Idaho Samizdat: Nuke Notes

President’s Science Advisor replies to Shanahan

Idaho Samizdat: Nuke Notes — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 01:15:00 GMT

John Holdren writes Obama approved $8.3 billion in federal loan guarantees and supports funding for Generation IV advanced nuclear energy R&D Readers of this blog will recall that John Shanahan, a Denver-based civil engineer who has worked on numerous nuclear power plant projects, wrote a letter Feb 1 to President Obama's Science Advisor John Holdren (right) about the administration’s support...(read more)

Illinois clears a path for new reactors

Idaho Samizdat: Nuke Notes — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 23:55:00 GMT

President Obama’s home state looks to join the nuclear renaissance The Chicago Tribune reports that the Illinois State Senate voted March 16 to drop the ban on building nuclear power plants in Illinois. The measure was sent to the House on a bipartisan 40-1 vote. According to the newspaper, Sen. Mike Jacobs , (D-Moline) who sponsored the proposal ( SB 3388 ), said Illinois follow the lead of President...(read more)

Away

Idaho Samizdat: Nuke Notes — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 15:30:00 GMT

On business travel next ten days I’ll be away on business travel until 3/25 so postings will be light during this time. If you want to keep up with the nuclear news, check out the listings in my blog roll and nuclear news sections. I hope to be able to hit Twitter once in a while during this time. Also, I’ll give mobile blogging a try, so look for a different format in the post headlines...(read more)

India expands Russian reactor deal

Idaho Samizdat: Nuke Notes — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 22:20:00 GMT

India 'Roadmap' includes four more Russian reactors at Kudankulam . . . but r uling coalition withdraws bill to cap liability for U.S. firms after protests from left-wing parties 15 March ( NucNet ): India has agreed a ‘roadmap’ for the construction of further nuclear power plants in the country in cooperation with Russia. Indian prime minister Manmohan Singh said on March 12 that the roadmap...(read more)

Indexing the nuclear renaissance

Idaho Samizdat: Nuke Notes — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 22:33:00 GMT

The profit potential of the global nuclear industry is closely tracked by several financial services The growth of nuclear energy over the next two-and-half decades will vastly shift energy use from carbon-based to carbon-free uses. The key elements of this shift include significant change from fossil fuel sources for electricity generation to uranium for nuclear reactors. Three nuclear energy indexes...(read more)

Pinion Ridge uranium mill under fire

Idaho Samizdat: Nuke Notes — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 18:04:00 GMT

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...(read more)

Virginia uranium study starts

Idaho Samizdat: Nuke Notes — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 02:29:00 GMT

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...(read more)

A tale of two speeches

Idaho Samizdat: Nuke Notes — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 05:33:00 GMT

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...(read more)

Areva to build medical isotope facility

Idaho Samizdat: Nuke Notes — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 19:32:00 GMT

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...(read more)

Israel seeks commercial reactor from France

Idaho Samizdat: Nuke Notes — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 17:02:00 GMT

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...(read more)

UK magazine relaunches reactor wallcharts

Idaho Samizdat: Nuke Notes — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 16:08:00 GMT

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...(read more)

Competitive scenario for NGNP

Idaho Samizdat: Nuke Notes — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 23:27:00 GMT

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...(read more)

DOE awards $40 million for NGNP

Idaho Samizdat: Nuke Notes — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 16:38:00 GMT

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...(read more)

RSS feed update

Idaho Samizdat: Nuke Notes — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 16:30:00 GMT

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...(read more)

Japan moves ahead with advanced nukes

Idaho Samizdat: Nuke Notes — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 16:12:00 GMT

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...(read more)