Group items tagged

Areva SA, the biggest builder of nuclear reactors, received three offers of less than 4 billion euros ($5.9 billion) for its transmission and distribution unit, according to three people familiar with the sale. General Electric Co. teamed up with CVC Capital Partners Ltd. to make an offer, while Toshiba Corp. submitted a separate bid, said the people, who declined to be identified because the talks are private. France's Alstom SA and Schneider Electric also submitted a joint offer, the people said. The bids fell short of the 4.25 billion euros analysts had estimated the unit to be worth. Areva is selling the business to raise money to develop uranium mines and buy Siemens AG's share of a nuclear-reactor joint venture. The company bought the division from Alstom for 920 million euros in 2004. The French state, Areva's biggest shareholder, may favor a domestic buyer, analysts surveyed ahead of the bidding deadline last week said.

BEFORE the spring of 1989, all most people knew of the Santa Susana Field Lab were the occasional rocket tests that sent a thundering boom across the Valley and shook the homes in West Hills, Chatsworth and Simi Valley, near the hilltop facility. The sprawling 2,859-acre lab built during the Cold War developed and tested rocket engines that powered missiles and, eventually, the Apollo and space shuttle missions. But 20 years ago last month, the Daily News obtained and reported on an environmental survey that, for the first time, revealed extensive toxic and radioactive contamination from a 290-acre U.S. Atomic Energy Commission nuclear research facility located at lab. The news shocked both neighbors and local environmental regulators, who never knew the site was once home to 10 nuclear reactors - one of which experienced a partial meltdown in 1959 - nor had any idea of the radioactive contamination.

Only one in five Israeli Jews believes a nuclear-armed Iran would try to destroy Israel and most see life continuing as normal should their arch-foe get the bomb, an opinion poll published on Sunday found. The survey, commissioned by a Tel Aviv University think tank, appeared to challenge the argument of successive Israeli governments that Iran must be denied the means to make atomic weapons lest it threaten the existence of the Jewish state.

There are a few unmistakable realities in the world. One of them, Vince Matthews thinks, is that increasing energy demands are unstoppable. Another is that Colorado has a wealth of mineral and energy reserves that could be vital in meeting national and global appetites. Matthews, Colorado state geologist and director of Colo­rado Geological Survey, presented his views during the first seminar Thursday morning of the Fueling Energy Summit 2009, hosted by Yampa Valley Partners at the Holiday Inn of Craig.

The US Department of Energy will issue a "no significant impact" finding on its plan to sell portions of its excess uranium inventory in the US uranium market, DOE's William Szymanski told officials Wednesday at the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission's annual fuel cycle conference. The finding stems from an environmental impact statement DOE began work on last year under the Bush administration, as the department surveyed how best to manage 59,000 metric tons of DOE-owned uranium that are now stored in cylinders. The finding soon will be published in the Federal Register, said Szymanski, the director of global nuclear fuel assurance in DOE's Office of Nuclear Energy. A statement that then-Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman issued last year states DOE believes it can sell up to 10% of the nation's annual nuclear fuel requirements on the US uranium market and "not have an adverse material impact on the domestic uranium industry." The department still "needs to cross all the 'Ts' and dot all the 'Is'" to ensure that the administration of President Barack Obama will approve such a plan, Szymanski said.

Before they learned words like dioxin and perchlorate, mothers let sons and daughters play near streams that trickled down from hills that hid some of the government's biggest secrets. Families who settled in neighborhoods blooming in Chatsworth, West Hills and Simi Valley led idyllic lives, even when their bedroom and kitchen windows rattled from the roar of rocket engines being tested at the Santa Susana Field Laboratory in the Simi Hills. But in May 1989, surveys from the Department of Energy - reported exclusively in the Daily News - revealed that radioactive and toxic contamination from decades of nuclear experiments and rocket tests had leaked into soil, groundwater and bedrock at the hilltop site.

An earthquake fault previously believed to be limited to an area south of Whidbey Island actually stretches 250 to 300 miles, from Victoria to Yakima, crossing the Cascade Mountains and is capable of producing a major earthquake, new research shows. Many of the other faults in Western Washington could be connected to the South Whidbey Island Fault in a network similar to the San Andreas Fault system in California, Craig Weaver, the regional earthquake coordinator for the U.S. Geological Survey based in Seattle, said in an interview this week. Suzette Kimball, the USGS acting director, told Congress on Thursday that there was "strong evidence" other faults in Western Washington were connected to the South Whidbey fault. "It appears there is a very large (fault) system in the Cascade arc," she told the House Interior appropriations subcommittee.

The warning comes from the leader of Cumbrians Opposed to a Radioactive Environment, Martin Forwood, following the largest earthquake in the North West for 174 years. New nuclear power stations are planned for Kirksanton, Braystones near Egremont and at Sellafield. An expert from the British Geological Survey has reassured members of the public that underground tremors pose no threat to any nuclear plants.

Concentrations of a potentially-harmful nuclear contaminant found in groundwater at the Idaho National Laboratory (INL) are well below the federal safety threshold for public drinking water. This finding was released in a report by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), which monitors water quality at the eastern Idaho laboratory on behalf of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE).

The president and CEO of Cameco Corporation, a supplier of uranium, weighs in on the hurdles facing his industry Editor's note: This Q&A is a part of a survey conducted by Scientific American of executives at companies engaged in developing and implementing non-fossil fuel energy technologies. What technical obstacles currently most curtail the growth of nuclear fission? What are the prospects for overcoming them in the near future and the longer-term?

French nuclear giant Areva signed a deal Thursday to develop uranium mining in the Democratic Republic of Congo, during a visit by President Nicolas Sarkozy to Kinshasa. "By its size and geological profile, the Democratic Republic of Congo offers significant uranium potential," the state-controlled firm said in a statement released in Paris. A survey of potential sites will be carried out in the DR Congo, which has vast reserves of diamonds, gold, copper and cobalt.

The provincial government is expected to release a report today on nuclear power, officially launching a public debate on whether Alberta should allow Bruce Power to build a reactor near Peace River. "There's nothing in it that indicates what the province should do, one way or another," Energy Minister Mel Knight said Wednesday. The report, written by a panel of experts assigned to the task last April, sets out a framework for discussion. Next month, the province will start to survey people online and in groups of interested parties to gauge public reaction.

The federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission has concluded the Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant would withstand the effects of a potential new fault line off the California coast. Pacific Gas & Electric, which operates the plant 12 miles southwest of San Luis Obispo, California, notified the NRC in November 2008 about the potential Shoreline Fault, approximately 15 kilometers in length located one kilometer (.6 mile) offshore from the Diablo Canyon power plant. PG&E provided the commission with data from the company's collaboration with the U.S. Geological Survey regarding the potential fault.

A huge maintenance hangar at former MCAS El Toro remains "radiological restricted" over California Department of Public Health concerns about a Navy radiological survey. The California Department of Public Health (CDPH) has not approved an MCAS El Toro hangar contaminated with Radium-226, despite a July 2002 Navy report recommending unrestricted use.

"On July 21, 2009, U.S. Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar proposed a two-year withdrawal of about 1 million acres of Federal land near the Grand Canyon from future mineral entry. These lands are contained in three parcels: two parcels on U.S. Bureau of Land Management land to the north of the Grand Canyon (North and East Segregation Areas) and one on the Kaibab National Forest south of the Grand Canyon (South Segregation Area). The purpose of the two-year withdrawal is to examine the potential effects of restricting these areas from new mine development for the next 20 years. This proposed withdrawal initiated a period of study during which the effects of the withdrawal must be evaluated. At the direction of the Secretary, the U.S. Geological Survey began a series of short-term studies designed to develop additional information about the possible effects of uranium mining on the natural resources of the region. Dissolved uranium and other major, minor, and trace elements occur naturally in groundwater as the result of precipitation infiltrating from the surface to water-bearing zones and, presumably, to underlying regional aquifers. Discharges from these aquifers occur as seeps and springs throughout the region and provide valuable habitat and water sources for plants and animals. Uranium mining within the watershed may increase the amount of radioactive materials and heavy metals in the surface water and groundwater flowing into Grand Canyon National Park and the Colorado River, and deep mining activities may increase mobilization of uranium through the rock strata into the aquifers. In addition, waste rock and ore from mined areas may be transported away from the mines by wind and runoff."

"An internal memo from Southern California Edison, leaked to a San Clemente activist group, indicates that fear of retaliation still exists at San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station, despite repeated public statements calling for openness by top plant leadership. The memo, released by the environmental group San Clemente Green, is dated Feb. 2 and appears to have been written by an Edison employee in advance of a meeting between Southern California Edison executives and Nuclear Regulatory Commission inspectors who conducted an inspection at San Onofre in November. Though the NRC eventually releases the results of its inspections, it has not yet done so for the one that occurred in November 2009. The memo states that inspectors, meeting in focus groups with plant employees, found that 25 percent of those surveyed said they fear retaliation from plant management for raising safety concerns to federal regulators. The memo also indicates that, in 2008, reports from San Onofre employees to the NRC were six times higher than the industry median."

"Mel Knight's announcement that nuclear power will be considered as an energy option in Alberta does not sit well with the Coalition for a Nuclear Free Alberta, the province-wide alliance of grassroots organizations opposed to nuclear development. Adele Boucher Rymhs, coalition president, feels the government has turned a deaf ear to the people to save its image on climate change. "They are saying that we should consider nuclear power because of low carbon emissions, and are totally ignoring the fact that radioactive emissions will be just as big a problem in our atmosphere." Though results of the online survey indicated that 55 per cent of respondents were opposed to nuclear, the government has chosen to allow unproven new generation technology to be developed in this province. The report also showed 75 per cent of Albertans are concerned about the health impacts of nuclear and 77 per cent do not want to leave a nuclear waste problem for future generations "

""A LITTLE NUKIE NEVER HURT ANYONE!" read a famous pro-nuclear message on the signboard of a Richland hotel three decades ago, when a trio of nuclear power plants were under construction at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation. Two of the reactor projects, beset by huge cost overruns, were abandoned in the early 1980s. But President Obama is signaling a revival of a technology that once threatened to melt down the economy of the Pacific Northwest. Public support is there -- with serious qualifications, according to a new national Angus Reid poll. The survey found that 48 percent of Americans support building more nuclear plants, with 34 percent opposed and 18 percent not sure. Advocacy of the atom was strongest among Republicans, with 60 percent backing more nukes."

"A new poll shows Entergy Vermont Yankee has lost the trust of a majority of Vermonters. The poll says a radiation leak at the plant has severely eroded public support for the plant to operate after 2012. VPR's John Dillon reports: (Dillon) The poll of 802 Vermont residents was commissioned by the Civil Society Institute, a Massachusetts-based non profit that says it opposes nuclear power. The survey was taken just days before the Senate voted overwhelmingly to block Entergy Vermont Yankee's request for a 20-year license extension. "

"Bats are unlikely to find abandoned uranium mines as desirable places to roost, but if they do, two state agencies have established a procedure for dealing with them. The state Division of Wildlife Resources, which is charged with managing bats in Utah, and the Division of Oil, Gas and Mining (DOGM), which is responsible for reclaiming abandoned mines, have signed an agreement that lays out ways in which DOGM can seal old mines dangerous to people without hurting any bat populations found inside. In cases where surveys find bats living in an abandoned uranium mine, the agreement specifies that the divisions will confer on an acceptable approach, with Wildlife Resources' officials having the final say. In many cases, the agreement will allow Oil, Gas and Mining officials to use grates to keep people out but let bats enter and exit. "