November, 2007

International nuclear agreements end nation's silence on big potential deals with GNEP and Russia. GNEP nations need Canada's uranium.  Russia needs its reactor technologies. Last summer when more than a dozen nations held a ministerial level diplomatic meeting in Vienna, Austria, on the...

Yet another try to supply nuclear energy to the tar sands region Bruce Power has signed a letter of intent to purchase the nuclear assets of Energy Alberta , which has already begun preliminary work on a proposal to construct a nuclear power plant in Alberta. Bruce Power owns and operates the Bruce nuclear...

New plant will use GE's ESBWR Reuters reports that Virginia-based utility Dominion Resources Inc has submitted an application to build a new nuclear reactor. Dominion's application is the third request by a U.S. utility to build a new nuclear reactor this year, The NRC has already approved an...

Two 1,700 Mw reactors will be built at coastal sites Bloomberg wire service reports Areva SA has won an 8 billion euro ($11.9 billion) nuclear reactor agreement from China, a record deal for the French company and twice as large as expected. The deal includes two reactors, uranium enrichment, and separate...

Areva here, there, everywhere French President Nicolas Sarkozy is visiting China this week and is expected to sign several major trade deals for French companies to do business there including Airbus and Areva . The three-day state visit is expected to net Areva a deal for two nuclear reactors and a...

Fed up with Turkey? Try This Recipe! In the spirit of Thanksgiving, and wanting to take a break from reading, thinking, writing, about nuclear energy, I'm offering my tried and true cooking instructions for something completely different. By Sunday night you will be fed up, literally, and figuratively...

One nuclear reactor at a time Over at the Atomic Insights blog, run by Rod Adams out of Annapolis, MD, there is a good place to start if you want to read about how people come to realize the nuclear energy has a place in the mix to address global warming. Rod has a post on the a book review by Spencer...

No nuclear initiative for California in 2008 Assemblyman Chuck DeVore pulled the plug this week on his quixotic quest to put an initiated referendum on the California ballot by June 2008 that would, if passed, have overturned the state's three decades old ban on new nuclear power plants. Reuters...

Government set to offer new investment opportunities With the derailed U.S.-India nuclear deal apparently back on the tracks, a uranium industry newsletter is reporting that giant Indian engineering firms are getting ready to build private sector nuclear plants in that country. Until now only the Indian...

Opposition parties lose clout over domestic issues, agree to IAEA review The Associated Press reports that there has been a political shift in India that may allow the long-delayed nuclear agreement with the U.S. to go forward. There are still significant barriers to the deal including U.S. political...

The Pebble Bed reactor gets a commercial boost Interfax reports from China that country will launch a new program to develop high temperature gas-cooled reactor ( HTGR ) a government official said at an industrial forum in Beijing this week. Cao Shudong, a senior official with China's Atomic Energy...

Western news media finally notices there might be a problem After rattling around the South African press for five days and some coverage by various blogs, including this one, and Danger Room at Wired, the break-in and shooting at South Africa's nuclear plant at Pelindaba got some ink in the New...

Contract work is underway The cost of cleaning up the uranium tailings along the Colorado river near Moab, UT, got a lot higher this week. The U.S. government said the cost rose by $200 million to $835 million Don Metzler, a DOE official, told the Salt Lake City Tribune it is "a realistic estimate...

The "all in" total could be $6,000/Kw In a report issued to clients last month Moody's Investors Service said the outlook on on new U.S. nuclear generation is "a sensible if risky path. Moody's looks on nuclear generation as a critical component in the US' current supply mix...

Attack at Pelindaba nuclear facility [Hat tip to John Robb at Global Guerrillas ] An attack by three or four masked gunmen on the Pelindaba nuclear facility in South Africa has left a senior emergency officer seriously injured. Anton Gerber, Necsa emergency services operational officer spoke to the Pretoria...

Uranium Resources places a big bet in New Mexico Does it have the cards to play the hand? By Dan Yurman, Contributing Reporter Fuel Cycle Week 11/06/07 V6 N253 Why do small companies place big bets? The answer is to become big companies. That's the objective of Uranium Resources ( Nasdaq:URRE ) as...

And also build a uranium enrichment plant to fuel them China and Russia signed a multi-billion dollar deal this week for nuclear reactors and a uranium enrichment plant all to be built by the Russians at Chinese sites. The deal comes just two weeks before French President Nicolas Sarkozy is scheduled...

This OP ED appeared in the Idaho Statesman today. Since the paper doesn't rack outside of the Boise area, and content rolls off its web page, I'm posting the full content here with the author's permission. November 06, 2007 Lane Allgood, Executive Director Partnership for Science and Technology...

Why can't the news media use it's head? Over at We Support Lee Ruth Sponsler has an analysis of how the news media covers the nuclear energy industry. Her focus is coverage in New England of the Yankee Atomic Energy Plant . She explains that the article discusses "what would happen"...

TransCanada might jump on nuclear bandwagon TransCanada Corp. says it is cautiously looking to join the short list of companies interested in Alberta's soaring power needs and seeking to meet them with nuclear energy. The Calgary-based company allows that it is doing "detailed homework"...

Federal loan guarantees and risk insurance are expect to help by: Dan Yurman, Contributing Reporter Fuel Cycle Week 10/23/07 V6 N251 NRG Energy ( NYSE:NRG ) and the South Texas Project Nuclear Operating Company said Sept 24 it will file a Combined Construction and Operating License Application (COLA...

Uranium recovery activity noted in Wyoming The dramatic rise in the price of uranium has stimulated new mining activities throughout the West and nowhere is this trend more visible than in Wyoming. The NRC received an application from Energy Metals to construct and operate a in-situ uranium recovery...