Idaho Samizdat: Nuke Notes

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• Western lands uranium gopher for 10/22/09

  If a butterfly flaps its wings in Ohio, does it matter in Wyoming? (Portions of this blog post also appeared in Fuel Cycle Week , V8:N349 10/21/09 published by International Nuclear Associates, Washington, DC) The answer, it turns out, is yes, according to Wyoming Gov. Dave Freudenthal , who did some flapping of it his own this week over the Department of Energy's (DOE) plan to sell surplus uranium... Posted Oct 22 2009, 07:33 AM by Idaho Samizdat: Nuke Notes Filed under: Department of Energy, Wyoming, uranium, DOE, ohio, surplus, international nuclear associates

• More bad news for USEC's uranium enrichment plant

  DOE fails to get the $30 million it promised last August The Energy & Water appropriation, sent by Congress this week to the White House, does not include $30 million promised by the Department of Energy (DOE) to USEC ( NYSE:USU ) to help it with its plans to build a uranium enrichment plant in Piketon, OH. It is the second time in recent months that DOE's plans to rescue the project have run... Posted Oct 17 2009, 02:31 PM by Idaho Samizdat: Nuke Notes Filed under: Department of Energy, USEC, DOE, American Centrifuge Plant, funding, ohio, united states enrichment corp

• DOE A/Sec Nuclear visits INL

  Warren “Pete” Miller comes to Idaho Falls DOE Assistant Secretary for Nuclear Energy Warren "Pete" Miller (right) was in Idaho Falls Sept 22 and told a news conference he is "pro-nuclear."  "Every interaction I've had in the (Obama) administration, at every level, has been very encouraging to me and supportive of nuclear energy." That's a good start for an... Posted Sep 26 2009, 11:23 AM by Idaho Samizdat: Nuke Notes Filed under: Department of Energy, Idaho National Laboratory, INL, DOE, assistant secretary of energy, miller

• Not intentionally funny

  DOE official says the Obama administration is “still thinking” about nuclear energy It’s doubtful that Dallas Morning News reporter Elizabeth Souder was intentionally trying to be funny in her column published Sept 22 on the Department of Energy’s “stop sign” policies when its comes to reviving the nation’s nuclear energy industry. She interviewed Steven Koonin , (left) the undersecretary for science... Posted Sep 22 2009, 07:12 PM by Idaho Samizdat: Nuke Notes Filed under: Department of Energy, DOE, regulations, policy, obama administration

• DOE releases $40M for NGNP

  The funding opportunity is for design work on a high temperature gas cooled reactor The Department of Energy announced Sept 18 a significant funding  opportunity for work on the Next Generation Nuclear Plant ( NGNP ). U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu said that up to $40 million in funding will be available from the Department of Energy to support design and planning work for the Next Generation... Posted Sep 18 2009, 12:33 PM by Idaho Samizdat: Nuke Notes Filed under: Department of Energy, NGNP, next generation nuclear plant, DOE, steven chu, design

• Idaho still likes GNEP

  Even if there isn't much left of it The Department of Energy is soldiering on with the Global Nuclear Energy Partnership ( GNEP ) even though Congress has repeatedly shredded its budget. The nuclear industry has ignored it except when it handed out money.  Critics have attacked it as a giant nuclear boondoggle and even pro-nuclear analysts have worried that the government moved too quickly... Posted Nov 21 2008, 09:47 AM by Idaho Samizdat: Nuke Notes Filed under: GNEP, DOE

• NGNP reactor project faces multiple hurdles

  Westinghouse cites technical, funding, and schedule problems The project manager at Westinghouse, which is under contract to the Department of Energy develop a design for the Next Generation Nuclear Plant ( NGNP ), told attendees at an ASME conference this week construction for the plant won't begin until 2021, a five-year delay. Officials at the Idaho National Laboratory ( INL ) have been citing... Posted Nov 07 2008, 01:42 PM by Idaho Samizdat: Nuke Notes Filed under: Westinghouse, next generation nuclear plant, DOE

• Ten tons of chickens, five tons of truck

  The Department of Energy's loan guarantee program is overloaded In an old joke told to me by a man who made a living clearing  farmers' fields of tree stumps with dynamite, a truck is driving down the street of a small town and something unusual happens every time it comes to a stop light.  The driver hops out, runs around to the back, pulls a 2x4 out of spare tire rack, and whacks... Posted Oct 05 2008, 07:30 PM by Idaho Samizdat: Nuke Notes Filed under: loan guarantees, DOE

• NGNP Licensing Strategy

  NRC and DOE deliver report to Congress The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the U.S.  Department of Energy (DOE) this week delivered to Congress the Next Generation Nuclear Plant (NGNP) Licensing Strategy Report . The Energy Policy Act of 2005 directed the agencies to jointly develop a strategy for licensing the NGNP demonstration plant.  The report to Congress explains that current... Posted Aug 15 2008, 07:00 PM by Idaho Samizdat: Nuke Notes Filed under: NRC licensing, next generation nuclear plant, DOE

• Moab tailings will move by rail

  The government will ship 16 million tons of waste 30 miles.  Within the next 10 years approximately 12 million cubic  yards of the MOAB uranium mill tailings will take a final journey of just 30 miles and end a disturbing episode in the history of the West.  This week the Department of Energy restated its intent to move the tailings by rail from their current location on the banks of... Posted Aug 10 2008, 12:38 AM by Idaho Samizdat: Nuke Notes Filed under: DOE, MOAB uranium

• U.K. & U.S. grapple with investments in national nuclear labs

  The reality is new nuclear R&D is not cheap or easy The U.K. announced this week that it will charter and fund a new national nuclear laboratory (NNL) at a cost of L$2 billion ($4 billion US at current rates).  In the U.S. the Department of Energy worried out loud how it will "re-establish a nuclear R&D complex without the budget to support it."  The stark contrast between... Posted Jul 26 2008, 11:12 AM by Idaho Samizdat: Nuke Notes Filed under: DOE

• Idaho signs new nuclear waste cleanup agreement

  It removes a threat to the Snake River aquifer from transuranic wastes Idaho Governor C.L. "Butch" Otter (left) stepped into history  this week joining former Idaho governors Cecil Andrus and Phil Batt by signing a ground breaking cleanup agreement with the U.S. Department of Energy.  Like its predecessor agreements , signed by these two previous Idaho governors, this one implements... Posted Jul 05 2008, 04:54 PM by Idaho Samizdat: Nuke Notes Filed under: Idaho Cleanup Project, DOE

• House Committee erases GNEP from '09 budget

  Prospects are uncertain in the Senate The House Appropriations Committee voted this week to zero out funding in FY2009 for the Department of Energy's ill-fated and much maligned Global Nuclear Energy Program ( GNEP ).  This is a repeat of last year's action by the House which kicked GNEP to the curb only to see some of the cuts restored by Senate action via conference committee. The immediate... Posted Jun 28 2008, 03:07 PM by Idaho Samizdat: Nuke Notes Filed under: GNEP, DOE

• Budget cuts put U.S. nuclear scientists on the street

  Lawrence Livermore lays off 440 hitting a total of 1,800 out the door The Associated Press reports that a major Department   of Energy national laboratory has laid off 440 employees as part of a total reduction in staffing of 1,800.  Of that number the wire service reports over 100 are top scientists and engineers with critical knowledge about the nation's nuclear weapons arsenal... Posted Jun 03 2008, 06:52 PM by Idaho Samizdat: Nuke Notes Filed under: jobs, DOE

• Closing the nuclear fuel cycle

  DOE puts GNEP reports online  The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has released detailed reports and presentations developed by four industry consortia that provide industry perspectives on closing the nuclear fuel cycle in the US. The reports and presentations were submitted by EnergySolutions; General Atomics; General Electric-Hitachi; and the International Nuclear Recycling Alliance, led by... Posted May 28 2008, 11:11 PM by Idaho Samizdat: Nuke Notes Filed under: nuclear fuel cycle, DOE