Idaho Samizdat: Nuke Notes

Environmental groups file multiple legal challenges The Sheep Mountain Alliance ( SMA ), a Telluride, Colo ., environmental group, and its legal counsel, the Energy Minerals Law Center ( EMLC ), located in Durango, Colo , have taken a two-pronged approach to try to stop the developing of the Pinion Ridge uranium mill. The 500 ton/day facility is being developed by Energy Fuels ( TSE:EFR ) and will...

Coles Hill site has an estimated 119 million pounds of uranium worth over $5 billion at current prices This blog post is an edited version of an article published in Fuel Cycle Week , V9:N366, March 3, 2010, by International Nuclear Associates, Washington, DC. The long-awaited study on the environmental and economic impacts of the giant Coles Hills deposit , a proposed uranium mine site in Pittsylvania...

NRC Commissioners talk about Yucca Mountain The New York Times has excellent coverage this week of two speeches by NRC Commissioners Gregory Jazcko (right) and Dale Klein.  What’s significant about them is that both proceed from the point of view of the chairman’s role.  Jazcko is the current chair and Dale Klein is the past chair.  Although still a member of the Commission, Klein will...

It will produce Lead-212 for anti-cancer treatments AREVA Med LLC, a subsidiary of the AREVA group, announced March 10 the future construction of a facility on its Bessines site in France (Limousin region) which will produce medical-grade Lead-212* for anticancer treatments. Relying on its experience in radiochemistry and nuclear engineering, AREVA has developed innovative processes to extract rare...

Start-Up Of first commercial nuclear plant by 2025 ( NucNet ) Israel is proposing that its first commercial nuclear power plant  start operations within the next 10 to 15 years, the country’s infrastructure minister told NucNet March 5th. Uzi Landau , Israsel’s Infrastructure Minister, (right) who addressed the International Conference on Access to Civil Nuclear Energy in Paris, told NucNet that...

Idaho National Laboratory played a key role in bringing them back to life Nuclear Engineering International magazine is republishing the 105 reactor cutaway diagrams that it has produced over its 54-year history. Most of the diagrams, covering every major type of technology, including PWRs, BWRs, PHWRs, FBRs, HTGRs, Magnox and others, have been out of print for decades. The archives, which runs from...

What happens next after DOE gets conceptual designs from its $40 million investment? On March 8, 2010, the U.S. Department of Energy awarded $40 million to two firms (General Atomics, Westinghouse) for conceptual designs of a high temperature gas cooled reactor (HTGR). The designs are expected to focus on process heat applications for the petro-chemical industry. The reactor is generally known as the...

The money will be used for conceptual designs U.S. Secretary of Energy Steven Chu announced Mar 8 selections for the award of $40 million to two teams led by Pittsburgh-based Westinghouse Electric Co. and San Diego-based General Atomics for conceptual design and planning work for the Next Generation Nuclear Plant ( NGNP ).  The results of this work will help the agency determine whether to proceed...

Google and Amazon changes may require you to re-subscribe As some readers may know, Google acquired Feedburner a while back and has been slowly implementing changes for Blogger.  The RSS feed for this blog has changed, but re-directs should make the change seamless for most users.  In the event you stop seeing updates to your feed, here is the new RSS URL http://feeds.feedburner.com/blogspot...

Monju FBR ready to resume trial operations ( NucNet ) The Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA) submitted a plan Mar 2 to the country's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency (NISA) and the central Fukui prefecture for the resumption of trial operations at its prototype Monju fast breeder reactor (FBR) (Project website) Monju, which is owned and operated by JAEA, was shut down in December 1995 after...

World Bank does not offer loans for reactors ( NucNet ): March 8, 2010 Paris - French president Nicolas Sarkozy (right) urged  developing countries to embrace nuclear energy and called on financial institutions to help fund it so countries are not “condemned to rely on more costly energy that causes greater pollution.” “We need nuclear energy” to meet global goals for fighting and slowing climate...

Ignoring the fundamentals of electricity supply won’t change reality One of America’s top environmental leaders thinks expanding loan guarantees for new nuclear power plants is a bad idea. Carl Pope, (right) the Executive Director of the Sierra Club , writes in the Huffington Post that Congress should not approve the $36 billion increase the President asked for in his FY2011 budget. He says that safety...

A blue ribbon commission will hold its first meeting March 25-26 in Washington, DC A panel of nuclear energy experts appointed by the federal government will  take up the issue of what to do with 60,000 metric tons of spent nuclear fuel. Appointed by Department of Energy Sec. Steven Chu, the 15 members of a Blue Ribbon Commission will look at a broad range of options for managing the material...

Now that he actively supports the nuclear renaissance, the President needs all the help he can get to convince Congress to add $36 billion to the program The Obama administration served up a welcome surprise Feb 16 with a well-honed  speech supporting federal loan guarantees for new nuclear power plants. At the same time, the Department of Energy (DOE) awarded $8.3 billion , out of existing authority...

Net profits are down 6% on higher costs from Finland reactor project Areva, the French state-owned nuclear giant, posted better than expected financial results for 2009.  Net profits for the year were EUR552 million compared to EUR589 million in 2008.  The company provided guidance to stock analysts that it expects a substantial rise in revenue, an increase in the backlog of contract work...