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"Oil and gas remain critical sources of power and energy for North African nations. In the medium term, hydrocarbons will remain the predominant sources of energy, whether it is for the OPEC countries of Algeria and Libya or the less-oil-endowed nations of Tunisia and Morocco. But in the longer term, the nuclear option appears interesting to all as oil reserves are depleted and securing new sources of energy is a strategic priority. On the ground, all North African nations have been working somewhat to develop nuclear capabilities for civilian and industrial use. Each country has put in place programs that have been supported or endorsed by a Western super power, notably France, which has obvious economic interest in helping develop such industry. The North Africa Journal Take: * Despite media noise in the region that relay political views instead of depicting the reality, no single North African nation is contemplating the use of the nuclear option for non-civilian purposes. Various media sources and analysts outside of the region have also been raising red flags but we believe their positions are unfounded and without any base, essentially motivated by political reasons"

"The head of Florida Power & Light Co. left the Public Service Commission hearing on the company's rate increase, complaining that 20,000 jobs in plant construction and growth will be lost because "politics trumped economics." The PSC hearing is still going on, but the regulatory panel has been whacking away at its already reduced staff recommendations all day. FP&L had sought a $1.3 billion rate hike but the staff recommended only $357 million -- and the commission lowered that. "Today, politics trumped economics because there is no economic case for the decisions that this commission made," said Armando Olivera, the company CEO."

"Amidst utter chaos in the atomic reactor industry, Team Obama is poised to vastly expand a bitterly contested loan guarantee program that may cost far more than expected, both financially and politically. The long-stalled, much-hyped "Renaissance" in atomic power has failed to find private financing. New construction projects are opposed for financial reasons by fiscal conservatives such as the Heritage Foundation and National Taxpayers Union, and by a national grassroots safe energy campaign that has already beaten such loan guarantees three times. New reactor designs are being challenged by regulators in both the US and Europe. Key projects, new and old, are engulfed in political/financial uproars in Florida, Texas, Maryland, Vermont, New Jersey and elsewhere. "

"Mixing politics with radioactive waste is never a good idea. But that's what President Barack Obama did when he decided to end construction of the nation's nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain, Nev. In an effort to block that move, three Tri-City business leaders last week sued Obama in federal court, claiming he violated the law when declaring Yucca Mountain would no longer be under consideration. The lawsuit claims that when Congress named Yucca Mountain in 2002 as the nation's repository, certain steps were required to be followed under the Nuclear Waste Policy Act. But that didn't happen when Obama abruptly pulled the plug, the Tri-City business leaders argue."

"The nuclear energy industry is enjoying a political revival after embracing climate legislation, linking arms with labor unions and mounting a big-dollar lobbying and advertising campaign. The effort has had two goals: to promote nuclear power as a "clean" energy source and as a way to create tens of thousands of new jobs during an economic downturn. Whether the political renewal leads to a commercial renaissance is unclear."

"One of the most popular muckraking American journalists of the late twentieth century, I.F. Stone, once remarked: "All governments lie." Even a prominent government official -- Andrei Gromyko, the veteran Soviet diplomat -- once admitted, in a weak moment: "Governments are never sincere." This gloomy assessment appears all too true when it comes to national security policy, and particularly so with respect to nuclear weapons. Indeed, in early March, a new Japanese political party -- swept into governmental power last year thanks to a political upheaval -- revealed that its predecessors had lied for more than four decades about one of the most hallowed principles in Japanese public life: Japan's nuclear-free status."

Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko criticised his government on Tuesday for slow progress on building a new shelter to encase the wrecked fourth reactor of the Chernobyl power plant, site of the world's worst nuclear accident. Ukraine signed a deal in September 2007 with the French-led Novarka consortium to erect an arch-shaped shelter at the plant where a fire, followed by an explosion, occurred on April 26, 1986, sending radiation billowing over parts of central Europe. This project was due to be completed over four to five years at a cost of $1.39 billion. A second deal with U.S.-based Holtec International foresees building a facility to house spent nuclear fuel from reactors. Turning on his political rival Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, Yushchenko told a national security meeting: "We have had three international conferences, more than $900 million in resources have been brought together ... why is there an empty building site today?".

Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko criticised his government on Tuesday for slow progress on building a new shelter to encase the wrecked fourth reactor of the Chernobyl power plant, site of the world's worst nuclear accident. Ukraine signed a deal in September 2007 with the French-led Novarka consortium to erect an arch-shaped shelter at the plant where a fire, followed by an explosion, occurred on April 26, 1986, sending radiation billowing over parts of central Europe. This project was due to be completed over four to five years at a cost of $1.39 billion. A second deal with U.S.-based Holtec International foresees building a facility to house spent nuclear fuel from reactors. Turning on his political rival Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, Yushchenko told a national security meeting: "We have had three international conferences, more than $900 million in resources have been brought together ... why is there an empty building site today?".

Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko criticised his government on Tuesday for slow progress on building a new shelter to encase the wrecked fourth reactor of the Chernobyl power plant, site of the world's worst nuclear accident. Ukraine signed a deal in September 2007 with the French-led Novarka consortium to erect an arch-shaped shelter at the plant where a fire, followed by an explosion, occurred on April 26, 1986, sending radiation billowing over parts of central Europe. This project was due to be completed over four to five years at a cost of $1.39 billion. A second deal with U.S.-based Holtec International foresees building a facility to house spent nuclear fuel from reactors. Turning on his political rival Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, Yushchenko told a national security meeting: "We have had three international conferences, more than $900 million in resources have been brought together ... why is there an empty building site today?".

Florida's utility regulators have crafted their vision of Florida's green energy future without answering the billion-dollar question: What is green energy? Months of intense lobbying and public hearings on how and when Florida's energy companies should go green ended on Jan. 9 with the state's Public Service Commission deciding not to decide whether nuclear power is green enough to be part of the state's mandate to reduce greenhouse gases. The issue - raised by Florida Power & Light, the state's largest producer of nuclear power - was the only issue the commission did not decide. The prickly question now goes to the legislature, where FPL is a major political player.

Call it the alphabet soup rule. You can tell how important an issue is in the Legislature by how many groups with long acronyms line up behind it or against it. In the battle over AmerenUE's attempt to change Missouri law so that it can charge consumers higher rates while building its proposed nuclear plant in Callaway County, the first salvo was fired by MEDA, or the Missouri Energy Development Association. The group represents most of the state's utilities, and, of course, it's in favor of the plant. MEDA's Warren Wood makes the bill sound like it's pro-consumer, pro-environment.

Physics met politics at the confirmation hearing Tuesday for Steven Chu, the Nobel laureate scientist chosen by President-elect Barack Obama to head the Department of Energy, and the physics bent a bit, as Dr. Chu backed away slightly from earlier statements he has made - that gasoline prices should be higher, and that coal was his "nightmare."

Ameren is seeking to remove a barrier in state law that will allow it to increase rates while it is building a $6 billion nuclear power plant. Ameren is telling lawmakers that without a change to the law, it won't get financing. Speaker of the House Ron Richard addressed the issue in his opening statement. Gov. Jay Nixon has addressed the issue. Senators have spoken to Ameren's lobbyists and know what the issues are. But at the seminar designed to educate senators on the issue, Ameren danced around the issue, as Crowell pointed out.

Ahh, a Friday afternoon toast to science. PG&E announced today that its Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power plant is actually situated on two seismically sensitive faults, not just the one previously identified in the 1970s when the plant was sited and built. "The new fault is thought to be smaller than the other fault off the plant's coastline, the Hosgri fault, but it is closer to shore. The new fault is less than a mile offshore while the Hosgri fault is about three miles offshore," according to a story in the San Luis Obispo Tribune.

John McCain may live to regret scoffing at Barack Obama's suggestion that we should make sure we can safely dispose of radioactive waste before we rush out and start building new nuclear power plants: this week, a series of new proposed rulings from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission underscored just how difficult - technologically and politically - the storage of nuclear waste can be.

The measure is winning adherents from both sides of the aisle-and upsetting ideologues of both parties High energy prices have become a bitterly contested political issue. Republicans are bashing Democrats for standing in the way of drilling for more oil and gas at home, while Democrats retort that their rivals are misleading the American public by saying that such drilling would significantly lower prices. Yet amid the partisan bomb-throwing over America's future energy policy, Washington is actually making a rare effort to forge a compromise.

CNN yesterday released a fact check report proving another John MCain lie about Barack Obama. In this case, McCain claimed in a Michigan stump speech that he favors nuclear power while Obama is against it. In reality, CNN reported, the Obama-Biden New Energy for America Plan includes a section entitled "safe and secure nuclear energy." If you visit Obama's website, as did CNN, you'll find in the plan this statement: "Nuclear power represents more than 70 percent of our non-carbon generated electricity. It is unlikely that we can meet our aggressive climate goals if we eliminate nuclear power as an option."

In an explosive revelation that may well have unsavory foreign policy repercussions, a senior official of India's premier defense organization - the Defense Research and Development Organization (DRDO) - who played a pivotal role in orchestrating India's nuclear program during the Pokhran nuclear tests in 1998, has declared that the tests that year were a dud and not nearly as successful as projected to the world. The declaration by K Santhanam - remarkable as it comes from a top nuclear scientist directly associated with India's nuclear program - has stirred a hornet's nest in New Delhi. The scientific community and political parties - primarily the ruling United Progressive Alliance (UPA) and its principal right-wing opposition Bharatiya Janata Party under whose stewardship the tests were conducted - are scrambling to offer explanations to counter Santhanam's statement.

In an explosive revelation that may well have unsavory foreign policy repercussions, a senior official of India's premier defense organization - the Defense Research and Development Organization (DRDO) - who played a pivotal role in orchestrating India's nuclear program during the Pokhran nuclear tests in 1998, has declared that the tests that year were a dud and not nearly as successful as projected to the world. The declaration by K Santhanam - remarkable as it comes from a top nuclear scientist directly associated with India's nuclear program - has stirred a hornet's nest in New Delhi. The scientific community and political parties - primarily the ruling United Progressive Alliance (UPA) and its principal right-wing opposition Bharatiya Janata Party under whose stewardship the tests were conducted - are scrambling to offer explanations to counter Santhanam's statement.

Rodney C. Ewing1 and Frank N. von Hippel2 The recent action to shelve Yucca Mountain as the potential geologic repository for U.S. "spent" (i.e., no longer usable) nuclear fuel (SNF) and high-level nuclear waste (HLW) (1) brings to a close a 30-year effort to develop and implement a policy for nuclear wastes in the United States. Selection by Congress in 1987 of Yucca Mountain in Nevada as the only site to be investigated condemned the United States to pursue a policy that had no backup if Yucca Mountain failed politically or technically. 1 Department of Geological Sciences, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1005, USA. 2 Program on Science and Global Security, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08542-4601, USA. E-mail: rodewing@umich.edu E-mail: fvhippel@princeton.edu

Rodney C. Ewing1 and Frank N. von Hippel2 The recent action to shelve Yucca Mountain as the potential geologic repository for U.S. "spent" (i.e., no longer usable) nuclear fuel (SNF) and high-level nuclear waste (HLW) (1) brings to a close a 30-year effort to develop and implement a policy for nuclear wastes in the United States. Selection by Congress in 1987 of Yucca Mountain in Nevada as the only site to be investigated condemned the United States to pursue a policy that had no backup if Yucca Mountain failed politically or technically. 1 Department of Geological Sciences, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1005, USA. 2 Program on Science and Global Security, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08542-4601, USA. E-mail: rodewing@umich.edu E-mail: fvhippel@princeton.edu