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• Post-Yucca nuclear waste strategy group

  America will develop a new strategy for long-term waste management under a 'Blue Ribbon' commission. Used nuclear fuel recycling will be one of the options on the table for the group. Posted Feb 01 2010, 11:20 AM by World Nuclear News Filed under: DOE, nuclear waste, Steven Chu, storage, nuclear, reprocessing, commission, blue ribbon

• Supercomputers study reactor core behaviour

  A new computer algorithm that enables scientists to view nuclear fission in much finer detail has been developed by researchers at the US Department of Energy's Argonne National Laboratory. The code could be used in the development of new reactor designs. Posted Jan 27 2010, 09:39 AM by World Nuclear News Filed under: DOE, National lab, nuclear, core, Argonne National Laboratory, supercomputer, fission

• New loan guarantee manager

  Jonathan Silver has been appointed executive director of the US Department of Energy's (DoE's) loan guarantee program in a move meant to speed up deployment of the support. He will report to energy secretary Stephen Chu, who has a "commitment to strengthen and streamline the DoE's operations." The loan guarantee program was announced by President George Bush in 2005 but none of the $20.5 billion of guarantees for new nuclear projects have yet been assigned despite the deadline for applications passing over one year ago. Silver's career includes early investment in alternative energy and advisory roles to the Department of Commerce. Posted Nov 11 2009, 07:45 AM by World Nuclear News Filed under: DOE, loan guarantees, Steven Chu, department of energy, loan, guarantee, Jonathan Silver

• New technical director for American Centrifuge

  USEC has appointed a new project technical director for its beleaguered American Centrifuge program. Gerald Prudom, who will coordinate all technical aspects of the project to build a centrifuge uranium enrichment plant based on US-developed technology, has already been with the project since 2005, prior to which he worked for over 30 years for the US Department of Energy (DoE) and US Navy's Naval Reactors Program. Financing worries which have beset the project were compounded earlier this year when the DoE denied it a federal loan guarantee, although it later agreed to give USEC a further six months to address its concerns before reaching a final ruling. In a newly released update, USEC said it is working to address those concerns and hopes to have its AC100 Lead Cascade in operation in early 2010. Posted Nov 03 2009, 11:39 AM by World Nuclear News Filed under: DOE, USEC, reactor, us enrichment, department of energy, us enrichment corp, gerold prudom

• Opening access to nuclear R&D documents

  The US Department of Energy (DoE) has made available through the Internet thousands of documents and publications related to nuclear research. In collaboration with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the DoE's Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI) has made more than 180,000 documents publicly available through the IAEA's International Nuclear Information System (INIS). The INIS web-based database works to preserve nuclear knowledge by digitizing historic nuclear energy research documents dating from 1970 through to the early 1990s. The database contains over 3 million bibliographic records and 225,000 full-text documents and was opened to the public for free, unrestricted, online access in April 2009. Yury Sokolov, IAEA deputy director general for nuclear energy, said, "Thanks to the collaborative work of the IAEA and its member states, scientists and students in the nuclear field now have instant access to important research and technical information over the Internet." Speaking of the greater accessibility of such information, OSTI director Walt Warnick commented, "This tremendous body of knowledge is thus enjoying a renaissance of use and interest, and science progress will accelerate." Posted Oct 29 2009, 11:24 AM by World Nuclear News Filed under: IAEA, DOE, international atomic Energy Agency, publications, office of scientific and technical information, documents, osti, department of energy

• Second chance for USEC

  The US Department of Energy has agreed to postpone by some six months a final review of USEC's loan guarantee application for the American Centrifuge Plant. The additional time will allow USEC to address the concerns that caused the DoE to deny the application only last week. Posted Aug 05 2009, 11:56 AM by World Nuclear News Filed under: DOE, USEC, loan guarantees, Steven Chu, centrifuge

• Fatal blow to GNEP?

  The US Department of Energy is cancelling the wide-ranging environmental analysis of the Global Nuclear Energy Partnership (GNEP) project. Its decision follows a change in government policy on commercial reprocessing. Posted Jun 29 2009, 11:59 AM by World Nuclear News Filed under: DOE, GNEP, global nuclear energy partnership

• UK energy department in Harry Potter movie

  Employees of the UK government's Department of Energy and Climate Change should beware enchantments if they decide to visit the department's London office this weekend: it is being used for filming a scene in the next Harry Potter film, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows . Staff have been warned that filming will take place over the weekend of 27-28 June in and around the loading bay area and although they will still be able to enter the Whitehall Place building, Scotland Place and Great Scotland Yard will be closed off amid enhanced security. In an earlier film in the series about the boy wizard, the location doubled as the backdrop for the visitors' entrance to the Ministry of Magic, when visitors gained access to the Ministry through a public telephone box. No such box exists at the location in reality. In JK Rowling's novel Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows , the entrance to the Ministry is concealed in a public lavatory. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows is the seventh and final novel in the series and is being filmed in two instalments, with the first film due to be released in 2010. Posted Jun 26 2009, 10:55 AM by World Nuclear News Filed under: UK, DOE, entertainment

• Contract to downblend weapons-grade uranium

  Some 12 tonnes of 'surplus' US highly-enriched uranium is to be downblended and stored under a $209 million contract from the US Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA). Posted Jun 24 2009, 11:14 AM by World Nuclear News Filed under: DOE, nnsa, downblend, National Nuclear Security Administration

• Support for US nuclear universities

  The USA is to invest in a range of university nuclear programs in a new round of spending. Almost $9 million will go to 29 universities and 86 scholars to support the "important zero-carbon energy source." Posted Jun 17 2009, 09:47 AM by World Nuclear News Filed under: DOE, Steven Chu, education, universities

• Nuclear R&D gets US federal funding

  "Cutting edge" nuclear research projects at US universities have been selected to receive Department of Energy funding, US energy secretary Steven Chu has announced. Posted May 07 2009, 11:47 AM by World Nuclear News Filed under: DOE, Steven Chu, research

• Proliferating janitor pleads guilty

  [Associated Press, 26 January] Roy Lynn Oakley, 67, who worked on contract as a janitor at the US Department of Energy's shut-down K-25 atomic weapons uranium enrichment plant in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, has pleaded guilty to trying to sell stolen parts from the plant. Oakley smuggled six pieces of enrichment kit from the plant in 2006 including three 10cm-long 'barrier' tubes for separating highly enriched uranium (HEU) in K-25's gaseous diffusion process. Oakley first offered the parts to France, by telephoning consulates in Atlanta and Chicago as well as the French Embassy in Washington. But having mastered uranium enrichment over 40 years earlier, France had no need for the parts and officials informed the FBI immediately. In a sting operation, Oakley met an undercover FBI agent posing as a representative of a foreign government and sold him the parts for $200,000. Oakley was promptly arrested. Having pleaded guilty in court to disclosing restricted data in violation of the Atomic Energy Act, the hapless would-be proliferator now faces up to six years in jail. Posted Jan 30 2009, 11:06 AM by World Nuclear News Filed under: Uranium, DOE, Uranium enrichment, Uranium Resources

• Do something with DU, says US watchdog

  The US Department of Energy has not done enough to find uses for the depleted uranium left over from uranium enrichment and should do more to avoid having to treat the entire inventory as waste, according to the department's own internal watchdog. Posted Jan 15 2009, 11:39 AM by World Nuclear News Filed under: Uranium, Nuclear Fuel, DOE, Nuclear Fuel Reprocessing, Uranium enrichment

• US considers options for its uranium stocks

  The US Department of Energy has a plan to release a large part of its uranium holdings to the market. Stocks of Russian origin are earmarked for the first cores of new US reactors. Posted Dec 18 2008, 12:17 PM by World Nuclear News Filed under: Uranium, Russia, DOE

• Used fuel contract signed for new US plant

  Duke Energy has signed a contract with the US Department of Energy (DOE) for the disposal of used fuel from its proposed William States Lee III nuclear power station. Under the terms of the contract, the DOE will accept and permanently dispose of all the station's fuel, for which Duke will pay a levy of $1 per megawatt-hour for electricity generated and sold from the plant. The terms are consistent with those in place for existing nuclear plants. The US Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1992, which requires operating nuclear power plants to have a contract with the DOE for disposal services, was recently extended to cover radioactive waste generated by new nuclear power reactors. This means that new plants will require a waste contract before they can receive a construction and operating licence (COL) from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). Duke Energy chief nuclear officer Dhiaa Jamil described the contract as "a vital step in supporting the timely licensing of Lee Nuclear Station." Posted Nov 11 2008, 11:35 AM by World Nuclear News Filed under: DOE, Duke Energy, Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1992, William States Lee III nuclear power station