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A new poll suggests a majority of Australians are against the export of uranium to countries that have nuclear weapons. The Newspoll, commissioned by the Australian Conservation Foundation, surveyed 1200 people nationally last weekend. Sixty-two per cent are against exporting uranium to countries with nuclear weapons and 40 per cent oppose its export for use in electricity generation.

The Liberal government's road to self-sufficiency via energy exports may have encountered a speed bump yesterday. Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick offered a reminder that the transmission capacity between Eastern Canada and the Northeastern United States is not the only challenge facing the energy exporting aspirations of Atlantic Canadian premiers and Quebec. As the biggest and most energy hungry state at the Conference of the New England Governors and Eastern Canadian Premiers, Massachusetts represents the biggest target for Canadian premiers who are hoping to cash in on energy exports.

The Environment Centre in the Northern Territory is urging the Federal Government to stop uranium exports to all countries with nuclear weapons. The Environment Centre's Justin Tutty told a parliamentary hearing in Darwin today there is no concrete guarantees that uranium sold for energy will not be used for nuclear weapons. Mr Tutty says the committee needs to recognise Australia's uranium exports do have an impact on nuclear proliferation.

Amman Daewoo Engineering & Construction Co. and the Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute received an order to build Jordan's first nuclear reactor. The five-megawatt reactor, for research and training purposes, will be completed by 2014, South Korea's science ministry said yesterday in an official statement. According to the Seoul daily Korea Times, the deal is valued at $173 million and represents Korea's first export of a locally-designed nuclear plant. Daewoo edged out Argentina's Invap, China's CNNC and Russia's Atom Story Export (ASE).

Amman Daewoo Engineering & Construction Co. and the Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute received an order to build Jordan's first nuclear reactor. The five-megawatt reactor, for research and training purposes, will be completed by 2014, South Korea's science ministry said yesterday in an official statement. According to the Seoul daily Korea Times, the deal is valued at $173 million and represents Korea's first export of a locally-designed nuclear plant. Daewoo edged out Argentina's Invap, China's CNNC and Russia's Atom Story Export (ASE).

Contents KK-7 Stopped Due to Radioactive Leak, KK-6 Begins Start-up Tests Local groups demand that start-up tests be suspended until investigations into KK-7's leaking fuel rod problem have been concluded and that both KK-6 and KK-7 be immediately shut down. Hamaoka Nuclear Power Station Struck By Earthquake The fact that an earthquake that arose so far away could cause so large a ground motion begs the question of whether the plant could withstand an earthquake immediately beneath the plant. Nuclear Energy Policy Under a New Government It might be hoped that a change of government would herald a change of nuclear energy policy, but we should not be too sanguine about the chances of a significant improvement. Rokkasho Reprocessing Plant: 14 Month Delay The estimated date of completion of construction and testing of its Rokkasho Reprocessing Plant has been extended by fourteen months to October 2010. It is the seventeenth time that the schedule had been extended. Public Finance and Export Insurance for Nuclear-Related Exports NGOs demand rigorous safety assessment, information disclosure and stakeholder involvement. An accident not to be forgotten: 10 Years have passed since the JCO Criticality Accident It might not have been so when the plant was first constructed, but at the time of the accident the plant was surrounded by houses. Nuclear fuel should not be handled in such places. Workers' Radiation Exposure Data for FY2008 The total collective dose in FY 2008 for people working at nuclear power plants was 84.04 person sieverts, an increase of 5.86 person sieverts compared to the previous year. Who's Who: Hiromitsu Ino There are many superb specialists in all sorts of academic fields, but there is one important difference between Ino and a large percentage of these "experts". That is that Ino succeeded in bridging the gap between specialist research and social activism.

Contents KK-7 Stopped Due to Radioactive Leak, KK-6 Begins Start-up Tests Local groups demand that start-up tests be suspended until investigations into KK-7's leaking fuel rod problem have been concluded and that both KK-6 and KK-7 be immediately shut down. Hamaoka Nuclear Power Station Struck By Earthquake The fact that an earthquake that arose so far away could cause so large a ground motion begs the question of whether the plant could withstand an earthquake immediately beneath the plant. Nuclear Energy Policy Under a New Government It might be hoped that a change of government would herald a change of nuclear energy policy, but we should not be too sanguine about the chances of a significant improvement. Rokkasho Reprocessing Plant: 14 Month Delay The estimated date of completion of construction and testing of its Rokkasho Reprocessing Plant has been extended by fourteen months to October 2010. It is the seventeenth time that the schedule had been extended. Public Finance and Export Insurance for Nuclear-Related Exports NGOs demand rigorous safety assessment, information disclosure and stakeholder involvement. An accident not to be forgotten: 10 Years have passed since the JCO Criticality Accident It might not have been so when the plant was first constructed, but at the time of the accident the plant was surrounded by houses. Nuclear fuel should not be handled in such places. Workers' Radiation Exposure Data for FY2008 The total collective dose in FY 2008 for people working at nuclear power plants was 84.04 person sieverts, an increase of 5.86 person sieverts compared to the previous year. Who's Who: Hiromitsu Ino There are many superb specialists in all sorts of academic fields, but there is one important difference between Ino and a large percentage of these "experts". That is that Ino succeeded in bridging the gap between specialist research and social activism.

"Some farm products such as strawberries, tomatoes and lettuce were not exported at all in May, according to foreign trade statistics, apparently due to concerns over the crisis at Tokyo Electric Power Co.'s Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant. Japanese farm products are popular in Europe, the United States and Asia. The recent statistics shows that those products are suffering serious losses due to fears about nuclear contamination. According to statistics released by the Finance Ministry, the volume of strawberries exported was 30,267 kilograms in February and 19,262 kilograms in March. The numbers declined sharply to 419 kilograms in April--a 94 percent drop from the same month last year--and to zero in May. Strawberries are produced mainly in Tochigi, Fukuoka and Kumamoto prefectures and sent mostly to Hong Kong, Taiwan and Singapore. "

"Australia, the world's third- largest uranium producer behind Kazakhstan and Canada, will ratify a nuclear agreement allowing exports to Russia for energy purposes, Foreign Minister Stephen Smith said. "This will enable Australian uranium to be exported to the Russian Federation for civil, peaceful nuclear purposes," Smith said, according to an e-mailed transcript of a news conference yesterday in Moscow with Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. "

Dangers of exporting nuclear technology Your revelations about Iraq's modern-day atomic aspirations (Iraq seeks permission for new nuclear programme, 28 October) raise the question whether the UK nuclear industry - with encouragement of the government, now all reborn atomic aficionados - will seek to gain a foothold in the re-emerging Iraqi nuclear industry. The UK has form on this: on 31 March 1957 the Baghdad Pact Nuclear Centre opened, with full British support. This pact was created in 1955 by Britain, Turkey, Pakistan, Iran and Iraq with the primary aim of strengthening regional security. A year later, on 29 March 1958, the centre was honoured by a lecture from Sir John Cockcroft, director of the UK's Atomic Energy Research Establishment.

Dangers of exporting nuclear technology Your revelations about Iraq's modern-day atomic aspirations (Iraq seeks permission for new nuclear programme, 28 October) raise the question whether the UK nuclear industry - with encouragement of the government, now all reborn atomic aficionados - will seek to gain a foothold in the re-emerging Iraqi nuclear industry. The UK has form on this: on 31 March 1957 the Baghdad Pact Nuclear Centre opened, with full British support. This pact was created in 1955 by Britain, Turkey, Pakistan, Iran and Iraq with the primary aim of strengthening regional security. A year later, on 29 March 1958, the centre was honoured by a lecture from Sir John Cockcroft, director of the UK's Atomic Energy Research Establishment.

Dangers of exporting nuclear technology Your revelations about Iraq's modern-day atomic aspirations (Iraq seeks permission for new nuclear programme, 28 October) raise the question whether the UK nuclear industry - with encouragement of the government, now all reborn atomic aficionados - will seek to gain a foothold in the re-emerging Iraqi nuclear industry. The UK has form on this: on 31 March 1957 the Baghdad Pact Nuclear Centre opened, with full British support. This pact was created in 1955 by Britain, Turkey, Pakistan, Iran and Iraq with the primary aim of strengthening regional security. A year later, on 29 March 1958, the centre was honoured by a lecture from Sir John Cockcroft, director of the UK's Atomic Energy Research Establishment.

"EnergySolutions says it no longer aspires to import the world's nuclear waste to Utah. Instead, it wants to export its expertise to the world, and help other nations dispose of their own radioactive waste. After the company doggedly pursued a license to import waste from Italy in the face of overwhelming opposition, the shift in strategy announced this week seems a welcome turn of events. This page has long advocated that the company grow its business by exporting landfills instead of importing waste. So, arrivederci, foreign waste. The world will have to find another sap. EnergySolutions' low-level radioactive waste disposal facility in Tooele County is not the solution to the planet's radioactive waste disposal needs."

"Israel's nuclear program has been implicated in an investigation conducted in the United States by the Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS), according to a report published on Wednesday by the researchers of the Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS). Dimona nuclear power plant The nuclear power plant in Dimona. Photo by: Archive The investigation began in spring 2010 when the BIS charged Pelogy, a U.S. based company and its Belgian affiliate, with violating U.S. export administration regulations by attempting to export controlled goods to Israel, India, China and South Africa. "

South Africa would implement interventions with regard to the export of uranium to ensure that the country retained an adequate supply for its own electricity-generation needs, the Department of Minerals and Energy's (DME's) director of nuclear non-proliferation Elsie Monale asserted on Wednesday. Speaking at the Institute for International Research's Nuclear & Uranium Summit in Johannesburg, Monale stated that South Africa and Southern Africa had an abundance of uranium and that the country should benefit from its minerals.

A Newspoll survey conducted by the Australian Conservation Foundation (ACF) has revealed that 40% of Australians are against the export of Australian uranium to any country for use in nuclear power plants for electricity generation. A further 22% were found to be against the export of uranium to countries that possess nuclear weapons, even if those countries have signed the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).

The UK Government has announced the lifting of a ban on exporting sensitive nuclear technology to India. Firms had up until last month been banned from supplying equipment and material on the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) "trigger list" to India. But the government says that items intended for civilian nuclear projects can now be exported.

A MAJOR development to import and export radioactive waste in and out of Sellafield could create 105 new jobs. A0163742 NUCLEAR FEARS: Martin Forwood of CORE. Main picture: Sellafield REF: 01637542 The building would be used for surface storage of intermediate level waste before it is exported to a final permanent repository, when one is built.

March 2, USEC stock plunged a walloping 24.85 percent, from $5.03 to $3.78 per share, with market value dropping about $200 million in four days, hitting south Ohio especially hard. USEC had a 50 percent profit loss in 2008 compared to 2007, but the company has larger issues. Its hypothetical centrifuge plant in Piketon now ranks fourth among competing domestic enrichment projects, out-classed by projects in New Mexico, Idaho and North Carolina in terms of cost, technical demonstration and schedule. This comes just as the capital crisis severely restricts construction of nuclear reactors, reducing domestic demand forecasts to only two new enrichment projects. The others would produce uranium cheap enough to export. But USEC's chances of developing an export market are nil, not only for its high prices, but because USEC has alienated foreign customers through monopolistic support of protectionist measures to keep out foreign uranium.

The U.S. Department of Commerce has approved a new long-term contract for imports by a U.S. company of Russian low-enriched uranium, Russia's state nuclear company Atomenergoprom said on Friday. On August 19, the department "approved a direct contract for deliveries by Techsnabexport [Atomenergoprom's uranium export arm] of enriched uranium to the U.S. energy company Constellation Energy Nuclear Group," the company said in a statement. The contract is the sixth in a series of deals between U.S. firms and Techsnabexport signed in May-July of this year. The department earlier approved two Techsnabexport contracts with electricity supplier and distributor Exelon Corporation, and is currently considering approval of three other contracts with the fuel industry servicing company Fuelco.

Russian specialist nuclear (fuel exporter Techsnab-export - better known by its brand name of Tenex - has, in just over a week, won contracts to directly supply low-enriched uranium to four US nuclear power utilities. The latest contract, signed last week, is with the Exelon Corporation, which is one of the largest electricity producers in the US, with a production capacity of 25 000 MW (of which, 17 000 MW comes from nuclear plants) plus control of another (6 500 MW through long-term contracts. During the last week of May, the Russian company signed a contract with FuelCo, which represents the interests of three US utilities, PG&E, Union Electric and Luminant. All three will use low-enriched uranium supplied by Tenex to fuel their nuclear (reactors. Although the value of the Exelon deal has not been revealed, the FuelCo deal is worth more than $1-billion. All these deals (involve long-term contracts and all will run from 2014 to 2020.

The State Government expected to reap a windfall of more than $30 million a year from uranium export royalties from as early as 2015, Premier Colin Barnett said yesterday. Mr Barnett also reiterated the Government's commitment not to allow uranium exports through ports in residential areas, but said it was possible yellowcake would be shipped out of Pilbara ports in the longer term.

The Department of Energy will consider the Hanford nuclear reservation as one of seven possible sites for long-term storage of the nation's elemental mercury, said a notice Thursday in the Federal Register. The nation could have 8,300 to 11,000 tons of mercury from private sources that would be eligible for storage over 40 years, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. DOE is looking for storage sites after the Mercury Export Ban Act of 2008 prohibited the export of mercury beginning in 2013 and required the agency to have facilities ready to manage and store mercury generated in the United States. It is a new responsibility for the DOE Office of Environmental Management, which is responsible for work at Hanford.

A study released today by The Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI) concludes that uranium enrichment in Canada is likely to be more profitable for the Canadian nuclear industry than exporting natural uranium and buying it back in enriched form. Uranium Enrichment in Canada provides a detailed analysis of the Canadian mining of uranium, its subsequent processing, current enrichment technologies and the capital and operating costs of a modern centrifuge enrichment plant. It explains Canada's position as the world's largest producer and exporter of uranium, with an active nuclear power sector, but without the capability to enrich uranium.