Cottage Country Now: Feds delay plans to ship toxic waste
PARRY SOUND - A federal decision to permit the shipment of 16 radioactive steam generators across the Great Lakes has been delayed indefinitely. For reasons unexplained, the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC) said Monday that it needs more time to deliberate the proposed shipment, which exceeds the federally regulated limit of radioactivity allowed onboard a single vessel. On November 22, the commission set a deadline of 30-business days before it was obligated to reach a decision. “While the CNSC strives to render hearing decisions within 30-business days, in some instances more time is needed for deliberations,” the CNSC said in a statement. Bruce Power, a private nuclear power company about 250-kilometres northwest of Toronto on Lake Huron, wants to transfer the decommissioned generators from Owen Sound, through Georgian Bay, across three of the Great Lakes, down the St. Lawrence Seaway and across the Atlantic ocean to Sweden for recycling.
The Globe and Mail: Belgian firm stymied in takeover denies plan to sell uranium to Iran
A Belgian company is denying the murky suspicions that it planned to sell uranium to Iran that led Ottawa to intervene in its $585-million bid to buy Canadian firm Forsys Metals Corp. The deal fell apart in 2009 when George Forrest International missed several deadlines for transferring the cash. But only days before, Industry Canada had stepped in to order it be put on hold. This week, U.S. diplomatic cables obtained by WikiLeaks finally revealed why Ottawa stepped in: U.S. officials feared GFI would sell the uranium it bought from Forsys to Iran. GFI said in a statement e-mailed to The Globe and Mail on Thursday that it has no such business connection. “GFI affirms that it does not have, and has never had, commercial relations of any kind with Iran,” said the statement from GFI spokesman Henry de Harenne. The U.S. cables reported that the Americans had information that “links GFI to ongoing discussions with senior Iranian officials,” and that the talks might have been related to Iran’s desire to obtain uranium. The United States, Canada and other countries believe Iran is trying to develop nuclear weapons, and at the time, that it was running out of uranium to fuel its civilian nuclear power plants.
Reuters: RWE, Iberdrola, GDF Suez exit Romania nuclear plan
PARIS/FRANKFURT, Jan 20 (Reuters) - Power groups GDF Suez, Iberdrola and RWE said on Thursday they were pulling out of a multi-billion dollar nuclear project in Romania, confirming an earlier report by Reuters. "Economic and market-related uncertainties surrounding this project, related for the most part to the present financial crisis, are not reconcilable now with the capital requirements of a new nuclear power project," the groups said in a joint statement. This leaves only two foreign firms in the project, Italy's Enel and a local unit of ArcelorMittal. An adviser to Romania's economy ministry said the country would now look for new investors, adding he did not expect the project to be much delayed by this.