Thorium, which refers to thorium-232, is a radioactive metal that is about three times more abundant than uranium in the natural environment. Some of the largest reserves are found in Idaho in the U.S. Large known deposits are in Australia, India, and Norway. The primary U.S. company dvocating for thorium fuel is Thorium Power (www.thoriumpower.com). Unlike the claims made or implied by thorium proponents, however, thorium doesn't solve the proliferation, waste, safety, or cost problems of nuclear power, and it still faces major technical hurdles for commercialization.

Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff will hold a public meeting June 30 in Monroe, Mich., to discuss the proposed license termination plan for the Enrico Fermi Atomic Power Plant, Unit 1. The meeting will be held from 7 - 10 p.m. at the Monroe County Board of Commissioners, 125 E. Second St., in Monroe. DTE Energy, the licensee, submitted its proposed license termination plan and an application for license amendment on March 25. The proposed plan is to demonstrate compliance with NRC criteria for unrestricted release of the property, although the facility will remain DTE property. There is no Fermi 1 spent nuclear fuel remaining onsite. Fermi 1 was a sodium-cooled fast-breeder reactor that operated from 1963 until it was permanently shut down in 1972. Much of the decommissioning for Fermi 1 was completed in 1975. Fermi 2, a boiling-water reactor, is still in operation at the same location in Newport, in Monroe County, on the shore of Lake Erie about 25 miles northeast of Toledo, Ohio. At the June 30 meeting, members of the NRC staff will discuss the proposed license termination plan and NRC's technical review of the plan. Information about Fermi 1 is available on the NRC Web site at this address: http://www.nrc.gov/info-finder/decommissioning/power-reactor/enrico-fermi-atomic-power-plant-unit-1.html.

Talks on with US, France, Russia to set up more N-reactors Coimbatore, May 29 (PTI) Talks are being held with United States, France and Russia to set up six to eight large nuclear reactors to increase the power generation capacity in the country, Chairman of Atomic Energy Commission said here today. Dr Anil Kakodkar told media that modalities are being worked out to set up the reactors. Besides Koodankulam in Tamil Nadu and Jethapur in Maharashtra, more locations are being identified, he said. Techno-economic details and safety related problems would come up for discussions before finalising the agreements, he said, adding the investment would roughly work out to be Rs six crore to Rs eight crore per MW. Generally, it would take six to seven years for a reactor to become operational. The Government has in principle cleared one each of 700 MW capacity reactor in Kakrapar and Rajasthan thermal power station, Kakodkar said. Besides 500 MW fast breeder reactor at Kalpakkam, three heavy water reactors and two light water reactors at different locations were under different stages of construction, he said

On December 20, 1951 a reaction occurred that would change the future of electricity. The Experimental Breeder Reactor, or EBR-I, was the first to use atomic energy peacefully in the world, by powering four simple light bulbs. "I don't think I realized at the time how important it was, no I really don't," says Weslie E. Molen, research technician at EBRI.

"Ongoing problems with nuclear waste might resurrect plans for reactors that would leave less of it dry-cask-for-nuclear-waste NUCLEAR WASTE: Will fast breeder reactors solve the issue of nuclear waste? On February 16, President Barack Obama announced loan guarantees totaling more than $8 billion for two new light-water reactors in Georgia, part of an initiative to restart the nuclear power industry in the U.S. Just three weeks earlier, Secretary of Energy Steven Chu had announced the formation of a Blue-Ribbon Commission on America's Nuclear Future to resolve what to do with the waste produced by those future reactors-as well as the 2,000 metric tons a year produced by the 104 reactors currently in operation in the U.S. After all, the Obama administration has halted plans to store spent nuclear fuel at Yucca Mountain in Nevada-a geologic repository that never opened.

"Hazardous radioactive waste is building up at nuclear power plants across the country. For decades, the U-S government's only plan was to stick that waste out of sight and out of mind ... far below Yucca Mountain, Nevada. Recently, President Barack Obama scrapped that plan. Shawn Allee looks at where the President wants to go now: The current Nuclear Waste Policy Act A related article from The New York Times A recent report on fast-breeder reactor programs"

"Reprocessing of nuclear waste is neither an affordable remedy for future waste disposal in the United States nor will it eliminate the need for a deep geologic repository to replace Yucca Mountain, according to a recent study released by the Institute for Energy and Environmental Research (IEER), a nonprofit and nonpartisan research group. Even as some are urging the Obama Administration's blue-ribbon panel on nuclear waste to consider the options of reprocessing and breeder reactors, the IEER study looks at the global experience - including those of France and Britain - and finds that both approaches are widely misunderstood in the United States. France has not solved its nuclear waste problems and now needs a repository in face of strong public opposition to the development of such a facility."