Sydney Morning Herald: Uranium sales to India a recipe for regional insecurity
The wheels are firmly in motion for the Labor Party to reconsider its position on the contentious issue of uranium sales to India if this week's comments from Resources Minister Martin Ferguson and Paul Howes from the Australian Worker's Union are any indication. While we welcome the debate around Australia's management of our natural resources, we need a clear-eyed analysis of the dangers of proceeding down this course. On a recent visit to Australia, Indian Foreign Minister S. M. Krishna made it clear that Australia's current refusal to sell uranium to India constituted a point of tension in the two countries diplomatic relations. Although Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd and even Martin Ferguson said at the time that the ALP is opposed to such sales, WikiLeaks cables this week revealed that behind closed doors, the ALP has indicated that the policy will be likely to change within three to five years. The drive by Martin Ferguson and Paul Howes to expand Australian uranium sales is based purely on the short-sighted goal of export dollars, cloaked in the guise of supporting regional energy development. But even in this regard, we know that the profits to Australia would not be significant.
The Guardian: Sellafield activity 'will ensure UK breaks nuclear pollution promise'
Britain is on course to break an international agreement to reduce radioactive pollution of the seas, because of an increase in activity at the Sellafield nuclear site, according to a report from a campaign group that monitors the plant. Discharges of radioactive waste into the Irish Sea from the nuclear fuel reprocessing plants at Sellafield, Cumbria, are set to double over the next few years because of a "crash programme" of reprocessing planned by the government's Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA). Critics say this would put the government in breach of its commitment to "progressive and substantial reductions of discharges" under the Oslo-Paris (Ospar) convention, which seeks to limit pollution of the north-east Atlantic. The convention's agreed aim is to bring levels of artificial radioactivity in the environment down to "close to zero" by 2020. Breaching the convention, which brings together 15 governments from across Europe, would be politically embarrassing for Britain and could expose ministers to legal action from other countries or environmental groups. Ospar's radioactive substances committee is due to meet on Monday in Monaco. The report, by anti-nuclear group Cumbrians Opposed to a Radioactive Environment (Core), estimates that discharge of plutonium into the sea from Sellafield will rise from 120 gigabecquerels a year to more than 250. There will be similar increases in the levels of radioactive isotopes caesium-137 and cobalt-60 compared with the past five years, it says.
Reuters: China blocks U.N. report on N.Korea nuclear breaches
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - China has told U.N. Security Council members it plans to block publication of a U.N. special report that accuses North Korea of violating sanctions on its nuclear program, Western diplomats said. The U.N. Panel of Experts on North Korea submitted a report on January 27 to the Security Council's sanctions committee, which monitors compliance with U.N. sanctions on Pyongyang imposed after its two nuclear tests. Diplomats told Reuters that China informed council members it would block the publication and transfer of the report to the full council. They said China's move was odd since one of the experts who prepared the report, Xiaodong Xue, is Chinese. The panel's report, which was seen by Reuters, says that North Korea almost certainly has several more undisclosed enrichment-related facilities. It also says that Pyongyang's uranium enrichment program and its development of a light-water reactor are serious violations of U.N. sanctions. The report of the panel, which includes experts from the five permanent Security Council members, South Korea and Japan, was partly based on conversations with U.S. nuclear scientist Siegfried Hecker, who saw around 2,000 centrifuges used to enrich uranium during a rare visit to North Korea last year. The North Korean sanctions committee will present on February 23 its quarterly update on compliance with the U.N. sanctions imposed on Pyongyang after its 2006 and 2009 nuclear tests.
Xinhuanet: Radiation leaks reported at nuke power research center in S.Korea
SEOUL, Feb. 20 (Xinhua) -- A South Korean nuclear power research center issued a warning of radiation leaks on Sunday, which forced its staff there to evacuate immediately, according to local media. A "white" warning was issued at around 2:32 p.m. local time at the state-run Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute (KAERI), located in the central city of Daejeon, about 160 km south of Seoul, after minor radiation leaks were detected at a 30 megawatt research reactor, HANARO, at around 1:03 p.m. local time, the KAERI told local media. The reactor was shut down promptly and three staff there were immediately evacuated, it added. The "white" warning, the lowest on a three-grade alert system in the country, is usually issued as radiation leaks were found within the facility. The KAERI said no radiation leaked outside and no casualties have been reported. The cause of the accident is yet to be determined.
Ahram Online: International bidding for Egypt's first nuclear power plant is postponed
The international bidding process for the construction of Egypt’s first nuclear power plant for electricity generation in Al Dabgha has been postponed, Al Ahram newspaper reported. The tender will be postponed until the political situation in Egypt stablises, to ensure the largest number of companies from around the world enter the bid. "An international consultant is currently working with the Ministry of Electricity and Energy to identify additional locations to Al Dabgha for the construction of a nuclear plant and develop the necessary infrastructure for it", said Beltone Financial.
The Japan Times: We want nuke tech, too: Pakistan
ISLAMABAD (Kyodo) Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari said Saturday that since Japan is negotiating a deal with India to cooperate on peaceful uses for nuclear energy, the same cooperation should be extended to his country. "If Japan is willing to cooperate with India in nuclear technology and (is) giving nuclear technology for peaceful purposes, I do not see any reason why we should not deserve the same," Zardari said in an interview with the Japanese media on the eve of his departure for a three-day visit to Japan. "I do not know what questions would be raised during discussion. It depends," he said when asked if he will raise the question of nuclear technology cooperation during the visit. Zardari recognizes that nuclear power is a sensitive issue for the Japanese people and government. Neither India nor Pakistan are signatories to the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, and the talks between Japan and India have triggered an outcry from survivors of the 1945 U.S. atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, who fear such a deal will hamper global efforts to bring about a world without nuclear weapons. Japanese firms, however, are keen to export nuclear power generation technology and related equipment to India, which plans to build 20 new nuclear power plants by 2020.
Wired: Latest Pentagon brainstorm: Nuke-powered war bases
Imagine the snow-capped peaks of mountainous eastern Afghanistan. Wouldn't it be better topped off with a cooling tower for a nuclear reactor? The Pentagon's way-out research arm thinks so. It's all part of a big push to make the military more eco-friendly. Buried within Darpa's 2012 budget request under the innocuous name of "Small Rugged Reactor Technologies" is a $10 million proposal to fuel wartime Forward Operating Bases with nuclear power. It springs from an admirable impulse: to reduce the need for troops or contractors to truck down roads littered with bombs to get power onto the base. It's time, Darpa figures, for a "self-sufficient" FOB. Only one problem. "The only known technology that has potential to address the power needs of the envisioned self-sufficient FOB," the pitch reads, "is a nuclear-fuel reactor." Now, bases could mitigate their energy consumption, like the solar-powered Marine company in Helmand Province, but that's not enough of a game-changer for Darpa. Being self-sufficient is the goal; and that requires going nuclear; and that requires … other things. To fit on a FOB, which can be anywhere from Bagram Air Field's eight square miles to dusty collections of wooden shacks and concertina wire, the reactor would have to be "well below the scale of the smallest reactors that are being developed for domestic energy production," Darpa acknowledges.
RIA Novosti: North Korea's tunnel digging sparks speculation of nuke test
North Korea has been digging special tunnels at a nuclear test site in Punggye-ri in the northern Hamgyong province, sparking concerns that it may be preparing for new nuclear tests, South Korea's news agency Yonhap reported on Sunday, citing government and military sources. The reclusive communist state conducted its two previous plutonium-fueled nuclear tests, one in 2006 and the other in 2009, at the site, the agency said. "South Korea and U.S. intelligence authorities have spotted the North building a couple of additional tunnels in Punggye-ri," the agency cited a government source. "It's obvious that North Korea is preparing for a third nuclear test." The source gave no further details on how many tunnels Pyongyang has built. "Underground bases can't be reused after a nuclear test blast," the source told the agency, adding that Pyongyang was building more than one tunnel so that it could choose the best one for the nuclear test.
MWC News: They just keepin' on heapin' it on at Oldbury
A UK nuclear power plant, Oldbury Unit 2, is getting a six month license extension (through June 2011) so that it can be shut down the same month as Oldbury Unit 1 is scheduled to shut down -- unless further license extensions are granted: They are also vying for a 2012 closure "in order to use up spare fuel at the site". What a LOUSY reason to keep a nuclear power plant operating! Unused nuclear fuel is mathematically about 10 million times safer than so-called "spent" fuel, which is just about the most dangerous and difficult stuff on earth to handle. "Fresh" fuel is not much more dangerous than so-called "depleted" uranium (DU) -- the stuff that soldiers handle "safely" all the time. The main danger from DU occurs when it's been exploded into tiny fragments and vaporized -- at which point it can be inhaled or ingested, and is horrifically poisonous, partially for its heavy metal toxicity characteristics (yecch!), as well as for its radioactivity. When uranium is in solid form, especially when it's been carefully wrapped in a cladding which has been individually inspected for cracks (at least, it's supposed to have been), it's relatively easy to transport -- about as difficult as transporting DU shells and armor.