Blogs

Over the course of the history of NEI Nuclear Notes, I've assiduously avoided sharing coverage from the financial press for a variety of reasons, foremost of which is the fact that we shouldn't be in the business of providing investment advice. But this morning I'm compelled to share a clip...

I returned last night from a short vacation to Washington, DC. I am such an atomic geek that my idea of a vacation is to spend a couple of days at the Nuclear Energy Assembly (NEA) in a dim hotel conference room surrounded by a crowd of business leaders, many in dark suits who qualify [...] The post...

16 May (NucNet): Horizon Nuclear Power has signed “a major contract” with its reactor technology provider and primary contractor, Hitachi-GE Nuclear Energy Ltd, setting the framework for design work to be undertaken for the proposed new nuclear build...

Ceres has produced a new report called Benchmarking Air Emissions, which shows that the electric generating business has done a significant job in reducing a variety of greenhouse gases, notably nitrogen oxide, sulfur dioxide and carbon dioxide. Nuclear energy does not weigh heavily into the report because...

Europe faces a "lost decade" in low carbon development, the continent's electricity industry association Eurelectric has warned, due to signals that detract from the ultimate goals of energy policy. ...read more

China Guangdong Nuclear Power Group (CGNPC) has changed its name to China General Nuclear Power Group to reflect the group's ambitions to grow outside of Guangdong and China itself. ...read more

When I read John Funk’s post about a pair of goldfish found in a steam tunnel at a nuclear power plant, the first things that came to mind were Homer Simpson and PETA. Apparently, the same thing happened for many other people, too.  But not the NRC, the...

15 May (NucNet): Nuclear vendors should ensure that the appropriate infrastructure is in place in any country that is considering their technologies and should also carry out “due diligence” on risks associated with the supply chain, the chairman of the...

Used nuclear fuel management is a topic that comes up frequently in the world of politics and anti-nuclear activists. The U.S. used fuel policy has been dominated by the once-through cycle concept, which resulted in used fuel being labeled as a waste product—a waste product with up to 96% recoverable...

Neil Sheehan Public Affairs Officer, Region I   It’s easy to imagine the sense of distress that must have washed over a portable nuclear gauge user one recent morning when he realized the device he had stowed in the back of his truck was missing. The...

14 May (NucNet): Opponents of Southern Company’s plan to build two reactors at subsidiary Georgia Power’s Vogtle nuclear site have failed to persuade a federal appeals court to revoke the construction and operating licences (COLs) and the reactor design...

Westinghouse and China's State Nuclear Power Technology Corp have formed a joint venture to develop the global AP1000 supply chain. ...read more

A four-year process is planned to rebuild the cover over Fukushima Daiichi 1, equipping it to remove used reactor fuel still stored there. ...read more

Uranium production has begun at North Butte, a satellite facility to Cameco's Smith Ranch-Highland in situ leach uranium project in Wyoming, in a step described as a significant milestone for the company's US operations. ...read more

14 May (NucNet): South Africa will continue preparing for the roll-out of a nuclear energy programme, including reaching a final investment decision on procurement for the plants, the energy ministry has said. ...read more

A letter in the Baltimore Sun suggests the paper  had featured an interesting op-ed recently. First, the letter : Dan Ervin's commentary on lifting restrictions on U.S. companies supplying nuclear power equipment abroad is completely misleading ("A nuclear opportunity," May 6). Nuclear...

Residents will be able to repair tsunami damage in the town of Futaba after the Japanese government decided to prepare for the removal of parts of the town from the Fukushima evacuation zone. ...read more

EnBW Kernkraft has formally applied to the state of Baden-Wurttemberg for permission to decommission and demolish two nuclear units forced to close by German politicians in response to the Fukushima nuclear accident. ...read more

On Saturday, May 11, 2013, the Tampa Bay Times published a lengthy piece by Ivan Penn titled Levy nuclear plant more costly than a natural gas facility that uses a detailed analysis with substantial “error bars” around cost estimates to show that under nearly all scenarios considered, the...

12 May (NucNet): The UK government today renewed its “firm commitment” to establishing a national geological disposal facility for higher-activity radioactive waste and called for suggestions on how to make progress choosing a site. ...read more

12 May (NucNet): The World Association of Nuclear Operators (Wano) will begin its biennial general meeting in Russia this weekend with recommendations put forward by its own Post-Fukushima Commission at the top of the agenda. In an interview with NucNet...

For the nuclear industry, safety is the top priority, and it goes to great lengths to minimize radiation exposure to the public and employees. So exhaustive are these measures that nuclear power plants only account for .1% of the annual radiation that a typical American is exposed to. Nearly half come...

If anything set the table for the American nuclear industry’s response to the accident at Fukushima Daiichi, it was the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. After that event, all essential infrastructure and its security was put on the menu for a rethink. For all kinds of power plants, an important...

Michael Norris Reactor Licensing Team Leader Emergency Preparedness Division   When you think of the NRC’s role in emergency preparedness, nuclear power plants probably come first to mind. While we certainly pay a lot of attention to commercial reactors...

Most of the highly active liquid waste produced from the reprocessing of Material Test Reactor fuel at the UK's Dounreay site has now been cemented into drums ready for disposal. ...read more