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The UK nuclear safety regulator (HSE's ND), the French nuclear regulator (ASN), and the Finnish nuclear regulator (STUK) are currently working to assess the EPR Pressurised Water Reactor. In carrying out individual assessments, we have all raised issues regarding the EPR Control and Instrumentation (C&I) systems, which the proposed licensees and/or the manufacturer (AREVA) are in the process of addressing. Although the EPR design being developed for each country varies slightly, the issues we raised with the current C&I system are broadly similar, our aim being to collectively obtain the highest levels of safety from the EPR. The issue is primarily around ensuring the adequacy of the safety systems (those used to maintain control of the plant if it goes outside normal conditions), and their independence from the control systems (those used to operate the plant under normal conditions).

The UK nuclear safety regulator (HSE's ND), the French nuclear regulator (ASN), and the Finnish nuclear regulator (STUK) are currently working to assess the EPR Pressurised Water Reactor. In carrying out individual assessments, we have all raised issues regarding the EPR Control and Instrumentation (C&I) systems, which the proposed licensees and/or the manufacturer (AREVA) are in the process of addressing. Although the EPR design being developed for each country varies slightly, the issues we raised with the current C&I system are broadly similar, our aim being to collectively obtain the highest levels of safety from the EPR. The issue is primarily around ensuring the adequacy of the safety systems (those used to maintain control of the plant if it goes outside normal conditions), and their independence from the control systems (those used to operate the plant under normal conditions).

An Australian company exploring for uranium in southwest North Dakota says it believes it may be able to save millions of dollars by pouring chemicals over piles of lignite to extract the radioactive element and other valuable substances. Formation Resources Inc. of Bismarck is a unit of PacMag Metals Ltd., based in West Perth, Australia. The company says the so-called heap-leach process can be done for less than $20 million. Building a processing plant could cost four times that much. The company says the high-grade uranium found in southwest North Dakota is at a shallow depth, usually less than 60 feet. Jim Guilinger, a PacMag consultant, says that makes the heap-leach process more attractive.

Parliament has strongly criticised the government for ordering documents destroyed in a case of Swiss engineers suspected of involvement in a nuclear smuggling ring. A control committee said that the reasons the government gave for doing so were not convincing and that briefings given to members of parliament were not sufficient. Destroying the documents had also compromised an investigation. Claude Janiak, head of the delegation, said on Thursday that the government was wrong to do so but it had acted under pressure. He did not elaborate.

An Australian company should get the green light next week to prospect for uranium on the Little Missouri National Grasslands in Slope and Billings counties. PacMag Metals hopes to open pits on the grasslands and private land nearby to mine uranium and other valuable metals like molybdenum and germanium.

Senior members of the state Washington delegation, Democratic Sen. Mary Landrieu, Republican Sen. David Vitter and Shreveport Republican 4th District congressman Jim McCrery, have jointly asked the Secretary of the Air Force to enlarge Barksdale's nuclear role. The three have written Secretary Michael Donley asking that the base, now home to the nation's largest concentration of strategic bombers, be named the headquarters of a new command that will marshal the service's nuclear-armed bombers and missiles, the result of changes service leaders announced following their CORONA Fall meeting in Colorado at the start of the month.

A study has been launched in Switzerland to investigate whether children living near nuclear reactors have a higher risk of cancer. The study - Childhood Cancer and Nuclear Power Plants in Switzerland - follows an analysis by German scientists last year that found a possible link between higher rates of leukaemia in children who live near nuclear power plants. Researchers will study cancer rates among Swiss minors born between 1985 and 2007. It will compare the data against the distances the children lived from reactors when and before they became ill.

Prospectors want to shovel 300 to 500 scoops of dirt out of the Little Missouri National Grasslands in Slope and Billings counties and examine it for uranium. The same company is talking about building a plant on a railroad siding near Belfield or Bowman to acid treat and burn coal to extract that uranium.

A fight over explosive documents in a nuclear-smuggling case escalated on Thursday when investigators raided a federal building and seized a safe and key. Lawyers, parliamentarians and the federal government are all locked in a showdown over what should happen to documents related to the Tinner affair, particularly those that contain plans for a nuclear bomb. Urs, Marco and Friedrich Tinner, engineers with ties to a centrifuge business, have been the subject of allegations that they contributed to a nuclear smuggling ring run by Abdul Qadeer Khan, the father of Pakistan's nuclear programme. The Tinners have maintained their innocence

A parliamentary control delegation has rejected plans by the cabinet to destroy sensitive documents related to an international nuclear smuggling ring. The committee called on the government to seek an acceptable solution with justice authorities for about 100 pages of evidence linked to an investigation of three Swiss engineers suspected of smuggling nuclear weapons technology. "There is no international obligation to destroy the documents," said Hansruedi Stadler, a Christian Democratic senator, on Tuesday. The committee said the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) agreed that Switzerland was capable of safely storing the file, which contains more than 1,000 pages including documents on bomb designs, until a court rules on the case of Urs Tinner, his brother Marco and their father Friedrich. They are suspected of having links to the nuclear smuggling network of Abdul Qadeer Kahn, the father of Pakistan's nuclear programme, and are believed to have worked as undercover agents for the United States. Last week, the government ordered the quick destruction of sensitive material

Voters in canton Vaud have come out against a proposal to keep a nuclear energy plant running indefinitely. With 64 per cent against, they rejected plans to extend the licence for the Mühleberg plant, in neighbouring canton Bern. But the federal authorities still have the final say. The plant, which supplies energy to the canton, has a licence to operate until 2012. The energy ministry had been waiting for the outcome of the consultative vote before deciding whether to prolong the centre's life. It is obliged to ask the cantons concerned by the decision: Bern and Solothurn have already said yes; Neuchâtel and Freiburg have said no. Vaud was the only canton to vote on the matter.

Voters in canton Vaud have come out against a proposal to keep a nuclear energy plant running indefinitely. With 64 per cent against, they rejected plans to extend the licence for the Mühleberg plant, in neighbouring canton Bern. But the federal authorities still have the final say. The plant, which supplies energy to the canton, has a licence to operate until 2012. The energy ministry had been waiting for the outcome of the consultative vote before deciding whether to prolong the centre's life. It is obliged to ask the cantons concerned by the decision: Bern and Solothurn have already said yes; Neuchâtel and Freiburg have said no. Vaud was the only canton to vote on the matter.