Philippines and Vietnam Future Nuclear Energy Plans and Deals

http://nextbigfuture.com/2010/11/philippines-and-vietnam-future-nuclear.html

David Leblanc explains why Thorium reactors need a lot less fissile nuclear material to start and for ongoing operation

http://nextbigfuture.com/2010/11/david-leblanc-explains-why-thorium.html

Russia, Qatar to cooperate in nuclear field

Russia in nuclear deal with Qatar
Russia's state-run Rosatom and Qatar's Ministry for the Environment have entered into an agreement covering the use of nuclear energy for various areas, including medicine, radioisotope production and research reactors. Voice of Russiahttp://english.ruvr.ru/2010/11/02/31082429.html

EU’s Oettinger Wants Plans for Nuclear Waste Storage, Welt Says

European Union Energy Commissioner Guenther Oettinger wants EU countries with nuclear power plants to submit plans to the regulator for how they will manage final storage of radioactive waste, Die Welt said.
The affected member states would have to detail their plans within four years after a draft law Oettinger will present tomorrow takes effect, the German newspaper said, citing an interview with the commissioner.
The law would also ban exports of nuclear waste to third party countries, Welt reported.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-11-02/eu-s-oettinger-wants-plans-for-nuclear-waste-storage-welt-says.html

US NRC ending Yucca review 'grossly premature,' commissioner says

Svinicki: NRC order to stop Yucca review was "grossly premature"
It was "grossly premature" for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to halt the licensing review of the Yucca Mountain nuclear-waste repository, Commissioner Kristine Svinicki wrote in a letter to Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas. Svinicki said she disagrees with Chairman Gregory Jaczko's Oct. 27 letter to Barton, in which Jaczko said the order was in line with agency policy. Platts http://www.platts.com/RSSFeedDetailedNews/RSSFeed/ElectricPower/6564760

Related articles

• Editorial: Stop stalling on Yucca Mountain (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
• Nuclear Explosion? Regulator Irks Republicans (blogs.wsj.com)
• Republicans Charge 'Impropriety' in Halting Yucca Mountain Safety Review (news.sciencemag.org)
• NRC Chairman is bending rules in Yucca Mountain proceeding (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
• Reid Victory Likely to Keep Yucca Mountain Sealed (news.sciencemag.org)

AEHI gets $150M funding facility for Idaho nuclear project

Alternate Energy Holdings obtained an equity-funding facility worth $150 million from Roswell Capital Partners to support the first phase of AEH's nuclear project in Idaho. The money will be used for a Nuclear Regulatory Commission application and obtaining land and water rights. PowerGenWorldwide.com
http://www.powergenworldwide.com/index/display/articledisplay/5348311186/articles/powergenworldwide/Business/financial/2010/11/nuclear-power-plant-funding.html

NRG CEO: A Republican-controlled House benefits nuclear power

The Republican takeover of the House presents opportunities for NRG Energy and Southern Co. because the majority of GOP lawmakers support nuclear power as part of a clean-energy bill. Mandated use of renewable sources may pass if nuclear facilities are considered, said David Crane, president and CEO of NRG. "A lot of the things we're trying to do in Washington to move forward with zero- and low-carbon generation is something that at least the mainstream of the Republican Party wants to support -- nuclear power in particular," he said. Bloomberg
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-11-03/nuclear-power-gains-clout-in-republican-house-takeover-nrg-says.html

Israel to boost Tel Aviv's missile shield

Tel Aviv, Israel (UPI) Nov 2, 2010 - Israel's military has begun constructing a third battery of long-range, high-altitude Arrow anti-missile interceptors near Tel Aviv to boost defenses against Iranian ballistic missiles. The planned deployment, and a scramble to develop and install other systems to counter short- and medium-range missiles and rockets, underlines the Jewish state's growing fears that its cities and towns ... more http://www.spacewar.com/reports/Israel_to_boost_Tel_Avivs_missile_shield_999.html

How much oil is there, how much more will we use and at what price?

http://www.physorg.com/news/2010-11-oil-price.html

Iran and the West: Next steps

Updated: 2 November 2010 Dealing with Iran’s nuclear program is one of the most important foreign policy issues of the day. Years of stalled talks, diplomatic dead-ends, and sanctions have made it difficult to see exactly where progress has been made with Iran and what efforts are worth pursuing. In “The Iranian quagmire: How to move forward” (November/December 2010 Bulletin), leading foreign policy experts weigh in from around the world on how to proceed with Iran -- from clear diplomacy to fuel swaps to the darkest scenario of military strikes. Whatever their proposed solutions, the writers express one common theme: We ignore Iran at our own peril. From the US, Thomas R. Pickering, Lawrence J. Korb, and Bennett Ramberg; from Turkey, Mustafa Kibaroglu; from Iran, Kayhan Barzegar; and from Israel, Emily B. Landau.

Is the Energy Market a Zero Sum Game Where Various Sources "Go Negative" in Order to Capture Market Share from Competitors? by Rod Adams

During the past few days, I have spent several hours watching videos recorded during the Rocky Mountain Energy Epicenter 2010. That conference was jointly sponsored by the Colorado Oil and Gas Association and the Rocky Mountain Association of Geologists. The videos have fascinated me; they provide support for my theory that activism and legislative efforts to hamstring various energy sources can be best understood by viewing them as battles over market share.http://atomicinsights.blogspot.com/2010/10/is-energy-market-zero-sum-game-where.html

Related articles

• Which Business Growth Strategies Are Used at Dell Computer? (thinkup.waldenu.edu)
• Gaining market share requires gathering data for your practice (kevinmd.com)
• Not Sure About This Analogy (gigaom.com)
• Wind Hellas (Greece) to Proceed with Debt Restructuring (news.suite101.com)

Energy Strategy: The Road Not Taken? By Amory B. Lovins

Summary: 

Where are America's formal or de facto energy policies leading us? Where might we choose to go instead? How can we find out?
http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/26604/amory-b-lovins/energy-strategy-the-road-not-taken

Nuclear Socialism Energy subsidies—of any kind—are bad business

Here’s a principled alternative: Reverse the energy subsidy arms-race. Don’t add subsidies; subtract them. Take markets seriously. Not just for nuclear and fossil fuels but for all so-called “clean” technologies, head toward zero energy subsidies, free enterprise, risk-based credit pricing, competition on merit, cheaper energy services, greater energy security, and dwindling deficits.
Who wouldn’t like that? Why don’t we find out?

Amory B. Lovins is chairman and chief scientist of the independent, apolitical, nonprofit Rocky Mountain Institute (www.rmi.org). He uses Doug Koplow’s subsidy analyses at www.earthtrack.net.http://www.weeklystandard.com/articles/nuclear-socialism_508830.html

Related articles

• Canada's oilpatch subsidies said to total $2.8B (ctv.ca)
• Fossil fuel subsidies are 10 times those of renewables, figures show (jamblemag.com)
• Are electric car subsidies a good idea? (marketplace.publicradio.org)
• A Challenge to China's Energy Subsidies (green.blogs.nytimes.com)
• Taxpayers to foot bill for power subsidies (news.theage.com.au)
• Energy Subsidies (politics.ie)
• Subsidies for Renewables, Biofuels Dwarfed by Supports for Fossil Fuels (eon.businesswire.com)

Qatar and Russia sign up for nuclear cooperation from World Nuclear News by Warwick Pipe

http://www.world-nuclear-news.org/IT-Qatar_and_Russia_sign_up_for_nuclear_cooperation-0211107.htmlRussia's Rosatom and Qatar's Ministry of Environment have signed a memorandum of cooperation on the peaceful use of atomic energy. The memorandum covers bilateral cooperation in areas such as the development of nuclear energy legislation in Qatar. According to Rosatom, the two parties will also work together on fundamental and applied research, design, construction and operation of nuclear power and research reactors, including the production of radioisotopes and their use in industry, medicine and agriculture. The agreement will also see Russia supply unspecified nuclear materials and nuclear fuel cycle services as well as undertaking education, training and professional development for nuclear power industry personnel in Qatar. Qatar is one of the six member states of the Gulf Cooperation Council which has been looking into the use of nuclear energy for power and desalination in the region since 2006. A study into the viability of nuclear power led the state to conclude in 2008 that the case was not sufficiently strong to go ahead with a program of its own, but it subsequently raised the possibility of a regional nuclear generation project.

Related articles

• Russia hails Asia ties as it eyes nuclear projects (newsinfo.inquirer.net)
• Russia-Vietnam deal to power up low carbon energy sector (businessgreen.com)
• Russia Says It Will Build Nuclear Plant for Venezuela (nytimes.com)
• I.H.T. Special Report: Energy: Nuclear Ambitions Thriving in Russia (nytimes.com)
• Japan and Vietnam Agree on Mining of Rare Earths (nytimes.com)
• Russia Says It Will Build Nuclear Plant for Venezuela (nytimes.com)
• FACTBOX-Nuclear power plans in the Gulf and beyond (reuters.com)
• Factbox: Nuclear power plans in the Gulf and beyond (reuters.com)
• Medvedev's Vietnam Visit Brings Deal to Build Nuclear Plant (businessweek.com)

TVEL signs package of Chinese fuel contracts

TVEL signs package of Chinese fuel contractshttp://www.world-nuclear-news.org/ENF-TVEL_signs_package_of_Chinese_fuel_contracts-0211108.html

from World Nuclear News by Warwick Pipe

Russian nuclear fuel company TVEL has signed a package of contracts which will see it supply nuclear fuel, fuel production technology and zirconium fuel components to China. The contracts relate to the Tianwan nuclear power plant.

Radiation research

Radiation research on humans staged in Richland

Kai-Huei Yau/Herald   

Sergei Tolmachev, left, succeeded Tony James as director of the U.S. Transuranium and Uranium Registries, which studies donated organs and tissues from people with documented exposures to uranium and plutonium in order to study the long-term effects of exposure.

Similar Stories

Similar stories:

• Radiation research consolidated at Richland
  

  Radiation research consolidated at Richland
  

  The rows of freezers in a new metal building near the Richland airport hold tissue samples from the women who used radioactive radium in the 1920s to paint the glow-in-the dark dials of watches and clocks.
  With them are organs waiting to be processed and tissue samples from their more recent counterparts - former DOE nuclear weapons workers, including those at Hanford, who were exposed to radioactivity on the job and later volunteered to donate their bodies to science when they died.
  Shelves hold boxes filled with organ samples dissolved in acid and preserved for future research. Other boxes hold bones, potentially contaminated, that have been turned to ash.
  
• Work stops at 27 Hanford buildings for beryllium check
  
  

  Work stops at 27 Hanford buildings for beryllium check
  
  

  Washington Closure Hanford has stopped work at 27 buildings at Hanford as it makes sure they have no beryllium contamination.
  The 27 buildings are among a couple of hundred under the contractor's control and have not been sampled for beryllium, in some cases because they are new structures.
  An independent inspection released by the Department of Energy Office of Health, Safety and Security on June 2 found a new sitewide program to prevent chronic beryllium disease at Hanford had shortcomings.
  
• Report urges better beryllium protection at Hanford
  

  Report urges better beryllium protection at Hanford
  

  Hanford needs to do more to prevent chronic beryllium disease in its workers, moving more quickly and aggressively to implement a new protection program, according to the report on a three-month investigation released Wednesday.
  An independent inspection by the Department of Energy Office of Health, Safety and Security found that the nuclear reservation's new Hanford-wide Chronic Beryllium Disease Prevention Program was a step in the right direction. But there have not been clear plans for a timely implementation of the site-wide plan, the investigation concluded.
  It found that many of the key shortcomings in protecting Hanford workers had been identified earlier -- including in a 2002 Hanford Joint Council report -- but issues had not been addressed.
  
• Study calls for better beryllium protection
  

  Study calls for better beryllium protection
  

  Richland starting a Hanford-wide program to protect workers from beryllium disease is a step in the right direction, but improvements are needed to give the program a strong foundation, according to the Department of Energy.
  DOE’s Office of Health, Safety and Security investigated the Hanford Site Chronic Beryllium Disease Prevention Program (CBDPP) this spring in response to concerns of workers with the disease, the Hanford Advisory Board, Heart of America Northwest and others.
  The results of the investigation were released Wednesday.
  
• Review helps Hanford workers with vapor protection (w/document)
  

  Review helps Hanford workers with vapor protection (w/document)
  

  HANFORD — The program to protect Hanford tank farm workers from chemical vapors has room for improvement, according to a new review by independent experts.
  The review was sponsored by the Hanford Concerns Council, an independent panel that handles worker health and safety concerns, at the request of Hanford Challenge and Washington River Protection Solutions, the contractor overseeing Hanford's tank farms.
  Hanford Challenge is a nonprofit organization that advocates for worker safety.
  

t's the nation's collection of physical evidence amassed to provide clues to how exposure to actinides such as plutonium and uranium affect the human body -- the goal of the U.S. Transuranium and Uranium Registries.
The program is operated by the Washington State University College of Pharmacy and paid for with grants from the Department of Energy. Programs at different DOE sites were consolidated in Washington in 1992, but more recently all of the nation's archives of data and samples -- both recent and decades old -- have been consolidated in Richland.
It's the only program in the world that tracks large amounts of data obtained from studying material collected at autopsies with medical and exposure information to learn more about the affects of radioactivity on the human body, said Anthony James, the just-retired director of the registries.


Read more: http://www.thenewstribune.com/2010/10/24/1394585/us-research-on-effects-of-radiation.html#ixzz1485wf0g8

Read more: http://www.thenewstribune.com/2010/10/24/1394585/us-research-on-effects-of-radiation.html#ixzz1485dq5D8

Related articles

• Radiation research consolidated at Richland (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
• Radiation research consolidated at Richland (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
• Tissue Samples From Exposure to Plutonium and Uranium To Be Studied To Determine How Individuals Who Were Exposed Have Been Affected (ducknetweb.blogspot.com)
• Court approves new Hanford toxic cleanup schedule (thenewstribune.com)
• Human Tissue, Organs Help Scientists Learn from Plutonium and Uranium Workers (wsunews.wsu.edu)
• Human tissue, organs help scientists learn from plutonium and uranium workers (sciencedaily.com)

TerraPower - Alternative Nuclear Technology

TerraPower began as a series of explorations related to many energy technologies. Out of these explorations came an advanced nuclear energy solution that presents a new path toward an affordable, safe form of carbon-free energy.
TerraPower aims to develop a sustainable and economic nuclear energy system while greatly reducing proliferation risks and creating new options for converting low-level waste into vast energy resources.

An Innovative Reactor Design

In this video, TerraPower CEO John Gilleland gives a basic explanation of the traveling wave reactor (TWR) technology and how the TWR turns depleted uranium into fuel.

Watch Video

http://www.terrapower.com/Home.aspx

Related articles

• TerraPower Website Launch (intellectualventureslab.com)
• Improving N-reactor safety, efficiency (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
• Bill Gates & Toshiba To Fund Nuclear Reactor (brainz.org)
• Small Nukes, Big Promise? (thinkup.waldenu.edu)
• 5×5: Five Cities, Five Big Tech Ideas Coming to Boston on Dec. 8 (xconomy.com)
• Miniature nuclear reactors might be a safe, efficient source of power. (washingtonpost.com)
• Terra-Gen Power Breaks Ground on World's Largest Wind Project (eon.businesswire.com)
• Terra-Gen Power Announces Closing of $1.2 Billion Construction Financing and Wind Turbine Order to Launch Build-Out of the Nation's Largest Wind Farm (eon.businesswire.com)
• XConomy's 5x5 Forum: 5 Great Ideas Across 5 Cities (downtheavenue.com)
• Clean-energy miracles: Myth or viable strategy? (news.cnet.com)

Spectator: Nuclear Renaissance Blossoms - Without the USA by William Tucker

This summer China surpassed the United States as the world's largest producer of energy. What was noteworthy, however, is not what China has accomplished over the past 10 years -- doubling its energy capacity -- but what it is planning for its future.
Under construction now in China are 23 nuclear reactors, many originally of American design. The Chinese are building four Westinghouse AP1000s -- a model our Nuclear Regulatory Commission has not even approved yet. On the drawing boards are at least 30 more projects. By 2020, China's nuclear complex will be more than half the size of the U.S.'s aging fleet of 104.
But that's just the beginning. In July the Chinese announced plans for a 50-square-mile "Nuclear City" in Haiyan, 70 miles south of Shanghai. The city, which now houses much of China's nuclear industry, will now add an educational center for training nuclear engineers and scientists, a center for the study of radiation safety, a research lab for radiation-based industry and agriculture, a manufacturing center for nuclear parts, and a marketing center to sell nuclear power to the rest of the world.
At this point, the world probably doesn't need much persuading. Outside America's borders, the long-awaited Nuclear Renaissance is now fully under way. There are currently 60 reactors under construction around the globe, with countries as diverse as Vietnam, Brazil, Turkey, and Jordan planning nuclear programs.
What is America's role in this? Not much, except perhaps for running after everyone shouting, "Hey, wait a minute, we invented this technology." On the basis of outdated treaties and outmoded concerns about nuclear proliferation, we are currently: a) telling South Korea it cannot reprocess its own spent fuel rods, and b) telling Jordan it cannot process its own uranium. Both countries are furious at America's buttinski ways and are politely telling us to get lost. After all, both countries have many other options to which to turn.
You can read more here: http://spectator.org/archives/2010/10/31/nuclear-renaissance-blossomswi
http://nuclearstreet.com/nuclear_power_industry_news/b/nuclear_power_news/archive/2010/11/01/nuclear-renaissance-blossoms-without-the-usa-110104.aspx

Related articles

• Go Nowhere--In Style (technologyreview.com)
• Scientists call for a global nuclear renaissance in new study (eurekalert.org)
• Nuclear power is the solution (politico.com)
• New nuclear technology 'could benefit developing countries' (guardian.co.uk)
• Heads Up (technologyreview.com)
• No chance for nukes in a penny-pinching world (theglobeandmail.com)

Russia Eyes Asian Nuclear Projects After Vietnam Deal

Areva to announce major Chinese contracts: report

Paris (AFP) Nov 1, 2010 French nuclear energy giant Areva is expected to announce a number of major Chinese contracts during President Hu Jintao's state visit to France this week, Les Echos business daily reported. The group will sign a deal worth three billion dollars to supply nuclear fuel to China Guangdong Nuclear Power Corp (CGNPC), Les Echos reported in its Tuesday edition.
This would see the French firm supply 20,000 tonnes of uranium over the next 10 years, the report said.
Areva will also likely announce progress in negotiations with CGNPC over the construction of two new-generation nuclear reactors, the newspaper said, without citing sources.
Areva may also resume negotiations with the China National Nuclear Corporation over the construction of a nuclear reprocessing facility, it added.
Hu's visit starting Thursday is expected to focus on economic issues and include a series of deals in the aerospace and environmental technology sectors.

Related articles

• UPDATE 2-China's Hu to work for fair growth, yuan-paper (reuters.com)