Abu Dhabi's Nuclear Folly
‘In December 2009, Abu Dhabi awarded South Korean companies a four-reactor BOT contract to generate 5,600 MW of electricity. In two contradictions, the emirate announced in February 2008 the plan to build Masdar City, a zero carbon, zero waste, and 100 percent renewable energy powered town; and in July 2009, it became the secretariat headquarters of the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA). This article argues that Abu Dhabi's non-representative, non-participatory governance enables a poorly informed ruling elite enjoying rentier economic circumstances to reach such decisions. It concludes that the Masdar spirit and IRENA's principles require Abu Dhabi to abandon nuclear energy for safe solar and wind power. On December 28, 2009, Abu Dhabi awarded a contract to build, operate, and transfer a 5,600 MW nuclear power plant composed of four reactors of 1,400 megawatt (MW) each to a consortium of South Korean firms. The firms are led by Korea Electric Power Corporation and include Hyundai Engineering and Construction as well as Doosan Heavy Industries and Construction Company. The project is to be completed in three phases between 2017 and 2020. Its estimated cost is reported between $20 and $40 billion.’
UK gets a new plutonium lab
‘The National Nuclear Laboratory (NNL) has celebrated the start of work at the UK's only civil facility that works with plutonium samples on fuel cycle issues. The Plutonium and Minor Actinides Laboratory, dubbed 'Puma', can handle tens of grams of plutonium, said the NNL which added that the lab was "a unique facility in the UK for world-class chemistry and materials science." Most of the work that will be carried out at the Sellafield facility will be related to the 'back end' of nuclear fuel cycle and the reuse of plutonium and uranium oxides recovered from used fuel. The lab is part of the NNL's work to develop new 'grouped actinide extraction' processes to support an EU program on advanced used nuclear fuel recycling. One criticism of current methods of reprocessing and recycling is the security risk of separating plutonium, even though this is reactor grade and not weapons-grade material. In future a number of elements could be extracted as a group, resulting in a mixture that would be useless for weapons and very hard for any potential malevolent groups to separate. That project is funded partly by the EU under the seventh research framework as well as Sellafield Ltd, the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) and the Atomic Weapons Establishment. Plutonium samples for the work all come from the Sellafield site where Sellafield Ltd manages their care on behalf of owners the NDA.’
Funding for Canadian isotope-producing accelerator
‘A new advanced electron linear accelerator facility that will be able to produce medical isotopes will go ahead with the announcement of funding from the government of British Columbia. The C$62.9 million ($60 million) Advanced Rare Isotope Laboratory, given the acronym Ariel, will be built at the Triumf subatomic physics laboratory in Vancouver. It will feature an underground beam tunnel surrounding a state-of-the-art electron linear accelerator (e-linac) capable of producing what Triumf describes as one of the most powerful beams in the world, with up to 500 kW of electron beam power. Ariel will use an e-linac that relies on superconducting radiofrequency technology to accelerate particles close to the speed of light and will provide Canada with a facility that will be at the forefront of particle and nuclear physics, according to British Columbia premier Gordon Campbell. Construction work on the facility is due to get under way in July 2010, with the e-linac due to be installed in 2013. The facility will be commissioned for isotope production in 2014 with routine 'round the clock' operation by 2015, according to Triumf, which is a joint venture of Canadian universities supported in its operations by the national government and in its building infrastructure by the provincial government of British Columbia.’
US senator to introduce bill this week to boost nuclear
‘The Energy Department's budget for developing advanced small modular reactors would be almost tripled, and the agency would have tens of billions of dollars more in loan guarantee authority for nuclear power projects, under legislation soon to be introduced by Senator George Voinovich. The Ohio Republican told a DOE workshop on SMR that his "Establishing the Nuclear Renaissance Act" would add $54 billion to DOE's authority to guarantee loans for new nuclear power plants. Currently DOE has $18.5 billion in authority, and has asked for $36 billion more in authority in its fiscal 2011 budget request. The Voinovich bill also would provide $100 million/year for 10 years for SMR research and development. DOE has requested $39 million for such R&D in fiscal 2011, but currently has no formal SMR program. Energy Secretary Steven Chu has been a strong proponent of small modular reactors, saying they could make the construction of nuclear power plants much cheaper and faster. Current nuclear power plants, which are about 1 GW or more, require a lengthy licensing process and cost billions of dollars. The House and Senate appropriations committees are currently considering DOE's budget request, and it is unclear how much the agency will receive.’
Zardari's July visit to China puts nuclear deal in focus
‘Beijing: China said yesterday it will host President Asif Ali Zardari for top-level talks in early July, but would not say whether a controversial nuclear energy deal between the two nations will be discussed. Zardari is a regular visitor to China, and his next trip from July 6 to 11 will include meetings with President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang told a regular news conference. The announcement of the visit follows signs that China is moving forward with long-discussed plans to build two nuclear reactors at Pakistan's Chashma atomic complex, expanding a project that has worried Washington and India. Two Chinese nuclear companies this month signed a contract to cooperate in constructing the third and fourth plants at Chashma, building on China's rule at the complex in Punjab province. Pakistan faces severe power shortages. Qin did not directly answer reporters' questions about whether the deal will be discussed during Zardari's visit.’
Iran says nuclear talks to resume with Brazil, Turkey
‘TEHRAN: Iran said on Tuesday it would soon resume nuclear talks with Turkey and Brazil — a tentative first step back to international negotiations after new wave of sanctions was imposed on Tehran over its disputed nuclear work. Iran has belittled the UN, US and European sanctions and President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Monday he would return to long-frozen talks with world powers but on certain conditions only, and not before the end of August. His foreign minister said talks would start before then with the two countries with which it agreed a nuclear fuel swap deal in May — echoing a UN-brokered pact that Tehran backed out of late last year — and which voted against the UN sanctions. "There were some contacts with the foreign ministers of the three countries (Iran, Turkey and Brazil)," Manouchehr Mottaki told a news conference. "A joint meeting is on the agenda and we will announce it in the coming one or two days." Iran has held no substantive talks with world powers since the deal in principle on the fuel swap struck with Russia, France and the United States in October. The pact would have seen Iran sending 1.2 tons of low-enriched uranium (LEU) — about 70 percent of its stockpile at the time — abroad in exchange for specially processed fuel rods needed to keep the Tehran medical research reactor running. In a turnabout, Iran agreed in talks in May with Brazil and Turkey to part with 1.2 tons of LEU. But by then Iran's LEU reserve had doubled in size, devaluing the swap's terms in Western eyes since it would no longer divest Iran of enough LEU to prevent its use for an atom bomb, if refined to high purity.’
Energy Dept. Cannot Drop Yucca Plan
‘WASHINGTON — In a setback for the Obama administration, a panel of judges at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission ruled on Tuesday that the Energy Department could not withdraw its application to open a nuclear waste dump at Yucca Mountain in Nevada. Making good on a campaign pledge by President Obama, the Energy Department had formally sought to drop its plan for Yucca Mountain, a volcanic structure about 100 miles from Las Vegas. But states with major accumulations of waste from nuclear weapons production had petitioned to prevent the department from doing so. In a 47-page decision, the three-member panel of administrative judges said the Energy Department lacked the authority to drop the petition because it would flout a law passed by Congress. In the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982, Congress directed the Energy Department to file the application and the commission to consider it and “issue a final, merits-based decision approving or disapproving the construction,” the judges said. “Unless Congress directs otherwise, D.O.E. may not single-handedly derail the legislated decision-making process.” The effect of the decision is unclear for now. Congress would have to appropriate hundreds of millions of dollars a year for the Energy Department to pursue the application. But the president’s budget for next year proposes no money at all; and while some members of the House are eager to appropriate funds, the Senate majority leader, Harry Reid of Nevada, is adamantly opposed to the project. Yet the decision could keep the application alive long enough for the politics to change.’
GE Hitachi:To Resubmit Reactor Design To UK By June 2011
‘LONDON (Dow Jones)--U.S.-Japanese joint venture GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy expects to resubmit its nuclear-reactor design into the U.K. regulatory process by June 2011, after it completes the process in the U.S., the company's senior vice president for nuclear plant projects said Tuesday. The design is expected to clear the U.K. regulatory process within two years, Danny Roderick told Dow Jones Newswires. The company withdrew its Economic Simplified Boiling Water Reactor design from the U.K. regulatory process in September 2008 to concentrate on getting its design licensed in the U.S.--a move Roderick said would speed up the certification process in the U.K. "We will provide them [the U.K. nuclear safety regulator] with a completed product no later than June next year--it fits the timeline we have from our customers," Roderick said in an interview, declining to name the customers. Electricite de France SA, using Areva SA technology, is leading the expansion and plans to have the first of four new nuclear power plants in the U.K. operations in 2017. German utilities E.ON AG and RWE AG have teamed up to build 6 GW by 2025 and a consortium comprising Iberdrola SA, GDF Suez and Scottish and Southern Energy PLC plans up to 3.6 GW. The U.K. nuclear safety regulator--the Health and Safety Executive--is assessing Areva's EPR reactor design and Toshiba Corp. (6502.TO) unit Westinghouse Electric Co.'s AP1000 for license for use in the U.K. That process is due to finish June 2011.’