January, 2011

Decades of distrust drive the former governor’s heated rhetoric Cecil Andrus (right) is a big man, politically, and physically which means that when he stands up and starts shouting a lot of people pay attention. The former Idaho governor did just that earlier this month in opposition to a plan by the...

It is a weekly round-up of the best blog posts from the leading U.S. nuclear bloggers If you want to hear the voice of the nuclear renaissance, the Carnival of Nuclear Energy  Blogs is where to find it. Past editions have been hosted at NEI Nuclear Notes , Next Big Future , Atomic Insights , ANS...

Revenue has dropped and the future of the new enrichment plant isn't on a firm financial footing This blog post is an expanded versions of my coverage published in Fuel Cycle Week V10:N408 January 20, 2011, by International Nuclear Associates, Washington, DC. USEC ( NYSE:USU ) announced Jan 11 it...

When it comes to new nuclear reactor contracts, where you sit in world diplomacy matters Brazil and Turkey are two nations with growing economies that want nuclear energy to provide carbon emission free electricity for their factories, cities, and to support them as regional exporters of power to their...

The sparsely populated province thinks node balancing its far flung grid would work Brad Wall, the entrepreneurial provincial premier of Saskatchewan, (right) knows that just mining 20% of the world’s uranium supply won’t fuel the region’s economy forever.  For years Wall has wanted to move up the...

The voice of the nuclear renaissance is found in a weekly wrap up The 36th Carnival of Nuclear Energy Bloggers is up at ANS Nuclear Cafe.  It features blog posts from the leading U.S. nuclear bloggers and is a roundup of featured content from them. If you want to hear the voice of the nuclear renaissance...

Action against an investment firm funding NuScale could jeopardize its quest to commercialize a 45 MW light water reactor Guest blog post by Tamar Cerafici One month after charging Don Gillispie, CEO at Alternative Energy Holding Inc., with fraud, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) issued another...

Licensing issues could push prototypes projects off course An innovative program to build prototypes of multiple designs of small modular reactors (SMRs) at the Savannah River Site (SRS) is getting off to a rocky start. The anti-nuclear group Friends of the Earth (FOE) is charging that the Department...

A government policy groups says the country should avoid building too many units too quickly The Bloomberg wire service reported Jan 11 that the Chinese State Council Research Office published a policy paper in its Outlook Weekly that the country must avoid building too many new nuclear reactors too...

Green groups line up to shut down Davis-Besse in Ohio An unusual coalition of national anti-nuclear groups and locals from the Green Party of Ohio and Sierra Club have begun to organize efforts to deny the Davis-Besse nuclear power station a renewed license from the NRC. In mid-December the Green Party...

No deals for reactor components without nonproliferation commitments India's refusal to sign the nuclear nonproliferation treaty may delay, or even stop, delivery of massive reactor pressure vessels from Japan Steel Works (JSW). India has plans to build 20 GWe of new nuclear reactors in the next...

Government rejects bargain basement bids by Bruce Power and SNC-Lavalin Group The Canadian government’s efforts to sell the commercial divisions of Atomic Energy Canada Ltd. (AECL) appear to have collapsed after the only two bidders, also both Canadian firms, walked away from the negotiating table. The...

The voice of the nuclear renaissance is found in a weekly wrap up The 35th Carnival of Nuclear Energy Blogs is up at NEI Nuclear Note s.  The  carnival features blog posts from the leading U.S. nuclear bloggers and is a roundup of featured content from them. If you want to hear the voice of...

American firms can now sell nuclear technologies to and team with Russia’s state-owned nuclear energy export projects 11 Jan ( NucNet ) The US and Russia have taken “a major step forward” in  civil nuclear energy cooperation by bringing into force an agreement that will open up new possibilities...

New builds advance in UAE, Brazil, and Switzerland In December it became abundantly clear that the nuclear renaissance does exist outside of Asia. Progress was reported in the Middle East, South America, and Europe. There was even some movement of sorts in the U.S. The UAE and Brazil have in common the...

Reporter Matt Wald will cover recent advances in nuclear technology and the future of the industry America is looking for electricity that is clean, safe, and cheap. Where does nuclear power fit in?  For those who want to explore the history and prospects of nuclear technology, The New York Times...

The two firms have a combined total of six Westinghouse AP1000 reactor license applications pending with the NRC Duke Energy announced Jan 10 it plans to buy Progress Energy for $13.7 billion in a deal that will create America’s largest utility with the largest fleet of commercially operational nuclear...

Jacques Besnainou says the Calvert Cliffs III reactor project is alive and well Areva U.S. CEO Jacques Besnainou (left) told a conference call of nuclear bloggers on Friday Jan 7 that the Calvert Cliffs III reactor project is still moving forward.  He said that Unistar and EDF, which now own the...

It is more interesting than Winky Dink Areva, the French state-owned nuclear energy giant, has a new video out about the transition of energy from burning wood to harnessing the power of the atom.   It is very cool stuff. It features a one minute ride through time with music by the London Philharmonic...

It allows a national laboratory to test small amounts of spent nuclear fuel In what looks like a ray of sunshine in the historically tense relationship between the Idaho National Laboratory and the State of Idaho, a new agreement expands the lab's ability to conduct tests on commercial spent nuclear...

The U.S. is being left behind in the race for market share To see where India's drive is headed to build 20 GWe of new nuclear powered electric generation capacity in the next 10 years, look at its aluminum and steel industries. As India relaxes its government rules that limit private sector participation...

Rising stock prices fuel lucrative private placements This is my extended coverage from Fuel Cycle Week, 12/16/10, V9:N405 published by International Nuclear Associates, Washington, DC. The relentless rise of the spot price of uranium over the past six months from $40-to-$60/share has had a positive...

A state-run nuclear group may also be pursuing fast reactors The Associated Press and other wire services reported Jan 3 that China has begun to reprocess spent nuclear fuel. The technology, tested at the China National Nuclear Corp ( CNNC ) plant in the Gobi desert in remote Gansu province, enables...

There is no shortage of coverage. The question is how good is it? This is a proposal for the American Nuclear Society ( ANS ) to annually make awards to the mainstream news media for excellence in coverage of nuclear science, engineering, and the global industry. The purpose of the award(s) is to recognize...