Japanese Restrictions Could Threaten French Reactor Sale to India from GSN Daily News

Japanese restrictions on atomic trade with India could complicate plans for France to construct a new atomic power facility in the South Asian state, the head of the French nuclear firm Areva said yesterday (see GSN, March 13, 2008).
The company's design for the planned two-reactor atomic plant at Jaitapur calls for the use of "extra large forgings" available only from Japan, the Times of India quoted a diplomatic source as saying.
Areva chief operating officer Luc Orsel said the firm could find ways around the complication. However, he still urged India to conclude "a bilateral agreement" with Japan on civilian nuclear trade (see GSN, Nov. 15, 2010)
New Delhi and Tokyo have conducted multiple rounds of talks on a potential atomic trade deal. Japan, though, is said to have mandated Indian nonproliferation assurances considered more substantive than what the nuclear-armed South Asian nation accepted in its 2008 atomic trade deal with the United States. Tokyo wants India to sign the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, according to previous reports.
Japan has also called on New Delhi to join the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, according to the Times (Ashis Ray, Times of India, Jan. 12).

Japan, Turkey sign nuclear plant cooperation deal

Japan forges nuclear-cooperation pact with Turkey
Japan signed a memorandum of understanding with Turkey for the construction of a nuclear plant in Sinop, Turkey, according to Japan's trade ministry. Both countries seek to finalize an agreement within three months, said Japanese Trade Minister Akihiro Ohata and Turkish Energy Minister Taner Yildiz. Reutershttp://af.reuters.com/article/energyOilNews/idAFTOE6BN01C20101224

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Turkey, Japan to ink MOU on nuclear plant this week

Turkey collaborates with Japan, Russia on new nuclear plants
Turkish Energy Minister Taner Yildiz will visit Japan to participate in talks on the proposed construction of a nuclear power plant in Sinop, Turkey, under a new memorandum of understanding on energy cooperation between the two countries. Turkey has also decided to work with Russia on the construction of a reactor in the city of Mersin. Reuters
 http://af.reuters.com/article/energyOilNews/idAFIST00744420101221

Kuwait boosts stake in French nuclear giant Areva

Paris (AFP) Dec 11, 2010 Areva on Saturday approved a 900-million-euro (1.17 billion dollars) capital hike under which the Kuwait Investment Authority will hold nearly five percent stake in the French nuclear giant. The recapitalisation values the strategically important Areva at 11.5 billion euros, of which the Kuwaiti fund (KIA) will now control 4.8 percent.
"The group's supervisory board, meeting today under the chairmanship of Jean-Cyril Spinetta, examined and approved the launch of a reserved capital increase of 900 million euros, representing 7.2 percent of its share capital at the completion of the transaction," a statement said.
It said Kuwait would supply two-thirds of the capital hike and the French state the remaining third at 300 million euros.
Areva said its outlook for 2012 included a revenue of 12 billion euros and "a double-digit operating margin."
The French government holds 93 percent of Areva -- set up in 2001 -- and discussions about attracting other investors, including Qatar and Japan's Mitsubishi, have been underway for some time.
Areva's repeatedly delayed capital increase is aimed at funding its investment plans through to 2012 and had to be concluded by the end of the year.
Talks foundered with Qatar and Mitsubishi, a major player in nuclear power generation, meaning the French state had to contribute 300 million euros to the recapitalisation in order to make the end of year deadline.
Besides building nuclear power plants, Areva last year emerged as the world's largest miner of uranium, offering a complete range of services across the sector from fuel to energy production.

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Mitsubishi to produce nuclear fuel in US with AREVA

http://www.nuclearpowerdaily.com/reports/Mitsubishi_to_produce_nuclear_fuel_in_US_with_AREVA_999.html Tokyo (AFP) Dec 14, 2010 Japan's Mitsubishi Nuclear Fuel Co. said Tuesday it had established a 50-50 venture in the United States with French industrial group AREVA to produce nuclear fuel for pressurised water reactors. The new company, named US Nuclear Fuel and located in AREVA's plant in Richland, Washington state, aims to start production in the second half of this decade, Mitsubishi Nuclear Fuel said in a press release.
Seventy percent of Mitsubishi Nuclear Fuel is owned by the Mitsubishi group and 30 percent by AREVA.
US Nuclear Fuel will produce fuel for advanced pressurised water reactors to be supplied by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries to nuclear power plants in the United States, the statement said.

Japan, S.Korea seal civilian nuclear pact

Japan, S.Korea seal civilian nuclear pact
http://www.nuclearpowerdaily.com/reports/Japan_SKorea_seal_civilian_nuclear_pact_999.html Tokyo (AFP) Dec 20, 2010 Japan and South Korea sealed a civilian nuclear pact on Monday, paving the way for the Asian neighbours to share nuclear-power technologies and equipment, Japan's foreign ministry said. Foreign Minister Seiji Maehara and South Korean ambassador to Japan Kwon Chul-Hyun signed the agreement in Tokyo, the ministry said in a statement.
"Japan and South Korea are good partners to promote peaceful use of nuclear power while ensuring nuclear non-proliferation, nuclear energy safety and security," Maehara told the ambassador, quoted in the statement.
Japan and South Korea have been rivals in international biddings for nuclear power plants in emerging nations.
In October Japan secured a contract for building two nuclear reactors in Vietnam while South Korea won a deal in December to build four reactors in the United Arab Emirates.
But under the pact, which will take effect after parliaments of both countries endorse it, mainly Japanese firms with a longer history of developing nuclear power plants are expected to start exporting technologies and equipment to South Korea.
Japan, which was eclipsed this year by China as Asia's biggest economy and has a shrinking population because of its low birth rate, is searching for new markets to export infrastructure technologies, including power plants.
Japan has concluded a bilateral nuclear energy pact with six countries and the European Union while South Korea has a similar deal with 14 states, the Japanese foreign ministry said.

University of Tokyo and IAEA Join Forces to Improve Nuclear Science Education

University of Tokyo and IAEA Join Forces to Improve Nuclear Science Education

from IAEA Top News RSS Feed

The IAEA and the University of Tokyo in Japan signed an agreement in Vienna, formalising their decision to work together to enhance nuclear engineering and management research, education and training.

Mitsubishi to produce nuclear fuel in US with AREVA

http://www.nuclearpowerdaily.com/reports/Mitsubishi_to_produce_nuclear_fuel_in_US_with_AREVA_999.html Tokyo (AFP) Dec 14, 2010 Japan's Mitsubishi Nuclear Fuel Co. said Tuesday it had established a 50-50 venture in the United States with French industrial group AREVA to produce nuclear fuel for pressurised water reactors. The new company, named US Nuclear Fuel and located in AREVA's plant in Richland, Washington state, aims to start production in the second half of this decade, Mitsubishi Nuclear Fuel said in a press release.
Seventy percent of Mitsubishi Nuclear Fuel is owned by the Mitsubishi group and 30 percent by AREVA.
US Nuclear Fuel will produce fuel for advanced pressurised water reactors to be supplied by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries to nuclear power plants in the United States, the statement said.
earlier related report

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Was Obama’s Asian tour a formation of a new nuclear alliance? Analysis by Hasbullah Shafi'iy

The glaring geopolitical significance of Obama’s well-planned strategic Asian tour last month has been deliberately or otherwise ignored by the mainstream media. India, Indonesia, South Korea and Japan. It cannot be by coincidence that these nations are encircling China (which has nuclear weapons) and secondly that they are all connected to a larger picture of nuclear alliances that are being formed. India is a nuclear power directly facing Pakistan, which is the only Muslim nation in the world that has nuclear weapons. Indonesia is the largest Muslim nation with strong ties with Pakistan and Iran. South Korea faces North Korea, which has nuclear weapons. North Korea is not only a strong political as well as military ally of Iran, but also strong bilateral trade ties with China too; and Japan is situated next to both North Korea and China and is crucial to the containment policy against Russia, which is a nuclear power as well. Has the United States begun a containment policy for China as well?

Sahara desert project aims to power half the world by 2050

Sahara desert project aims to power half the world by 2050

December 2, 2010 by Lin Edwards Enlarge

Image credit: Diginfo TV

(PhysOrg.com) -- A joint project by universities in Algeria and Japan is planning to turn the Sahara desert, the largest desert in the world, into a breeding ground for solar power plants that could supply half the world’s electrical energy requirements by 2050.http://www.physorg.com/news/2010-12-sahara-aims-power-world.html

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Geopolitical Briefing: Japan's nuclear industry

We have published a new members-only Geopolitical
Briefing, entitled "Critical Decisions Looming for
Japan's Nuclear Industry".

Link:
http://globalintelligencereport.com/articles/critical-decisions-looming-for-japan-nuclear-industry

Summary:
Japan is advancing with plans to reprocess spent
nuclear fuel and boost its external nuclear exports.
These decisions will impact the conduct of Japan’s
global non-proliferation diplomacy.

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Sahara desert project aims to power half the world by 2050

Image via Wikipedia PhysOrg.com) -- A joint project by universities in Algeria and Japan is planning to turn the Sahara desert, the largest desert in the world, into a breeding ground for solar power plants that could supply half the world’s electrical energy requirements by 2050.
http://www.physorg.com/news/2010-12-sahara-aims-power-world.html

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China Should Remain Prudent in Its Nuclear Fuel Path Mark Hibbs Nuclear Energy Brief, November 22, 2010

1 2 3 4 5 6

Aspiring to be a global leader in nuclear power generation by mid-century, China is on the verge of investment decisions that could commit the country to fuel its rapidly growing fleet of nuclear power reactors with plutonium. Should China soon take major and possibly irreversible steps to go that route, the domestic, regional, and global impact of its actions will be profound.
Key Chinese nuclear energy organizations aim to build a series of large fast breeder reactors (FBRs) fueled by plutonium that would be supplied by a commercial-scale spent fuel reprocessing complex. If these projects move forward as their advocates intend, China’s nuclear energy ambitions would match those of Japan and major European nuclear energy-generating countries in fueling reactors with both low-enriched uranium and plutonium. The uranium poses few economic, security, and proliferation challenges. The plutonium, however, does.
Four decades ago, Japan and Europe set out on a similar path that eventually failed to demonstrate commercial viability of plutonium fast breeder programs for reasons of cost, technology, proliferation risk, safety challenges, and political acceptance. Thereafter, reprocessing in Japan and Europe was mostly driven by the need for a short-term solution to the lack of storage space for spent fuel from light water reactors (LWRs). Where storage space for spent fuel has not been an issue, including in the United States, commercial nuclear power programs have opted not to reprocess spent fuel and recycle plutonium.
Although China has thus far moved very cautiously in implementing a nuclear fuel cycle strategy, moving too quickly down its forecasted path could have detrimental effects. It’s unwise for China to commit itself to a rapid deployment of plutonium reactors and premature establishment of commercial-scale reprocessing, as that would burden China’s young nuclear power program with additional safety, security, and proliferation challenges and could prove unnecessarily costly to China.
Much more at: 
http://carnegieendowment.org/publications/index.cfm?fa=view&id=41969

A US-South Korea Nuclear Pact from AsiaSentinel

A stronger, more modern South Korea needs to modify its reprocessing spent fuel pact

 

A stronger, more modern South Korea needs to modify its reprocessing spent fuel pact

It appears, in the wake of US President Barack Obama's visit to South Korea last week that the US still has reservations about allowing Seoul to reprocess spent plutonium for industrial uses, partly because of Japan's concerns, having been the only country that has had a bomb dropped on it, and because of the dilemma of the outlaw nuclear program in North Korea.

The decades-old atomic agreement between South Korea and the US – signed when South Korea's economy was about the size of North Korea's today – is to expire in March 2014. Under the terms of the agreement, Seoul is barred from reprocessing used plutonium or enriching uranium – two processes that in addition to creating nuclear fuel can be used to produce fissile material for a weapon.

There is a basic perception in Seoul that the ROK-US nuclear energy agreement, outdated as it is, must be revised to embrace industrial demands of nuclear energy as well as an enhanced role for South Korea in the world. The pact was initially signed in 1972 and revised in 1974 in the height of the cold war.

But beyond the idea of increased demands for nuclear power, any consensus is unlikely to be made because of a sharp difference of perspectives over whether it's appropriate to allow Seoul to reprocess and enrich spent fuel which could make the development of nuclear weapons possible, if not impossible in theory. More at:

 

http://www.asiasentinel.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2826&Itemid=182

Areva head says Mitsubishi Heavy might buy small stake

Image via WikipediaJapanese group Mitsubishi Heavy Industries

could buy 2.0 percent of French nuclear engineering group Areva, marking a "strong symbolic" move, head of Areva Anne Lauvergeon said on Friday. Lauvergeon told French BFM radio: "If they take a small shareholding in Areva of about 2.0 percent, that would be something symbolically strong for future alliances."
But this outlook was not at all on the scale of the links between French auto group Renault and Nissan of Japan, she said.
Areva, a world leader in building nuclear power stations, which is controlled by the French state, announced in June last year that it would open up 15 percent of its capital.
In July this year the French presidential office said that this would happen by the end of 2010.
Sovereign wealth funds in Qatar and Kuwait, and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries have been mentioned as likely shareholders.
On Thursday, Patrick Kron, head of the French industrial group Alstom which also builds power stations, said that he saw any entry of MHI into Areva as seriously problematic because the Japanese company was a direct competitor for Alstom.
Lauvergeon acknowledged that Alstom and MHI competed in building turbines, but played down the impact of any shareholder agreement for sales of turbines by Alstom.http://www.nuclearpowerdaily.com/reports/Areva_head_says_Mitsubishi_Heavy_might_buy_small_stake_999.html

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Japan, U.S. to Promote Nuclear Security from GSN Daily News

Japan and the United States plan to organize a bilateral working group to help prevent an act of nuclear terrorism, Kyodo News reported Saturday (see GSN, Nov. 3).
This would be the allies first group on nuclear security. It is expected to be formalized Friday during a visit to Japan by President Obama.
Japan possesses the most sophisticated antiproliferation technology on earth, according to Kyodo News. Its involvement on the issue would strengthen efforts to prepare a worldwide nuclear security posture leading to the follow-up to the April nuclear security summit in Washington. That event is now set for 2012 in South Korea, sources said.
The working group would be assigned to identify and export operational means for preventing terrorists from acquiring nuclear materials that could be used in weapons, Kyodo reported. It would also work to boost collaboration on nuclear forensics (see GSN, Aug. 10).
Working group participants would include high-level officials from the Japanese Science and Foreign ministries and the U.S. Homeland Security, Energy and State departments, along with other agencies (Kyodo News/Breitbart.com, Nov. 6).
http://gsn.nti.org/gsn/nw_20101108_9136.php

No signs of N.Korea nuclear processing: US envoy

Tokyo (AFP) Nov 6, 2010 There are no signs North Korea has resumed nuclear activity at the site where it previously produced weapons-grade plutonium, a former US envoy was quoted as saying Saturday after a trip to the country. Charles Pritchard, former top negotiator with North Korea, was quoted as saying that the Yongbyon complex -- where the isolated state processed plutonium for past nuclear tests -- did not appear to be in operation.
"My reaction is that the reactor, the 5-megawatt reactor, remains shut down, the cooling tower is still destroyed," Pritchard told reporters after a five-day trip to North Korea, Japan's Kyodo news agency reported.
"So at this point, I don't believe there is any additional reprocessing or anything going on" at the reactor, the former top US negotiator with Pyongyang said at a Beijing airport, according to Kyodo.

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Scarcity Of New Energy Minerals Will Trigger Trade Wars

China supplies the world with a lot of those rare earth elements, like neodymium, and will have little or none to export if it moves ahead with its wind power plans.

http://www.energy-daily.com/reports/Scarcity_Of_New_Energy_Minerals_Will_Trigger_Trade_Wars_999.html Boulder CO (SPX) Nov 04, 2010 It's not hard to argue in favor of alternatives to fossil fuels these days, but one popular argument - domestic energy security - may be standing on very shaky legs. A lot of rare metals are needed to make photovoltaic panels, rare earth magnets for wind generators, fuel cells and high-capacity batteries for hybrid and electric vehicles. But most industrialized nations, including the United States, are almost entirely dependent on foreign sources for those metals. The only way this is going to change is if there is more domestic exploration and mining.
"There's a misunderstanding in the public about moving to alternative energy and moving from mining, which can't be done," said James Burnell of the Colorado Geological Survey.
There is a long list of scarce metals needed for alternative energy and transportation. Metals like gallium, indium, selenium, tellurium, and high purity silicon are needed to make photovoltaic panels.
To make batteries there's zinc, vanadium, lithium and rare earth elements as well as platinum group minerals for fuel cell-powered vehicles. One of the biggest players in the scarce metals game is China, and they are starting to play hard ball, says Burnell.
China is preparing to build 330 giga-watts worth of wind generators. That will require about 59,000 tons of neodymium to make high-strength magnets - more than that country's annual output of neodymium.
China supplies the world with a lot of those rare earth elements, like neodymium, and will have little or none to export if it moves ahead with its wind power plans.
"So the source for the West is problematical," said Burnell. Trade wars are on the horizon, he predicted. Yet policy makers and the public seem only superficially aware of the problem.
"It is obvious that Japan was upset by the practical pause of rare earth export by China in late September," said Yasushi Watanabe of the Institute for Geo-Resources and Environment in Tsukuba, Japan.
New sources of these critical metals are needed, said Watanabe, as well as new methods for extracting the rare elements from different kinds of rocks.
"Extraction methods of metals from new minerals and materials are not well established," said Watanabe. "We need to develop new (refining) and smelting methods for new type ores."
We also need to find those ores and start exploiting them, said Burnell. That means more mining. It's the only way we can stay competitive in the new energy future.

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Vietnam to give Japan deal for nuclear reactors: report

Hanoi (AFP) Oct 30, 2010 - Hanoi has decided to give Japan contracts to build two nuclear reactors, a Japanese report said, while Russia is expected to sign a deal already announced for Vietnam's first nuclear energy plant. The communist country wants to build eight nuclear plants in the next two decades. Initial government plans call for four reactors, with a total capacity of 4,000 megawatts and at least one of them ... more
http://www.nuclearpowerdaily.com/reports/Vietnam_to_give_Japan_deal_for_nuclear_reactors_report_999.html

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A Successful U.S.-Japan Missile - Defense Test

Photo: In this image provided by the U.S. Missile Defense Agency a Standard Missile – 3 is launched Thursday from the Japanese destroyer JS Kirishima in a joint missile defense intercept test with the Missile Defense Agency in the mid-Pacific. The U.S. and Japanese militaries said Thursday the JS Kirishima fired an interceptor missile that shot down a separating medium-range missile target about 100 miles above the Pacific Ocean. U.S. Missile Defense Agency/The Associated Press

U.S. And Japan Stage Successful Missile - Defense Test -- New York Times/Reuters

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A Japanese naval destroyer equipped with a Lockheed Martin Corp Aegis ballistic missile defence system carried out a successful flight-intercept test on Thursday in a "milestone" of growing cooperation, Japanese and U.S. forces announced.

The test focussed attention on mounting U.S. missile defence ties with Tokyo even as Washington urges its NATO allies to join in a NATO-wide shield prompted largely by concerns over Iran.

Japan's interest in missile shields jumped in August 1998 when North Korea test-fired a Taepo Dong-1 ballistic missile that flew over Japan before falling in the Pacific.

Read more ....

http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2010/10/29/world/international-uk-japan-usa-missile.html?_r=2&ref=world

Japan Tests SM-3 Ballistic Missile Interceptor 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Ne6FRVbqR8M

More News On Yesterday's Successful Missile Defense Test

Japan tests U.S.-made ABM system -- UPI
Japan carries out successful missile-defense test -- Stars And Stripes
Japanese Warship Intercepts Missile in Test -- Global Security Newswire
Raytheon interceptor destroys another ballistic missile -- Seattle PI
Orbital Successfully Launches Medium Range Target for Joint U.S./Japan Missile Defense Test -- Market Watch
Japanese destroyer shoots down mid-range ballistic missile in test off Hawaii -- Canadian Press/AP

 

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