Nuclear Waste Storage

DOE Budget Request Submitted
13 February 2007

NUCLEAR ENGINEERING INTERNATIONAL (UK) -- US secretary of energy Samuel W. Bodman announced President Bush’s $24.3 billion budget request for the Department of Energy (DoE) for the 2008 fiscal year, to strengthen energy security by diversifying resources and reducing reliance on foreign sources.

The FY 2008 request, which is 26% more than last year’s, is designed to accelerate the deployment of renewable energy, clean coal and nuclear. This comes through the Advanced Energy Initiative (AEI) which promotes the development of cleaner sources of electricity production and which accounts for $2.7 billion of the total DoE budget.

The Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management requests $495 million to further plan for a permanent, geologic repository for spent nuclear fuel and high-level nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain in Nevada. At $50 million below the FY 2007 request, the latest budget sets the DoE on a path to file a licence application no later than 30 June, 2008.
Source: www.neimagazine.com

Source Reliability: 7.5

-Josh

Uranium Mining and Milling

Uranium Cleanup Faces Delay-- Moab Decontamination Could Take 20 Years
9 February 2007

DESERT MINING NEWS (WASHINGTON) — The Energy Department's new 2028 completion date to clean up uranium-mill tailings in Moab shocked Rep. Jim Matheson at an Energy and Commerce Committee hearing Thursday.

Matheson asked Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman about the project's status and why the department has a pending request for a contractor to move only 2.5 million tons of waste over five years.
The project, as approved by Congress, is to move the 16 million tons of uranium mill tailings from a pile near the Colorado River, north of Moab, to a location near Grand Junction, Colo.
Bodman told Matheson that the department has made the decision to move the tailings pile, but the project is expected to take 20 years, with completion in 2028.
Source: http://deseretnews.com

Source Reliability: 7

-Tom

Nuclear Power Reactors

Company To Lease Land Along Snake River For Nuclear Power Plant
8 February 2007

SUNNY VALLEY NEWS (IDAHO) - Alternate Energy Holdings Incorporation (AEHI) announced thursday, 8 February 2007, that it has signed a lease agreement with an Idaho farmer to purchase 4,000 acres along the Snake River to build a 1,500 Megawatt nuclear reactor. The company claims they will use the energy to pump irrigation water, for Idaho’s energy grid, and to sell on the open energy market. Public Citizen Energy Program maintains the proposal is completely unnecessary to meet Idaho’s energy needs and could put local communities on the hook for millions. Michele Boyd, legislative director of Public Citizen’s Energy Program stated that “this land grab in Idaho by AEHI is obviously an effort to get in on federal taxpayer handouts... In fact, the billions in federal subsidies are not enough to make nuclear power cost-competitive, so those companies have snookered local communities into ponying up hundreds of millions more. I doubt that is what Idahoans have in mind.” Mr. Boyd is referring to the 2005 Energy Policy Act, which provides more than $12 billion in cradle-to-grave subsidies for new nuclear power plants.
Source: http://www.sunvalleyonline.com/news/article.asp?ID_Article=3042

Source Reliability: 7.5

-Ryan

Uranium Enrichment and Refinement

Nuclear Terrorism Risk Seen Growing
7 February 2007

REUTERS(LONDON)---Western governments must take seriously the possibility of terrorists exploding a nuclear bomb as the necessary materials and know-how for producing a nuclear weapon become easier to acquire, security analysts associated with the EastWest Institute argue in two new reports. In a separate report, London's influential Chatham House think-tank said it is feasible that terrorists could acquire an atomic bomb, build one themselves, create an "improvised nuclear device" or blow up a nuclear power station. According to Paul Cornish, the head of the international security program at Chatham House, the design, materials and engineering for a bomb "have all become commodities, more or less available to those determined enough to acquire them."
Source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wpdyn/content/article/2007/02/07/AR2007020701919.html

Source Reliability: 8

Comment: According to the EastWest Insititute, materials and know-how on how to make a nuclear bomb, will continue to become more accessible as more states move towards acquiring nuclear capabilities. One of the largest concerns is that terrorist organizations will acquire uranium that does not need to be put through the enrichment process, but however, can be used to create a low-grade improvised bomb. This bomb would not release as much force as an atomic explosion; however, the force would likely still be equivelant to that of an explosion of a few kilotons of TNT.

--Nate

Nuclear Conversion And Processing

Thorium Power Provides Update On Talks With Poland
9 February 2007

CCNMATTHEWS (MCLEAN)— Thorium Power Ltd. announced 9 February 2007 that discussions are currently underway with senior Polish government officials and representatives from the Swierk Institute of Atomic Energy in Warsaw regarding the development of nuclear power infrastructure in Poland. Over the past quarter, a regular series of meetings have been held between Thorium power delegates and the Polish government. and discussions continue to advance in a most positive manner. Thorium Power is a leading developer of low waste, non-proliferative nuclear fuel processing technology.

Poland has formally submitted its 2007 budget to the European Union. The budget includes a request of 95 million Euros ($123 million) over a six-year period specifically for the development of nuclear infrastructure. The scope of the projects include vetting light-water reactors for the generation of electricity, and high-temperature reactors for the generation of electricity and process heat for the gasification of coal and conversion of coal into liquid. The Thorium delegates and the Polish government representatives are giving particular attention to incorporating thorium-based fuels in their light water and high temperature reactor programs. The project also provides for the development of research reactors and expansion of the country's nuclear research facilities.
Source: http://www.ccnmatthews.com/news/releases/show.jsp?action=showRelease&searchText=false&showText=all&actionFor=634888

Source Reliability: 7.5

-Ian

Nuclear Waste Storage

Nuclear Storage: Ready, Willing, Able, And Undecided
6 February 2007

ROYAL SOCIETY OF CHEMISTRY (UNITED KINGDOM) -- An expert report into the UK's long term nuclear waste storage plans has concluded there are no insurmountable technical barriers to storing nuclear waste deep underground. But the report urges government policy makers to keep the public informed about their plans.

By the summer of 2007, the government hopes to unveil a report explaining how suitable storage sites can be selected. From the granite or crystalline rocks found in Scotland to the clays found through the Midlands and East of England, between a third and two-thirds of the UK is geologically suitable for storing waste some 300-1000 metres deep, Alan Hooper of Nirex UK told reporters at a press conference.

Another question facing the government is whether any repository should stay open for a time - allowing waste to be monitored and perhaps retrieved - or whether it should be instantly sealed. The scientific consensus was that sealing immediately was probably safer, said David Read of the University of Aberdeen.

Wherever nuclear waste ends up being buried, getting public consent will be just as important, experts warned. Even if the process went without a hitch from now on, it would take at least twenty years to complete, said Read.
Source: www.rsc.org

Source Reliability: 8

-Josh

Fuel Fabrication

Removal Of Damaged Fuel Completed At Paks
30 January 2007

WNN (PAKS) — TVEL removed some 30 damaged nuclear fuel rods from a washing tank at Paks 2. The undamaged reactor restarted on 30 December 2006. On 10 April 2003 water circulation in a nuclear fuel washing well was inadequate causing a Level 3 incident on the International Nuclear Events Scale. Highly radioactive material accumulated on the floor of the well as 30 nuclear fuel rods suffered damage from overheating. In remarks reported by Nuclear.Ru, Istvan Kovacs, director general of MVM, part owners of the plant, said he had personally insisted on choosing the bid from Russia's TVEL to complete the removal ahead of the other bidder, Areva NP, who had manufactured the original washing equipment when known as Framatome ANP. Kovacs said: "All fuel fragments and pellets have been removed, placed in special tubes and transferred to the hold-up pool." The recovery operation should be complete by March after the decontamination and removal of the tank, and the decontamination of washing well 2. Source: www.world-nuclear-news.org

Source Reliability: 8

Comment: The Paks Nuclear Power Plant is the only operating nuclear power station
in Hungary. The plant’s four reactors produce more than 40 percent of the electrical power generated in the country.

-Kelly