"A much-awaited report on France's nuclear industry - due out later this week - is understood to offer ways for France's diverse nuclear industry to work together to garner big contracts around the globe.
It may succeed. That is, if the government can use it to end, or at least calm, a complex of feuds among the heads of France's biggest energy companies.
The stakes are high. Clean nuclear power is enjoying a renaissance and France is home to some of the world's largest players in the nuclear industry. Indeed, it is president Nicolas Sarkozy's dream to streamline the nuclear power sector, from design to operation, working as a team to win high profile contracts around the world."
"Mordechai Vanunu, released in 2004 after 18 years in prison for leaking Israeli nuclear secrets, will serve another three months behind bars after refusing to carry out community service, a court ruled on Tuesday.
A panel of High Court Judges returned the 56-year-old Moroccan-born Israeli to jail after he failed to fulfill a community service order, punishment for breaching his parole terms by contacting foreigners without authorization.
The former nuclear technician had asked to be assigned community duties in Arab-majority East Jerusalem after claiming he risked attack by angry Israelis, many of whom see him as a traitor, in the city's Jewish-populated west. "
"It is, in the words of the Danish filmmaker Michael Madsen, "a place we must remember to forget."
On a wooded island more than a hundred miles northwest of Helsinki, in the town of Eurajoki, Finnish engineers are digging a tunnel. When it is done 10 years from now, it will corkscrew three miles in and 1,600 feet down into crystalline gneiss bedrock that has been the foundation of Finland for 1.8 billion years.
And there, in a darkness that is still being created, the used fuel rods from Finland's nuclear reactors - full of radioactive elements from the periodic table as dreamed up by Lord Voldemort, spitting neutrons and gamma rays - are to be sealed away forever, or at least 100,000 years. "
"On The Simpsons, the effects of nuclear contamination are conspicuous and comedic. In nature, though, they're often subtle - and sometimes strangely beautiful. Scientific illustrator Cornelia Hesse-Honegger details these minute mutations in the so-called true bugs she collects near nuclear facilities and areas of chemical contamination. True bugs don't travel far, and they "suck the liquid from the plants they live on," she says. "So if the plant is contaminated, they take a lot of radioactivity into their bodies."
Conventional wisdom holds that nuclear power stations don't leak enough radiation to create malformed organisms. But in some locations, Hesse-Honegger discovered mutations - curtailed feelers, misshapen legs, asymmetrical wings - in as many as 30 percent of the bugs she gathered. That's 10 times the overall rate of about 3 percent for insects found in the wild. "For me, the mutated bugs were like prototypes of a future nature," she says. A selection of Hesse-Honegger's work will be shown this fall in Berlin."
"The Liberal Democrats have thrown overboard one of their most distinctive election pledges and will not stand in the way of a new generation of nuclear power stations, the new energy minister, Chris Huhne, made clear today.
The Lib Dem MP, who had previously described atomic power as a "failed technology", said the new coalition government with the Conservatives believed a new construction programme could go ahead as long as it was done without financial support from the state."
"Secret South African documents reveal that Israel offered to sell nuclear warheads to the apartheid regime, providing the first official documentary evidence of the state's possession of nuclear weapons.
The "top secret" minutes of meetings between senior officials from the two countries in 1975 show that South Africa's defence minister, PW Botha, asked for the warheads and Shimon Peres, then Israel's defence minister and now its president, responded by offering them "in three sizes"."
"Documents reveal how then-defence minister Shimon Perez tried to sell South Africa's apartheid government the bomb
Israel documents: Cover page of memo revealing secret nuclear agreement with South Africa
This cover page of an ISSA (ISrael-South Africa agreement) meeting in Pretoria between Israeli and South African officials on 30 June 1975 establishes the presence of General RF Armstrong, who wrote the nuclear memo.
* Minutes of third ISSA meeting, 30/6/1975
Israel documents: Memo showing secret nuclear agreement with South Africa
This document details the another ISSA meeting during which Botha says he needs the 'right payload' and Peres offers it in 'three sizes' (paragraph 10). "
"The Ministry of Defence is struggling to deal with hundreds of safety blunders, pollution leaks and environmental lapses at nuclear weapons bases on the Firth of Clyde.
Official reports obtained by the Sunday Herald reveal that Faslane and Coulport have been plagued by nuclear accidents, radioactive contamination and fires over the last two years.
Worryingly, there have been unspecified "shortfalls" in the safe management of nuclear bombs. And rules meant to protect people against asbestos and even Legionnaires' disease have been frequently broken."
"Centrica and E.ON lobby Liberal Democrat energy secretary to commit government to £30bn nuclear newbuild programme
Leaders of the nuclear industry have sought urgent meetings with the new energy secretary, Chris Huhne, amid concern that he will not provide the support needed for their £30bn investment programme in a new generation of reactors.
Sam Laidlaw, Centrica's chief executive, and Paul Golby, head of E.ON UK, have scheduled talks in the coming days with Huhne, who has strongly indicated that his primary focus is renewable power."
"An association based in Switzerland is helping its European neighbours in their search for a good place to dump nuclear waste.
Ten nations have enlisted the aid of Baden-based Arius, or Association for Regional and International Underground Storage. They hope to consolidate their radioactive waste within a single location.
The countries in question include Austria, Ireland, Italy and seven others - but not Switzerland. In 2006, the federal government enacted a ten-year moratorium on the export of nuclear waste - the storage of which is the producers' responsibility."
"Nearly 200 nations, signatories of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), have agreed to work towards a nuclear-weapons-free zone in the Middle East.
The members, meeting at the UN in New York, called for a conference in 2012 attended by Middle Eastern states - including Iran - to establish the zone.
The unanimously agreed document also said that Israel should sign the NPT. "
"The National Assembly approved the $11 billion plan to build two nuclear power plants (NPP) on the coast of Ninh Thuan province late in 2009. Ninh Thuan NPP1 will be built in Phuoc Đinh commune and NPP2 in adjacent Vinh Hai commune. Thousands of families will have to move to make room for these plants.
The local people don't protest the project itself, and no longer worry about living near nuclear power plants. They are prepared for the move. Six sites for resettlement have been suggested but the local government and local people have not reached agreement which should be chosen."
"Survivors of the 1945 atomic bombings met a wall of indifference from ordinary Americans and the U.S. media after traveling to New York to lobby a major U.N. nuclear nonproliferation conference for an end to nuclear weapons.
About 2,000 Japanese, including 100 hibakusha from Hiroshima and Nagasaki, took part in demonstrations before the opening of the 26-day Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty review conference on May 3.
But the campaigners said there was little interest in their calls for an immediate ban on nuclear weapons, from either ordinary Americans or the U.S. media. "
"A leading Russian expert on North Korea said on Thursday he had serious doubts about Pyongyang's involvement into the sinking of South Korea's Cheonan warship.
Relations between the two Koreas soured after Seoul accused North Korea of firing a torpedo from a submarine at the 1,200-ton South Korean Cheonan corvette. The vessel sank near the disputed Northern Limit Line in the Yellow Sea on March 26 causing the loss of 46 lives.
"I personally have serous doubts that it was North Korea that sank the ship. Why do this? For what purpose?... I don't see any logic," said Konstantin Pulikovsky, who maintained official contacts with Pyongyang while serving as presidential envoy to Russia's Far East in 2000-2005."
"Gov. Brad Henry has vetoed a bill that would have eased restrictions on nuclear power in Oklahoma.
Henry vetoed Senate Bill 2129 on Monday, saying the bill would "authorize actions that could serve as incentives for the construction of a nuclear power plant."
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The bill would have removed from law a prohibition against the Oklahoma Municipal Power Authority owning an interest in a nuclear generating plant. "
"Israel's President Shimon Peres has denied a report which claims there was an alleged nuclear pact between Israel and apartheid South Africa.
Documents to be published in a new book show Israel agreed to give South Africa nuclear weapons in 1975, the Guardian newspaper has reported.
Mr Peres was Israel's defence minister at the time and was named in the Guardian article. "
Japan is racing to gain control of the crisis at the Fukushima nuclear power plan. Where does the most detailed data come from? Updated daily
The 9.0 magnitude earthquake and following tsunami last week has seen Japan struggle as it battles to control the nuclear meltdown of power plants in the north-east of the country.
Fukushima nuclear power plant in particular has been closely scrutinised as reports flow in on the progress of the plant - Japan's nuclear board raised the nuclear alert level from four to five last week and the latest update this afternoon warns of products such as dairy and spinach being restricted for shipping. Explosions and reports of nuclear fuel rods melting at the power plant have meant progress on the situation has been closely followed.
Even before its first Alamogordo test, the atomic bomb was the highest-stakes game around. It still is. At the July 1945 Potsdam Conference, President Harry Truman followed a careful plan to tell Soviet dictator Josef Stalin.
In "Red Cloud at Dawn," Princeton University history professor Michael D. Gordin quotes Truman's interpreter, Charles "Chip" Bohlen, who watched out of earshot: "Truman said he would stroll over to Stalin and nonchalantly inform him. He instructed me not to accompany him . . . because he did not want to indicate there was anything particularly momentous" about it. "So it was . . . the Russian interpreter who translated.
Even before its first Alamogordo test, the atomic bomb was the highest-stakes game around. It still is. At the July 1945 Potsdam Conference, President Harry Truman followed a careful plan to tell Soviet dictator Josef Stalin.
In "Red Cloud at Dawn," Princeton University history professor Michael D. Gordin quotes Truman's interpreter, Charles "Chip" Bohlen, who watched out of earshot: "Truman said he would stroll over to Stalin and nonchalantly inform him. He instructed me not to accompany him . . . because he did not want to indicate there was anything particularly momentous" about it. "So it was . . . the Russian interpreter who translated.
Nuclear waste from France has been sent to Siberia for storage. According to news reports, over 100 tons of uranium were transported to Seversk. France's ecology minister has called for an investigation into the case.
According to the French daily newspaper Liberation and Franco-German television broadcaster Arte, France's electricity company EDF has sent 108 tons of uranium to Siberia since the mid-1990s. About 13 percent of France's nuclear waste is stored in open-air parking lots near a nuclear plant in Seversk, said reports on Monday.
EDF said it sends uranium left over from nuclear plant production in France to Russia to be treated so that it can be used again.
Nuclear waste from France has been sent to Siberia for storage. According to news reports, over 100 tons of uranium were transported to Seversk. France's ecology minister has called for an investigation into the case.
According to the French daily newspaper Liberation and Franco-German television broadcaster Arte, France's electricity company EDF has sent 108 tons of uranium to Siberia since the mid-1990s. About 13 percent of France's nuclear waste is stored in open-air parking lots near a nuclear plant in Seversk, said reports on Monday.
EDF said it sends uranium left over from nuclear plant production in France to Russia to be treated so that it can be used again.
Powerful Rep. Edward Markey, D-Mass., praises many Italian imports: Ferrari cars, Armani suits and delicious prosciutto ham.
But when it comes to importing Italian low-level radioactive waste to Utah, he winced and exclaimed Friday, "It makes me say, 'Mama mia!' "
Markey chaired a House Energy and Commerce subcommittee hearing on a bill co-sponsored by Rep. Jim Matheson, D-Utah, to ban shipment of such foreign waste to America. Witnesses from all sides of the issue said action by Congress may be the only way to stop it, if recent court rulings hold.
Powerful Rep. Edward Markey, D-Mass., praises many Italian imports: Ferrari cars, Armani suits and delicious prosciutto ham.
But when it comes to importing Italian low-level radioactive waste to Utah, he winced and exclaimed Friday, "It makes me say, 'Mama mia!' "
Markey chaired a House Energy and Commerce subcommittee hearing on a bill co-sponsored by Rep. Jim Matheson, D-Utah, to ban shipment of such foreign waste to America. Witnesses from all sides of the issue said action by Congress may be the only way to stop it, if recent court rulings hold.
