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Posted: May 24, 2013 14:55 CST
Newsday
A top North Korean envoy delivered a letter from leader Kim Jong Un to Chinese President Xi Jinping on Friday and told him Pyongyang would take steps to rejoin stalled nuclear disarmament talks, in an apparent victory for Beijing's efforts to coax its unruly ally into lowering tensions.
The meeting followed an unusual half-year gap in high-level contacts during which Pyongyang angered Beijing by conducting rocket launches, a nuclear test and other saber-rattling -- spiking tensions with Sout...
Posted: May 24, 2013 14:34 CST
NTI
The U.S. nuclear arsenal might be subject to cutbacks by a major budget review under way at the Defense Department, despite enjoying relative protection this year from largely across-the-board sequester spending reductions, a senior Defense official said on Thursday.
“Every part of the program, including nuclear weapons, is being addressed,” the official said in an interview, referring to the ongoing Strategic Choices and Management Review led by Deputy Defense Secretary Ashton Carter.
A sen...
Posted: May 24, 2013 14:34 CST
Hartford Courant
Attorneys general from four New England states, including Connecticut, are asking federal regulators to consider other ways to handle spent nuclear fuel in their review of environmental impacts of the waste's storage on-site at the plants.
"State residents, particularly those living near active or retired nuclear power plants, need to know the potential environmental impact of long-term storage of nuclear waste," Attorney General George Jepsen said in a written statement. Vermont, Massachuset...
Posted: May 24, 2013 14:32 CST
Enformable Nuclear News
Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) has announced that it plans to install water gauges in the basement of the reactor buildings of Unit 1, Unit 2, and Unit 3 at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power complex. Workers at the crippled nuclear facility will start installation of the water gauges in Unit 1 and Unit 2 in mid-June.
Posted: May 24, 2013 14:29 CST
Wall Street Journal - Ted Nordhaus & Michael Shellenberger
Over the last several decades, the cost of electricity from solar panels has declined dramatically, while the cost of building new nuclear plants has risen steadily. This has reaffirmed the long-standing view of many environmentalists that it will be cheaper and easier to reduce global warming emissions through solar electricity than with new nuclear plants. But while continuing price declines might someday make solar cheaper than nuclear, it's not true today. Yet the mythmaking persists.
Posted: May 24, 2013 14:28 CST
World Nuclear News
Two consortia will now compete for contracts worth $1.5 billion to assemble the nuclear and conventional island of Brazil's Angra 3 after owner Electronuclear re-opened bidding.
The tender was initially launched in 2011 but suspended after another consortium challenged its disqualification from the assessment process. Late in 2012 the Court of Audit finally cleared the way for Eletronuclear to proceed.
Posted: May 24, 2013 14:27 CST
Businessweek
Czech government parties clashed over a $10 billion project to build new nuclear reactors as the plan pit the finance minister against the prime minister.
The expansion of the Temelin nuclear power plant is becoming a focus of political disputes one year before general elections after Finance Minister Miroslav Kalousek said he has doubts the project is an “efficient” investment. Premier Petr Necas likened Kalousek’s comments to those of an “accountant” failing to address long-term strategy.
Posted: May 24, 2013 14:26 CST
New York Times
The Chinese leader, Xi Jinping, bluntly told a North Korean envoy Friday that his country should return to diplomatic talks designed to rid North Korea of its nuclear weapons, according to a state-run Chinese news agency.
“The denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula and lasting peace on the peninsula is what the people want and also the trend of the times,” Mr. Xi said in a meeting at the Great Hall of the People with Vice Marshal Choe Ryong-hae
Posted: May 24, 2013 14:25 CST
NTI
A senior U.S. Defense Department official on Thursday indicated the Obama administration is nearly at the end of successful negotiations with Russia to maintain bilateral work under the Nunn-Lugar Cooperative Threat Reduction program, ITAR-Tass reported.
The only obstacle to reaching a new deal before June 16 would be administrative rather than political, according to Kenneth Handelman, principal deputy assistant Defense secretary for global strategic affairs.
Posted: May 24, 2013 14:24 CST
NTI
A brief synopsis of what is next in nonproliferation and international security.
Posted: May 24, 2013 14:23 CST
Carnegie Endowment for international Peace - Mark Hibbs
(originally published May 23, 2013)
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) released a report to its Board of Governors this week detailing its findings on Iran’s nuclear program over the last three months. It is clear that the program is steadily progressing. Next week the board will convene in the shadow of the Iranian presidential election to decide how to respond.
In a Q&A, Mark Hibbs explains that Iran’s strategy of negotiating to buy time while continuing unabated with technology development and deployment has been ...
Posted: May 24, 2013 14:21 CST
ISIS - Andrea Stricker
On May 6, 2013, the U.S. Department of Justice’s Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois announced the arrest of a Taiwanese father and son for allegedly conspiring to send U.S. machines relevant to the production of advanced weapons systems to Taiwan in violation of U.S. sanctions put in place against the father in 2009. The Justice Department believes the goods may have been sent onward to North Korea. According to the Department of Justice press release on the arrests, the father,...
Posted: May 24, 2013 14:21 CST
NTI
Dozens of nations on Thursday wrapped up two weeks of naval drills and preparations spanning several key Middle Eastern water bodies and shipping routes, the U.S. Naval Forces Central Command in Bahrain said.
The drill, the largest of its kind to date, had 6,500 participants operating 35 ships, roughly 70 aircraft and about 18 remotely guided robots for defusing underwater bombs.
Meanwhile, 20 more people and private firms fell under U.S. Treasury Department penalties on Thursday for allegedl...
Posted: May 24, 2013 14:18 CST
World Nuclear News
Areva has confirmed that 15 people were injured in a terrorist attack at its Somair uranium mine in Niger, one of whom later died the same day. The site was the target of one of two simultaneous attacks in the north-west of the country.
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...
