Some other stories from the nuclear industry you may have missed:
iStockAnalyst: China Able to Produce Forgings for Million-Kilowatt Nuclear Reactors
‘The China First Heavy Industries singed a contract with the China National Nuclear Corporation in Beijing on 1 August, in which the former agrees to supply four million- kilowatt nuclear reactor pressure vessels to the latter. At the contract signing ceremony, Zhang Guobao, who was recently appointed as the director of the National Energy Bureau, said that China is able to produce independently forge pieces for million-kilowatt nuclear reactors.’
Bangkok Post: The Rockefeller of nuclear power
‘A former salesman is seeking to turn Kazakhstan into the biggest atomic fuel supplier.’
The London Times: Tide turns for wave power
‘Ocean Power Technologies (OPT) is one of four companies whose hardware is to be tried out in a wave-power project off the coast of Cornwall. Electricity should start coming ashore in 2010.’
Kuwait Times: Submarine radiation leak raises concern in Japan
‘Water containing a small amount of radiation leaked from a US nuclear-powered submarine that stopped by Japan earlier this year, the US Navy and Japanese government said yesterday, prompting calls by civic groups for full disclosure. The leak, which was too small to have any impact on the environment, was found during an inspection of the nuclear-powered Houston in Hawaii, the Japanese Foreign Ministry said, citing information provided by the US government. "The amounts were very, very, very small and were not of the sort that would affect the human body or the environment," Chief Cabinet Secretary Nobutaka Machimura told a news conference.’
TribStar: Debating the oil crisis — Reducing consumption key to lowering energy costs
‘According to proponents of nuclear power, environmentalists have manipulated science and engaged in fear mongering in order to demonize nuclear power. Well, environmentalists have never needed to demonize nuclear power in order for most people to oppose it because it is fraught with serious problems that have never been adequately addressed. Advocates of nuclear power somehow always forget to mention that the radioactive waste generated by nuclear power plants remains highly toxic for many thousands of years — well beyond the life expectancy of any known natural or engineered containment structure.’
Guampdm.com: Sub leak worries residents: Timing of release of information questioned
‘Sen. Frank Blas Jr., chairman of the Legislature's Health, Human Services and Homeland Security Committee was upset about when Guam was informed. "I'm pretty disturbed that this is an incident that has been going on for five months, and Hawaii gets informed a week ago and we just got informed," Blas said. "When I was (Guam) Homeland Security advisor, I was told that we would be informed as soon as (an incident) occurs. What happened?"’
The Independent: Sellafield has public 'blank cheque'
‘The consortium with a £20bn contract to clean up Britain's Sellafield nuclear plant has been handed a blank cheque by the Government to pay for future accidents there. Taxpayers would pick up a tab for hundreds of millions of pounds in the event of a serious security breach at the Cumbria facility. One estimate puts the cost of Britain's previous nuclear clean-ups at around £83bn.’
Press TV: Plutonium leak at Austrian plant
‘The International Atomic Energy Agency says plutonium has leaked in one of its laboratories but no radiation escaped the building.’
The Guardian: Nuclear Options
‘Even the economically uninterested must be aware by now that the world is in the middle of a commodity crunch in which fast-developing countries such as China and India want more energy and food than suppliers have been accustomed to selling them. Well, the next big crisis may well be an engineering crunch, in which countries compete for people and kit to provide much-needed infrastructure (not just nuclear plants, but wind turbines and roads and airports). This will inevitably mean that costs rocket and deadlines slide. Is business as usual the best way of meeting that challenge?’
The Daily Telegraph: Centrica plots £22bn British Energy deal
‘Centrica, Britain's biggest gas and electricity supplier, is to sound out institutional shareholders about reviving plans for a £22.5bn all-share merger with British Energy, The Sunday Telegraph has learned. Centrica, which owns British Gas, will gauge the appetite of City investors for a paper deal following the last-minute hitch in British Energy's takeover by EDF, the French government-controlled energy group, last week.’
(Additional links courtesy of No 2 Nuclear Power)