Nuclear Mining and Milling

Rio Tinto Underlines Australia's Opportunity For Uranium
02 February 2007

PEOPLE’S DAILY ONLINE (CHINA)— The world's second biggest mining company Rio Tinto has said big opportunities are opening up for Australia to meet growing world demand for uranium. "We have got some prospects for increasing our uranium production in the two-to five-year time frame," said Rio Tinto Chief Executive Leigh Clifford on February 2, 2007. "So in the relatively short time frame, and clearly the nuclear power industry is going to be supplied with uranium from somewhere, there is a real opportunity for our group and Australia to be the supplier and be the reliable supplier," he said. Source: http://english.people.com.cn/200702/02/eng20070202_346974.html

Source Reliability 7.5

-Tom

Uranium Enrichment and Refinement

Diplomats Say Iran Has Begun Assembling Machines At Underground Uranium Enrichment Plant
2 February 2007

ASSOCIATED PRESS (VIENNA)---Hundreds of workers in Iran have set up piping, control panels and electric cables at the Natanz underground uranium enrichment plant in Iran, diplomats said today, February 2. This is the final step before installing equipment that the international community fears could be used to make nuclear arms. The diplomats accredited with the International Atomic Energy Agency emphasized that the work at the plant was preliminary. But one diplomat said that centrifuges were already being lowered by freight elevator into the facility, along with other equipment needed to assemble "cascades''. Cascades are centrifuges in a series that spin and re-spin uranium gas to the required level of enrichment. These diplomats said that to their knowledge, no centrifuges had yet been set up. Source: http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/headline/world/4520623.html

Source Reliability: 8

Analysis: Due to evidence that Iranian workers have been working at this underground facility for at least the past three weeks including, laying down piping, control panels and electrical cables, and other evidence that suggests that centrifuges have begun to be lowerd down into the facility, it is likely that the Iranian government will begin to install 3000 gaseous centrifuges at the Natanz facility by next week. A diplomat, associated with the International Atomic Energy agency also stated, today, that all the preliminary work for installation on the centrifuges has been completed at the Natanz facility and that all that is left is the actual installation of the 3000 centrifuges.

Analytic Confidence: 7

--Nate

Nuclear Conversion And Processing

India Has No Constraint To Proceed With 'Closed Fuel Cycle'
30 January 2007

HINDUSTAN TIMES (MUMBAI)— India will not have any constraint to proceed with the "closed fuel cycle" as Russia has recognised India as its equal partner as well as a responsible nuclear country, top officials of the Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL) said 30 January 2007. The NPCIL statement follows a 25 January 2007 agreement where four Russian nuclear reactors will be constructed in Kudankulum by 2012 to 2013. NPCIL officials further stated that the Indo-Russian nuclear agreement signed on 25 January 2007 stands in "sharp contrast to Indo-US nuclear deliberations in which the whole agenda apart from providing economic benefit to US business, further restricts 'even' India's indigenously created technologies, under the guise of non-proliferation."

"Issues on spent fuel was never a problem with Russians and they have clearly said about the use of closed fuel cycle with the Russian reactors," NPCIL officials further stated. India would be able to reprocess spent nuclear fuel to produce plutonium for nuclear weapons when the closed fuel cycle is used. Source: http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/181_1915499,0008.htm

Source Reliability: 6.5

-Ian

Nuclear Waste Storage

America Faces Bigger Risk Than Agency Claims
29 January 2007

CHICAGO TRIBUNE (CHICAGO) -- A Chicago Tribune investigation found that the U.S. Energy Department is exaggerating its progress in securing tons of nuclear-weapons fuel spread across the globe. Among the ways the government overstates its success is through a numbers game that ignores the highly enriched uranium in many reactors around the world.

Documents and interviews show that one of the first things energy officials did, after restructuring its program to retrieve bomb fuel, was to make their job easier: They quit trying to remove bomb fuel from eight reactors that proved to be difficult cases, including one in Russia using four nuclear bombs' worth of fuel a year. In all, the Bush administration is trying to remove weapons-grade fuel from 60 research reactors worldwide, often speaking of this list as if it were complete. However there are at least 41 more reactors using highly enriched uranium fuel that the U.S. is not addressing.

Only 7 percent of the known quantities of U.S.-supplied spent fuel has been shipped back to America. Eighteen tons remain spread worldwide. Much of that fuel is in Europe and other parts of the developed world, but experts say the material is a potential threat no matter where it is.

The week of 21 January 2007 provided a fresh reminder. Georgian authorities disclosed they caught a man trying to sell highly enriched uranium he had hidden in plastic bags inside his pocket.

He came from the nation with the largest supply of vulnerable bomb fuel: Russia. Source: chicagotribune.com

Source Reliability: 8

Analysis: It is likely that the majority of the 18 tons of U.S.-supplied spent fuel remaining throughout the world will be shipped back to the U.S. or secured elsewhere within the next decade. Nearly 20% of the outstanding 18 tons is located at one facility in Obninsk, near Moscow. Furthermore, as the number of relatively “easy” locations to extract weapons-grade spent fuel from decreases, the U.S. Energy Department will begin to focus its resources on more difficult/troublesome locations that this source claims it has neglected to consider.

Analytic Confidence: 6

-Josh

Nuclear Power Reactors

PSEG N.J. Hope Creek Reactor Shut
29 January 2007

REUTERS (NEW YORK) -- Public Service Enterprise Group Inc.'s (PSEG) will shut down its 1,049-megawatt Hope Creek nuclear power station in New Jersey by early Monday, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) said. On Friday, the unit was operating at full power. The Hope Creek station, which entered service in 1986, is located in Hancock’s Bridge in Salem County, about 40 miles south of Philadelphia. One MW powers about 800 homes in New Jersey. PSEG told the NRC it planned to file for a 20-year extension of Hope Creek's original 40-year operating license in Sept. 2009. After the NRC accepts another application, it usually takes the nuclear regulator about 22 months to make a decision on a license renewal without a hearing and about 30 months with a hearing. PSEG told the NRC it planned to file for a 20-year extension of Hope Creek's original 40-year operating license in Sept. 2009. Source:
http://tinyurl.com/3e552j

Source Reliability: 9

-Ryan

Nuclear Conversion And Processing

Renova And Tekhsnabexport Team Up With Uranium
22 January 2007

KOMMERSANT (MOSCOW)— Viktor Vekselberg's Renova Group and OAO Tekhsnabexport (TENEX) on Friday 19 January 2007 announced a joint venture to conduct uranium exploration and production in South Africa, Namibia and Gabon. Renova partner Mark Buzuk told Kommersant that the venture may later extend to the Dordon-Aimak and Gurvan-Bulag deposits in Mongolia. An industry source said that Renova may receive up to a 50-percent share in the African joint ventures with Tekhsnabexport, the latter’s first deal with another Russian firm and the most lucrative for a partner since a 25-percent deal with the Japanese firm Mitsui. Buzuk told Kommersant that Renova would completely finance the project, adding that Tekhsnabexport would handle sales of uranium, while Renova would have the right to sell accompanying metals, such as gold. Kommersant quoted unnamed analysts as applauding Renova’s uranium deal, where profitability can reach 80 percent. Source: http://www.kommersant.com/p735629/Renova_Tekhsnabexport_uranium/

Source Reliability: 7.5

Comment: Tekhsnabexport has not indicated any plans over processing the fuel at conversion facility at Angarsk, Russia. Developing nuclear programs in Japan, China, and India are likely destinations for the yellowcake.

-Ian