STUTTGART, Germany: A German engineer has acknowledged that he helped procure parts for a centrifuge system that authorities say was meant for Libya's now-abandoned nuclear weapons program, a court said Thursday.
Gotthard Lerch went on trial in June, accused of supplying Libya with sensitive technology in the knowledge that the country was seeking atomic weapons. Prosecutors have accused him of playing a key role in the network led by Pakistani scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan.
Turkey faces the risk of becoming heavily dependent on Russia uranium if the recent tender for Turkey's first nuclear power plant, won by a Russian firm led consortium, is not canceled, analysts say.
Turkey's energy dependency on Russia to rise after nuclear plant
"The tender for the nuclear plant was held in order to lessen the Turkey's energy dependency to Russia, but if it is approved Turkey's dependency to Russia will be even greater," Necdet Pamir, an energy expert, told HotNewsTurkey.
LONDON, Sept 4 (Reuters) - Uranium enrichment companies in the United States and Europe have seen an increase in customer interest after the recent conflict involving Russia and Georgia, industry sources said on Thursday.
Nuclear reactors are dependent on reliable supplies of fuel, made from uranium ore that has been converted into a gas which in turn is enriched into nuclear fuel.
As the nuclear industry enjoys a global revival, Kazatomprom is positioning itself to overtake Cameco as the world's largest producer of uranium. It said in July that it expects to achieve this as early as next year, rather than in 2010 as originally planned.
The progress of Kazakhstan's national atomic company is to a large degree due to the vision of its charismatic president Mukhtar Dzhakishev, helped by the country's substantial uranium reserves and the Soviet technical legacy.
Accident investigators will today begin their investigation into the cause of an explosion at a company which makes centrifuges for the Urenco uranium factory in Almelo.
No-one was hurt in the blast, which the fire brigade describes as a ‘chemicals incident’.
MARSEILLE -- An accidental spillage of waste containing uranium occurred Tuesday at one of France's top nuclear plants but authorities said there was no immediate cause for concern, authorities said.
Some 30 cubic meters (over 1,000 cubic feet) of effluents containing 12 grams (easily less than half an ounce) of uranium per liter spilled out at the Tricastin Nuclear Power Centre in Bollene in southern France.
French energy major Suez and nuclear engineering company Areva have signed an agreement, giving Suez a 5% ownership interest in the company that holds the Georges Besse II uranium enrichment plant.
The facility, built by Areva at the Tricastin site in France's Drome department, is based on ultra centrifuge technology. Suez, through its energy services business line, is building the electrical installations, and supplying the fluid management systems and the HVAC and process cooling equipment of the new plant, which is scheduled for startup in 2009.
According to ecologists, about 700,000 tons of uranium hexafluoride have been accumulated in Russia. It is a byproduct of uranium enrichment that appears during the production of fuel at nuclear power plants. Today Russia is the only country which accepts this compound.
YEREVAN, March 6 (RIA Novosti) - The Armenian government authorized on Thursday the establishment of a joint venture with Russia for the additional prospecting of uranium deposits in the South Caucasus republic.
Russia's state nuclear corporation Rosatom and the Armenian environmental ministry agreed in February to set up a joint venture on a parity basis for the additional prospecting of Armenian uranium, which will be enriched in a specialized international center in Angarsk, East Siberia.
29 October 2007 - The European Investment Bank (EIB) is lending €200 million to Urenco to help expand two uranium enrichment plants, in England and the Netherlands.The money will help the company install new centrifuge cascades in both plants.
The EIB memorandum stated: “This project forms part of the company’s medium-term investment programme, meeting global uranium enrichment demand by the use of Urenco’s world-leading energy-efficient technology.”
