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The Nuclear Regulatory Commission said Tuesday that its staff has scheduled a conference to discuss an apparent violation of requirements associated with a warning system at Global Nuclear Fuel-Americas. The Criticality Warning System (CWS) is designed to sound an alarm in the very unlikely event of an accident at the nuclear fuel manufacturing operation located at GE's Castle Hayne facility. The operation is jointly owned by General Electric, Hitachi and Toshiba.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff has accepted for formal review an environmental report submitted by General Electric-Hitachi Global Laser Enrichment LLC (GLE), as part of an application for a license to construct and operate a laser uranium enrichment plant near Wilmington, N.C. GLE submitted the environmental report Jan. 30. The NRC staff has determined that the report is sufficiently complete to begin a formal technical review. The report is one part of an application for a 40-year license to construct and operate a laser-based uranium enrichment facility at the existing General Electric/Global Nuclear Fuels-Americas site near Wilmington. The proposed facility would enrich uranium up to an assay level of 8 percent U-235, the isotope crucial for nuclear fission. The enriched uranium would be used in the production of fuel for commercial nuclear power reactors.

"The U.S. and India have agreed on procedures for reprocessing spent nuclear fuel from the U.S., helping General Electric Co.'s atomic venture bid for contracts to build power plants in the South Asian nation. The agreement will enable India to reprocess U.S. nuclear material under International Atomic Energy Agency standards and allow American companies to participate in the country's civil nuclear energy sector, the U.S. State Department said in a statement today. GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy, a subsidiary of Fairfield, Connecticut-based General Electric and Monroeville, Pennsylvania-based Westinghouse, a subsidiary of Tokyo's Toshiba Corp., are likely to bid for nuclear energy contracts as the world's second fastest-growing major economy builds generating plants to end blackouts and reduce poverty. India plans to raise nuclear generation capacity 10-fold over the next decade to sustain its economic growth. The State Department statement didn't provide more details and S.K. Malhotra, a spokesman for India's Department of Atomic Energy, couldn't be reached on his mobile phone. "

One of the reactors in the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant may have been relying on flawed steel to hold the radiation in its core, according to an engineer who helped build its containment vessel four decades ago. Mitsuhiko Tanaka says he helped conceal a manufacturing defect in the $250 million steel vessel installed at the Fukushima Dai-Ichi No. 4 reactor while working for a unit of Hitachi Ltd. (6501) in 1974. The reactor, which Tanaka has called a "time bomb," was shut for maintenance when the March 11 earthquake triggered a 7-meter (23-foot) tsunami that disabled cooling systems at the plant, leading to explosions and radiation leaks.

Spinach with radioactive iodine 27 times more than the government-regulated limit was found in the city of Hitachi in Ibaraki Prefecture, more than 100 kilometers south of the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, but the radiation levels do not affect human health, local authorities said Sunday. The growing public concern over the safety of farm products prompted the government the same day to consider instructing local authorities to halt the shipment of relevant produce within a prefecture if produce made there is found containing radioactive substances at levels exceeding regulation, government sources said. Currently, prefectural governments decide whether to ask municipalities to voluntarily halt shipment of contaminated products. In 1 kilogram of spinach grown in open air in the city, 54,000 becquerels of iodine was detected, exceeding the 2,000 becquerel limit preliminarily set by the government under the food sanitation law, the Ibaraki prefectural government said. The level of cesium in the spinach grown in the city was also higher at 1,931 becquerels, compared to the limit of 500 becquerels.

"The Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff has completed a draft environmental statement recommending commission approval of a license for the Global Laser Enrichment facility proposed for the GE complex in Castle Hayne. The approval was reported in a notice published in Friday's Federal Register, which stated: "The NRC staff preliminarily recommends that, unless safety issues mandate otherwise … the NRC should issue a license" to Global Laser Enrichment to operate a laser-base uranium enrichment facility. The notice went on to say the "NRC staff in the Office of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards, Division of Fuel Cycle Safety and Safeguards is currently completing the safety review of (GE Hitachi's) license application. The safety review is currently scheduled for completion in December 2010.""

"In 2008, after the opening of 8 brand new nuclear plants in Japan (2 on the Island of Hokkaidō, 3 on Honshū, and 1 each on Kyūshū, Shikoku, and Tanagashima, the last of which hosts the Japanese Aerospace Agency headquarters and uses roughly 2% of all Japan's energy despite only about 21,714 inhabitants) Japan became the second largest nuclear power user in the world with 63 nuclear reactor Nuclear reactor A nuclear reactor is a device in which nuclear chain reactions are initiated, controlled, and sustained at a steady rate.The most significant use of nuclear reactors is as an energy source for the generation of electrical power and for the power in some ships... s. These provide 34.5% of Japan's electricity. Since 1973 nuclear energy has been a national strategic priority because Japan is heavily dependent on imported fuel, with fuel imports accounting for 61% of energy production."

CPS Energy has received the contractually mandated cost estimate for proposed South Texas Project (STP) Units 3 and 4 from contractor Toshiba, however the utility will make no decisions on the project until rigorous analysis of price and methodology is completed. The cost estimate is structured in a range, and it will take CPS Energy staff several days to analyze the methodology behind the numbers and perform the necessary due diligence, said Jelynne LeBlanc-Burley, CPS Energy's acting general manager. "We are well aware of the confidentiality provision contained in our contract with Toshiba and NINA (Nuclear Innovation North America, a limited liability company comprised of Toshiba and NRG Energy)," said LeBlanc-Burley. "If the cost estimate is disclosed prematurely, it places our customers at risk. Our staff will evaluate the information from Toshiba, put it into context and brief our Board of Trustees as soon as possible. In turn, we will properly notify other key stakeholders including the San Antonio City Council."

CPS Energy has received the contractually mandated cost estimate for proposed South Texas Project (STP) Units 3 and 4 from contractor Toshiba, however the utility will make no decisions on the project until rigorous analysis of price and methodology is completed. The cost estimate is structured in a range, and it will take CPS Energy staff several days to analyze the methodology behind the numbers and perform the necessary due diligence, said Jelynne LeBlanc-Burley, CPS Energy's acting general manager. "We are well aware of the confidentiality provision contained in our contract with Toshiba and NINA (Nuclear Innovation North America, a limited liability company comprised of Toshiba and NRG Energy)," said LeBlanc-Burley. "If the cost estimate is disclosed prematurely, it places our customers at risk. Our staff will evaluate the information from Toshiba, put it into context and brief our Board of Trustees as soon as possible. In turn, we will properly notify other key stakeholders including the San Antonio City Council."

"India's government failed to introduce a bill intended to shield U.S. nuclear equipment suppliers from liability, delaying the entry of companies including General Electric Co.'s atomic venture. The Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage Bill 2010, listed as the main item on today's agenda in parliament, was deferred because of opposition from lawmakers. Prithviraj Chavan, a minister in Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's office, today said the government will table the bill after addressing concerns of opposition members, without giving a timeline. The proposed law sets a limit of 5 billion rupees ($110 million) on compensation to be paid by companies operating reactors, and excludes suppliers of equipment, according to a copy of the draft bill. The overall liability can reach about $450 million, with the additional amount borne by the government. "It seems the government is going to bail out American companies from responsibility in case there is any nuclear accident," said Shahnawaz Hussain, a legislator with the main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party. "