Taiwan May Vote Next Year On Site For Nuclear Waste

07 February 2007

CHINA POST (TAIPEI) —After failed bids to move the radioactive material to Russia, China and North Korea, Taiwan may ask residents near four sites of a proposed nuclear waste dump to vote on the plan next year. The selected site will get NT$5 billion in compensation. Taipower, the island's biggest power producer (and the state-owned utility) runs nuclear plants that supply more than a fifth of the electricity on an island where the 200 earthquakes that strike in an average year have heightened public opposition toward the use of reactors. Taipower had agreements with North Korea and Russia for nuclear waste disposal. [US interests] have blocked the plan to store waste in North Korea because facilities there are "inadequate," while Russia has since banned imports of nuclear waste. Source: http://www.chinapost.com.tw/news/archives/business/200727/101989.htm (Reliability: 3)

Nuclear Wasteland : The French Are Recycling Nuclear Waste. Should Other Countries Follow Suit?

February 2007

IEEE SPECTRUM MAGAZINE (NEW YORK, NY) — Areva would clearly be interested in licensing its reprocessing and MOX Reactor technology to non-nuclear-weapons countries which do not choose to participate in the US Department of Energy’s (DOE) Global Nuclear Energy Partnership (GNEP). The GNEP proposes that nations with “secure, advanced nuclear capabilities” reprocess the spent fuel from non-nuclear-weapons countries. However, without breeder reactors, which burn up all the residual fissile material found in spent fuels, reprocessing will simply concentrate high-level waste in a form that’s hotter and harder to handle. France’s attempt to build and run breeder reactors reliably at a commercial scale failed. Source: http://www.spectrum.ieee.org/feb07/4891 (Reliability: 5)

Analysis: It is highly likely that an increase in nuclear fuel reprocessing and the use of MOX fuel will increase nuclear proliferation, accidental criticalities (unexpected nuclear chain reactions during reprocessing), and nuclear accidents and contamination involving waste. (Analytic Confidence: 4)

Nuke Lobby Will Use Care With Reid

26 January 2007

PAHRUMP VALLEY TIMES (WASHINGTON, DC) — Alex Flint, senior vice president of government affairs at The Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI), said that the NIE does not plan to push Congress for bills this year to speed waste disposal at Yucca Mountain. However, the NEI will nurture policies that encourage new nuclear plant construction, and will work to get the Energy Department (DOE) enough money from Congress to meet a June 30, 2008 deadline to submit a license application to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). The license application initiates a formal review for Yucca Mountain . "Our eggs are in that basket," Flint said. Source: http://www.pahrumpvalleytimes.com/2007/Jan-26-Fri-2007/news/12198065.html (Reliability: 4)

Decision May Affect Waste Storage

19 January 2007
BRATTLEBORO REFORMER (BRATTLEBORO, VERMONT) —The Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled in June 2006 that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) erred when it refused to consider the environmental effects of a terrorist attack on a proposed dry cask site at the San Luis Obispo nuclear power plant in California. The NRC appealed the ruling to the U.S. Supreme Court. On 16 January 2007 the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear the appeal. “This case establishes a precedent that could apply to any NRC licensing action," said Gordon Thompson of Mothers For Peace, one of the organizations that sued the NRC. Source: http://www.reformer.com/headlines/ci_5044640 (Reliability: 5)

Nuclear

quick brown fox lives next to a nuclear reactor