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Posted: May 24, 2013 11:04 CST
Welcome to the NSSPI News Digest, a continuation of the service formerly provided by Dr. Paulo Barretto. We are happy to be able to bring you this service once again and hope that you find the new service as relevant, balanced, and timely as its predecessor.
Posted: May 23, 2013 14:14 CST
IAEA
An IAEA expert team completed its initial review of Japan's efforts to plan and implement the decommissioning of TEPCO's Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station. The team visited Japan from 15 to 22 April 2013, provided a draft report to Japanese officials on the last day of that mission, and delivered to the Government of Japan its final report, which has just been made available on-line.
"Our final report reflects that the Roadmap was developed early after the accident and that Japanese wor...
Posted: May 23, 2013 14:12 CST
Wall Street Journal
Vermont, New York, Massachusetts and Connecticut are petitioning the Nuclear Regulatory Commission for a more thorough review of issues connected with storage of highly radioactive nuclear waste at plant sites.
Posted: May 23, 2013 14:11 CST
World Nuclear News
Finland's energy policy framework - including the expanded use of nuclear energy - paves the way for a more sustainable energy system in the longer term, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA).
In a review of the country's energy policies, the IEA found that "Finland has succeeded in developing a particularly well-diversified national electricity production mix, with roughly three equal thirds of its production coming from renewable, nuclear and hydrocarbon energies respectively."
Posted: May 23, 2013 14:08 CST
Seattle Times- Yuri Kageyama
Keeping the meltdown-stricken Fukushima nuclear plant in northeastern Japan in stable condition requires a cast of thousands. Increasingly the plant's operator is struggling to find enough workers, a trend that many expect to worsen and hamper progress in the decades-long effort to safely decommission it.
Tokyo Electric Power Co., the utility that runs the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant that melted down in March 2011 after being hit by a tsunami, is finding that it can barely meet the headcount of ...
Posted: May 23, 2013 14:07 CST
Deutsche Welle
Japan's nuclear regulators and an atomic energy company are locked in a battle over the safety of the Tsuruga plant. Environmentalists say it is a test case for the future of nuclear energy in the country. After an extensive study, a panel of experts appointed by the NRA has concluded that an active fault line lies immediately beneath the No. 2 reactor at Tsuruga and that it should be decommissioned at the first opportunity.
The study into the seismic resilience of the plant was only ordered...
Posted: May 23, 2013 14:05 CST
Washington Post
Russia’s top military officer on Thursday voiced skepticism about deeper nuclear arms cuts, saying they should require parallel reductions in non-nuclear precision weapons. The statement by chief of Russia’s military General Staff, Gen. Valery Gerasimov, appeared to signal the Kremlin’s reluctance to negotiate a new nuclear arms deal with Washington.
“We can’t take the path of cutting only strategic nuclear arsenals and leaving outside the framework of talks other weapons, in which some of o...
Posted: May 23, 2013 14:04 CST
American Security Project- Kevin Lalama and Katharyn Nicolle
Nuclear challenges have changed over the past twenty years, but they have not disappeared. Although the Cold War nuclear conflict no longer exists, the threat of nuclear terrorism remains very real. Since 1993, the International Atomic Energy Agency’s Illicit Trafficking Database has documented 615 incidents of theft or loss of nuclear or other radiological materials, sixteen of which involved highly enriched uranium.
Moving forward, there are many areas of shipping container security that ca...
Posted: May 23, 2013 14:02 CST
BBC
Suicide bombers have struck a military camp and a French-run uranium mine in two towns in north-west Niger.
A bomb at a barracks in Agadez killed at least 19, including 18 soldiers, officials told the BBC. Four attackers died and a fifth is holding four army officers hostage.
Both attacks were carried out as people prepared for the early morning prayer just after 05:00 local time (04:00 GMT), BBC West Africa correspondent Thomas Fessy reports.
Posted: May 23, 2013 14:01 CST
Chicago Tribune
A U.S. House of Representatives committee approved legislation on Wednesday seeking to impose tighter sanctions on Iran, the latest congressional effort to slow development of the Islamic Republic's disputed nuclear program.
The "Nuclear Iran Prevention Act of 2013" passed the House Foreign Affairs Committee by a unanimous voice vote and is expected to easily pass the full 435-member chamber, where it already has about 340 co-sponsors. A vote by the Republican-controlled House is likely withi...
Posted: May 23, 2013 14:00 CST
ISIS-David Albright, Christina Walrond, and Andrea Stricker
The ISIS has released an analysis of the May 22 IAEA report on the implementation of NPT safeguards in Iran and the status of Iran’s compliance with Security Council resolutions. Key findings include: The IR-40 heavy water reactor at Arak appears to be nearing completion with operation expected in the second half of 2014; continued construction of the IR-40 reactor is in violation of United Nations Security Council resolutions. The number of installed IR-1 centrifuges at Natanz Fuel Enrichmen...
Posted: May 23, 2013 13:57 CST
The Guardian- Julian Borger
IAEA reports Iranian heavy water reactor approaching completion but Tehran stays well under red lines set by Israel. The Red Line, the most important single indicator that tells us how close to a conflict we might be, shows there is still breathing room for talks when the elections are over. The report says that Iran's stockpile of 20% enriched (a half-way house between low enriched uranium for nuclear power stations and weapons grade stuff for bombs) is now 182kg, which is up 15kg from the l...
Posted: Mar 20, 2013 10:08 CST
Since Dr. Barretto will be involved in conducting the IAEA Nuclear Energy Management School, which will take place at Texas A&M University from March 18th through April 5th, there will be no Paulo’s Corner during this time.
Posted: Mar 15, 2013 17:39 CST
CBC NEWS
Canadian nuclear suppliers are undertaking a trade mission to the United Kingdom next week.
Ten companies that supply parts and services to CANDU reactors are hoping to pick up some of the work that's being created as Britain expands its nuclear program.
The Organization of Canadian Nuclear Industries represents almost 200 companies and about 30,000 workers that supply parts and services to the CANDU fleet of reactors.
The organization has held trade missions in the past to Romani...
Posted: Mar 15, 2013 17:22 CST
By Wolf Richter, ENERGY TRIBUNE
(originally published Mar 13, 2013)
Catastrophic nuclear accidents, like Chernobyl in 1986 or Fukushima No. 1 in 2011, are very rare, we’re incessantly told, and their probability of occurring infinitesimal. But when they do occur, they get costly. So costly that the French government, when it came up with cost estimates, kept them secret. But now the report was leaked to the French magazine, Le Journal de Dimanche. Turns out, the upper end of the cost spectrum of an accident at a single reactor at the plant chosen for the stud...
Posted: Mar 15, 2013 16:59 CST
Editor: Mu Xuequan , XINHUA NEWS AGENCY
Commenting on Iranian plans to submit a written promise to the United Nations that it will not seek to develop nuclear bombs, the diplomats told Xinhua on condition of anonymity that the promise made no sense without substantial step to meet the world's concerns.
The diplomats urge Tehran to increase the transparency of its nuclear program, to meet the demands of the P5+1 countries, namely China, US, Britain, Russia, France, Germany, and to cooperate with the UN nuclear watchdog to clarif...
Posted: Mar 15, 2013 16:44 CST
Naeem Salik and Kenneth N. Luongo, ARMS CONTROL ASSOCIATION
(originally published Mar 14, 2013)
....Pakistan has taken its responsibility for nuclear security seriously. It has collaborated with the United States on best practices, training, and personnel screening. It is participating in international forums devoted to preventing nuclear terrorism and improving nuclear security. It has made strides domestically to improve the legal and regulatory system for preventing proliferation of sensitive materials and technologies. Not least, the authorities in Pakistan, the first Islamic countr...
Posted: Mar 15, 2013 16:38 CST
NTI-GSN
British Defense Secretary Philip Hammond on Thursday said the United Kingdom still needs its nuclear deterrent, the London Daily Telegraph reported.
Hammond made his comments during a trip to Scotland, where the governing Scottish National Party hopes that a 2014 vote on independence will allow for ejection of British Vanguard-class submarines and Trident ballistic missiles now housed in the country. There is also an ongoing debate on whether the United Kingdom needs to move ahead with a ...
Posted: Mar 15, 2013 16:29 CST
By Diane Barnes, GSN-NTI
A U.S. House of Representatives panel on Thursday passed new legislation to ensure the nation is in compliance with two international nuclear security agreements, but it does not address points of contention from an earlier draft blocked in the Senate last year.
The bill would complete U.S. ratification of the International Convention for the Suppression of Acts of Nuclear Terrorism. The pact, which entered into force in 2007 and now has 84 states parties, requires member nations to crimin...
Posted: Mar 15, 2013 16:22 CST
By Rachel Oswald, GSN-NTI
“I’m cautiously optimistic that we will find a way because there is interest in both sides in continuing important aspects of this cooperation,” said Andrew Weber, Defense undersecretary for acquisition, technology and logistics on matters related to WMD defense programs.
The Nunn-Lugar Cooperative Threat Reduction program since 1991 has supplied Russia with substantive U.S. financial and technical assistance for eliminating and securing aging nuclear warheads, chemical warfare material...
