nuke.news

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.

The Department of Energy's long-stated plan to shut down its Oak Ridge incinerator at the end of September has been put on hold -- at least for another month and a half. According to Dennis Hill, a spokesman for Bechtel Jacobs Co., efforts to burn the remaining inventory of hazardous waste got delayed, in part, because some of the last liquid-waste shipments contained higher-than-expected quantities of mercury. That meant the waste had to be burned at a slower rate to meet the incinerator's emissions requirements, Hill said. "The higher concentration waste is incinerated at lower rates to meet emission limits and, therefore, requires additional time to incinerate," Hill said. "We also are conducting tank rinse and closure activities at the same time.''

NNSA and USEC announced the same milestone in very different ways today, both saying 375 metric tons of Russia's highly enriched had been eliminated under the nonproliferation program that was initiated in 1993. The program, sometimes referenced as Metagons to Megawatts, has converted the weapons-grade material -- enough to reportedly make 15,000 nuclear weapons -- to a low-enriched material of use for nuclear reactor fuel. The milestone is 75 percent of the 500 metric tons targeted for elimination by 2013. In a statement, NNSA Administrator Tom D'Agostino said, "The continued success of this important bilateral agreement demonstrates the enduring U.S.-Russian commitment to the safe and irreversible elimination of excess fissile materials, as recently reaffirmed by Presidents Obama and Medvedev in Moscow. This milestone puts us one step closer to accomplishing the President's goal of securing or eliminating weapons-usable nuclear materials worldwide." USEC, which purchases the low-enriched material as part of the program and supplies it to customers, said it had paid the Russian Federatlon more than $5.6 billion since 1995.

As the nuclear industry prepares to ramp up construction nationwide, Indiana legislators considered Tuesday whether to allow utilities to recoup some project costs from customers years before a reactor is in operation. House and Senate members heard testimony about an incentive known as "construction work in progress," whereby utilities can charge ratepayers for interest costs on the overall project from the beginning. When a plant is up and running, the utility can start recovering the actual construction costs though the existing regulatory structure.

The NRC held a two day workshop on a proposed change in the low-level waste disposal regulation, 10 CFR 61.55, to accommodate large amounts of depleted uranium (DU) from uranium enrichment plants and other "unique" waste streams. I participated in this workshop, at the invitation of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). The proceedings were transcribed. The transcript and slide presentations have been posted on the NRC's website.

My guest for this week is Arjun Makhijani, author of Carbon-Free and Nuclear Free: A Roadmap for U.S. Energy Policy. MP3 Download

This time around, U.S. Senate skeptics who killed the nuclear test-ban treaty a decade ago must take into account a new, $1-billion verification network underpinning the pact, the treaty chief said Wednesday. In 1999, "the system was a blueprint," Tibor Toth said of the high-tech web of stations on alert for nuclear bomb tests. Now "I could call it a `verification Manhattan Project," he said, referring to the all-out U.S. program that built the first bombs in the 1940s. Toth, who heads the U.N.-affiliated Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty Organization, spoke with The Associated Press on the eve of a conference of some 150 nations convened every other year to urge those that have not ratified the treaty, including the United States, to do so. The two-day session will be held in parallel Thursday with a summit of the 15 U.N. Security Council members on the subject of nuclear nonproliferation, presided over by U.S. President Barack Obama.

More than 120 world leaders meet Wednesday on the heels of a climate change summit to tackle other crucial issues on the international agenda from terrorism and the spread of nuclear weapons to growing poverty resulting from the global financial crisis. "Amid many crises - food, energy, recession and pandemic flu, hitting all at once - the world looks to us for answers," U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said in prepared remarks for the opening of the General Assembly's 64th ministerial session. "If ever there were a time to act in a spirit of renewed multilateralism, a moment to create a United Nations of genuine collective action, it is now."

MP Tim Farron will call for Sellafield's compensation scheme for radiation-linked diseases to be extended to the wider population. The nuclear industry scheme to compensate workers or their dependents for diseases which may be radiation-linked was set up by BNFL and the unions at Sellafield in 1982. Compensation is paid on a balance of possibilities (20 per cent and over) that a cancer may have been induced by occupational exposure to radiation. A total of £6.2m has so far been paid out. Many of the cases were linked to Sellafield, but the scheme has now been widened to include all nuclear radiation workers. Radiation Free Lakeland is calling for the scheme to be extended to the wider population - within at least a 5km radius of Sellafield. Mr Farron, the Liberal Democrat MP for Westmorland and Lonsdale, will ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change if he will bring forward proposals to extend the scheme for radiation-linked diseases.

In 2008, the KiKK study in Germany reported a 1.6-fold increase in all cancers and a 2.2-fold increase in leukemias, among children living within 5 km of all German nuclear power stations. The study has triggered debates as to the cause(s) of these increased cancers. This article reports on the findings of the KiKK study; discusses past and more recent epidemiological studies of leukemias near nuclear installations around the world, and outlines a possible biological mechanism to explain the increased cancers. This suggests that the observed high rates of infant leukemias may be a teratogenic effect from incorporated radionuclides. Doses from environmental emissions from nuclear reactors to embryos/fetuses in pregnant women near nuclear power stations may be larger than suspected and hematopoietic tissues may be considerably more radiosensitive in embryos/fetuses than in newborn babies. The commentary concludes with recommendations for further research.

EDF is leading the drive to build the next generation of nuclear reactors in Britain According to a report by The Times Online, EDF, the heavily indebted French power group, is close to agreeing a big asset swap with E.ON, its German rival, but it played down reports recently that it was also considering the sale of a 20 percent stake in British Energy, the UK's nuclear generator. EDF, which is leading the drive to build the next generation of nuclear reactors in Britain, has begun a sweeping review of its businesses as it aims to cut its €37 billion (£33.5 billion) debt pile. In May, EDF sold a 20 per cent stake in British Energy, which it bought only a year ago, to Centrica, the British Gas owner, for €2.5 billion. Officials have denied a report in La Tribune that EDF was considering selling a further 20 percent stake in the company to help to fund its plans to build four nuclear reactors in Britain by 2025 however, they did not rule out the possibility.

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.

Italy's plan to increase nuclear power may cost 40 billion euros ($59 billion,) Enel SpA Chief Executive Officer Fulvio Conti told daily Il Sole 24 Ore. Italy will probably need about eight reactors that will cost as much as 5 billion euros each, Conti said, according to the newspaper. Italy, which has the highest electricity prices in the European Union, has been looking for ways to cut power costs and reduce greenhouse-gas emissions. Italians voted to shutter the country's nuclear power plants in a 1987 referendum following the Chernobyl power-plant accident in the former Soviet Union. Enel may invest an additional $1.3 billion over the next three to four years in the U.S., where the utility has invested in renewable energy projects, Conti told the newspaper.

Angela Seidler, a 41-year-old tour guide at E.ON AG's Grafenrheinfeld nuclear-power plant in southern Germany, may have to find a new career before she retires. "There are about six years of work" until the plant reaches a government-mandated production limit, Seidler said. After that, she said, "it's over for Grafenrheinfeld" -- unless voters grant a reprieve in Sept. 27 elections. Seidler works at one of Germany's 17 nuclear plants, which require an extension to operate beyond deadlines imposed in 2002 by Chancellor Angela Merkel's Social Democratic predecessor, Gerhard Schroeder. They won't get it unless Merkel, who wants to keep them open, wins the majority she needs to ditch her current coalition with the Social Democrats.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel is seeking re-election in a federal vote on Sunday and polls give her conservatives a solid lead over their coalition partners and rivals, the Social Democrats (SPD). Merkel hopes to form a coalition with the business-friendly Free Democrats (FDP), and voter surveys give her just enough support for such a centre-right alliance. However, other ruling partnerships are possible, including a second "grand coalition", grouping Merkel's Christian Democrats (CDU) and the Bavarian Christian Social Union (CSU) and the SPD. Below are the most various coalition scenarios and how they would likely affect German energy policy:

Italy will hold talks with the Obama administration and Westinghouse next week on opening its nuclear power market to US technology following concerns raised by Washington that the revival of the Italian nuclear industry after a two-decade moratorium will be dominated by France's EDF. Italian and US officials said Claudio Scajola, minister for economic development, and Steven Chu, US energy secretary, would sign an agreement in Washington next Tuesday on research and development of nuclear technology and issue a joint declaration on industrial co-operation in nuclear power. Mr Scajola will then visit the Beaver Valley nuclear plant built by Westinghouse in Pennsylvania which started operating in 1976. Japan's Toshiba bought Westinghouse in 2006.

Belgium could raise between 500 million euros ($740 million) and 1 billion per year by extending the life of its nuclear power stations, business daily De Tijd reported on Wednesday. The money would come primarily from dominant electricity player Electrabel, the Belgian arm of French utility GDF Suez (GSZ.PA). De Tijd said Energy Minister Paul Magnette would soon be submitting to the government a report that concludes Belgium cannot meet its energy needs without nuclear power. The country plans to shut its three oldest reactors in 2015 and the remaining four by 2023.

Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit called on the UN Security Council to monitor the Israeli nuclear program, and to further order Mideast countries to strip of nuclear arms, Egyptian daily al-Masri al-Youm reported. "Israel's nuclear capabilities cannto evade world attention," Gheit said in a letter sent to the 15 nation members of the Security Council.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission grappled with the hot topic of long-term solutions to the storage of depleted uranium and tried to steer clear of the burning issue closer to home - EnergySolutions' pending arrival of tons of the stuff. Shipments of 10,800 metric tons of depleted uranium are on line to be disposed of at the company's Clive facility in Tooele County after a contract was inked with the U.S. Department of Energy this summer. An official from that agency cautioned participants in a public workshop Wednesday in Salt Lake City that any analysis performed so far on what storage conditions should be imposed was not done specific to Clive.

Work has started to make Hanford's massive landfill for low-level radioactive waste even larger. Improvements also are being made to help the landfill, the Environmental Restoration Disposal Facility, or ERDF, keep up with the accelerated pace of environmental cleanup at the nuclear reservation. Cleanup work at Hanford is increasing with the infusion of $1.96 billion in federal economic stimulus money. With more cleanup work comes the need for more waste disposal capacity, so the stimulus funding includes about $100 million for work at ERDF. "The pace of cleanup at Hanford is totally linked to the capabilities of ERDF," said Dave Einan, an environmental engineer for the Environmental Protection Agency, which regulates the Department of Energy project.