Uranium

Georgia chaos halts nuclear security effort

Wednesday, August 20, 2008

WASHINGTON - The chaos in Georgia has forced the United States to halt a high-priority program that was helping the former Soviet republic to identify possible smugglers of nuclear bomb components across its borders, long considered a transit point for terrorists seeking to obtain weapons of mass destruction, according to US officials.

A team from the US Nuclear Security Administration was providing Georgian authorities with radiation equipment and training at key border crossings and the Batumi airport on the country's Black Sea coast when Russia invaded two weeks ago. The advisers were forced to flee the country within days, according to a spokesman from the Department of Energy.

Posted in | »

Britain holds £160bn stockpile of nuclear fuel

Monday, August 18, 2008

Britain has a stockpile of plutonium and uranium that, if converted to fuel, could be worth nearly £160 billion and power three nuclear reactors for 60 years, scientists say.

The future of the stockpile - largely left over from burning fuel - will be decided by ministers over the next year, The Times has learnt. Its value is estimated as the equivalent of 2.6 billion barrels of oil.

Posted in | »

WildHorse to Study Restarting Hungary Uranium Mining

Friday, August 8, 2008

Aug. 6 (Bloomberg) -- WildHorse Energy Ltd., the Australian uranium explorer backed by Macquarie Group Ltd., agreed to study the potential for restarting uranium mining in southern Hungary as demand for the metal from power producers increases.

Under an accord with state-owned Mecsekerc Zrt the partners will evaluate the Mecsek Hills project area by the end of September, Perth-based WildHorse said today in a statement to the Australian stock exchange. They will then do more detailed feasibility work before deciding whether to develop a mine.

Posted in | »

Astana aims to become world's top uranium producer

Wednesday, August 6, 2008

Kazakhstan may have relinquished its arsenal of nuclear weapons after the collapse of the Soviet Union, but it is seeking to expand its role in a variety of atomic energy-related fields. The country hopes to outstrip rivals Canada and Australia next year to become the world’s biggest uranium producer.

Posted in | »

Romanian police ‘escorts’ Bulgarian nuclear fuel along the Danube River

Wednesday, August 6, 2008

Bucharest. The comments on the low control over the transportation of Bulgarian nuclear fuel along the Danube River is among the headlines in the Romanian press today.

The Gandul daily notes that every year the Bulgarian ship Vasil Drumev and the boat Nautilus transport 60 tons of nuclear fuel from Kozloduy to the Ukrainian port of Ismail. The nuclear fuel used in Kozloduy is transported as waste to the Ukrainian port, from where the ship turns back loaded with fresh fuel.
According to the article the ‘tourist’ boats, used by the Romanian police to escort the cargo, often malfunction.

Posted in |

Plutonium leak contained at ageing IAEA laboratory

Monday, August 4, 2008

VIENNA, Aug 4 (Reuters) - A small amount of plutonium leaked in an ageing International Atomic Energy Agency laboratory outside Vienna but radioactive contamination was contained to a storage area and no one was injured, the U.N. watchdog said. Last year the IAEA director warned that its main analytical lab built in 1970 was outmoded and no longer met U.N. safety standards, and he called for 27.2 million euros ($42.4 milion) in extra funding from member states to modernise it.

Posted in | »

Nuclear renaissance may revive Czech uranium mines

Wednesday, July 30, 2008

DOLNI ROZINKA, Czech Republic, July 30 (Reuters) - Renewed interest in nuclear power and high uranium prices may extend the life of Czech uranium mines or even reopen closed deposits, said the head of the country's sole, state-owned miner Diamo. The centre-right cabinet of Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek gave the ailing industry a boost last year, allowing Diamo to explore uranium reserves at its only remaining mine in Dolni Rozinka, 180 km (113 miles) east of Prague.

Posted in | »

Nuclear fuel to be moved

Thursday, July 24, 2008

300 tons of spent fuel in Kazakhstan

Kazakhstan's military forces this summer held a training exercise to thwart a fake terrorist assault on a Soviet-built nuclear facility near Almaty, the country's former capital located on its southeastern border.

In the exercise, a reactor was the simulated target of terrorists trying to steal some of the deadliest nuclear material ever made. It came, by no coincidence, as U.S. and Kazakh officials put the finishing touches on a plan to move 300 tons of used nuclear fuel from a decommissioned Soviet nuclear reactor near the port city of Aktau on the Caspian Sea not far from Iran.

Posted in | »

Ignalina nuclear power plant asks permission to increase price on electricity

Wednesday, July 23, 2008

At present, Ignalina nuclear power plant buys the nuclear fuel for about 80% higher price than over the previous year. Network distribution companies are also preparing plans for raising prices. Ignalina nuclear power plant intends to present the request to the State Control Commission for Prices and Energy until October 2008 on the increase of the sale price for the produced electricity.

"We will ask to increase prices because of the price growth for nuclear fuel – this is our main argument, and of course, inflation. Currently I cannot say what exactly will be the increase of price we will ask for but there are no doubts that we will ask," Director of Ignalina nuclear power plant Viktoras Sevaldinas spoke for the daily Respublika about new predicted prices.

Posted in | »

French nuclear firm admits uranium leaks at two plants

Saturday, July 19, 2008

he French nuclear giant Areva yesterday confirmed there was a radioactive leak from a broken pipe at a nuclear fuel plant in south-eastern France, a week after a uranium spill at another of its plants polluted the local water supply.

The latest incident comes as an embarrassment to the French government as it struggles to contain environmentalists' anger and reassure residents near its nuclear plants that they are safe.

Posted in | »