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Problematic 'pluthermal' era | The Japan Times Online
The 1.18 million-kW No. 3 reactor at Kyushu Electric Power Co.'s Genkai nuclear power plant in Saga Prefecture, which is Japan's first reactor using plutonium-uranium mixed oxide (MOX) as fuel, attained nuclear criticality last Thursday and started trial operations Monday (commerical operations are to start on Dec. 2). Thus "pluthermal" power generation has begun, but many problems remain unresolved.
MOX fuel, made of plutonium extracted from spent nuclear fuel and uranium, was primarily intended for use in a fast breeder reactor (FBR), the core of Japan's nuclear fuel-cycle plan. But the prototype FBR Monju in Tsuruga, Fukui Prefecture, has remained shuttered since a major accident in 1995. As a secondary step, the government in 1997 decided to adopt pluthermal power generation, which burns MOX fuel in ordinary light water reactors. But mishaps delayed its start by 10 years.
Electricity for Americans From Russia’s Old Nuclear Weapons - NYTimes.com
What’s powering your home appliances?
Multiple warhead ballistic missiles like the ones deployed at this site north of Russia's border with Kazakhstan are being dismantled. Some nuclear material goes to the United States.
For about 10 percent of electricity in the United States, it’s fuel from dismantled nuclear bombs, including Russian ones.
“It’s a great, easy source” of fuel, said Marina V. Alekseyenkova, an analyst at Renaissance Capital and an expert in the Russian nuclear industry that has profited from the arrangement since the end of the cold war.
But if more diluted weapons-grade uranium isn’t secured soon, the pipeline could run dry, with ramifications for consumers, as well as some American utilities and their Russian suppliers.
Already nervous about a supply gap, utilities operating America’s 104 nuclear reactors are paying as much attention to President Obama’s efforts to conclude a new arms treaty as the Nobel Peace Prize committee did.
Telluride environmental group sues Montrose County over uranium mill « Colorado Independent
Montrose County commissioners met in secret and had already made up their minds before approving a special use permit for a uranium mill in the Paradox Valley, a lawsuit filed in Montrose County District Court alleges.
The suit, filed by the Telluride-based environment organization Sheep Mountain Alliance, also accuses the commissioners of inadequately weighing the air and water quality impacts of an industrial milling operation in a valley zoned for agriculture.
Paradox Valley
Paradox Valley
The county attorney had not yet seen the suit and therefore couldn’t comment on its merits, according to the Telluride Daily Planet, but a representative of the company proposing the Piñon Ridge Mill, Energy Fuels of Ontario, Canada, said he expected such a delaying tactic.
Scientists: Nuke panel owes Utahns an apology - Salt Lake Tribune
Three scientists say federal nuclear regulators owe Utahns an apology -- and a policy change -- for allowing shallow burial of depleted uranium, including the 49,000 tons already at EnergySolutions Inc.'s landfill in Tooele County.
Geologist Stephen T. Nelson and climatologist Summer B. Rupper, both of Brigham Young University, and Kansas State University geologist Charles G. Oviatt, say it is "absurd" for the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission to deem depleted uranium safe for surface disposal.
The uranium enrichment waste gets increasingly hazardous for a million years, and that's too long to reasonably ensure the safety of any shallow landfills, especially one like the Tooele County site that is underwater a few hundred of every several thousand years. Those wet cycles could spread long-lived radioactive material throughout the Great Salt Lake basin, the scientists say.
Britain's nuclear strategy threatens destruction of Kalahari | Environment | The Observer
Namibian environmentalists warn expansion of uranium mining could devastate spectacular natural landscape
The hidden cost of Britain's new generation of nuclear power could be the destruction of the Kalahari desert in Namibia and millions of tonnes of extra greenhouse gas emissions a year, the Observer has discovered.
The desert, with its towering sand dunes and spectacular lunar-like landscapes, is at the centre of an international uranium rush led by Rössing Uranium, a subsidiary of the British mining giant Rio Tinto, and the French state-owned company, Areva, which part-manages the nuclear complex at Sellafield and wants to build others in Britain.
Salazar flooded with support for ban on Grand Canyon uranium mining « Colorado Independent
In 2003, there were a mere 100 mining claims in the million or so acres of public land surrounding Grand Canyon National Park. Now there are more than 8,500 – mostly for uranium – with more than 1,100 claims less than five miles from arguably America’s most iconic national park.
Late last week, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar received nearly 100,000 public comments supporting a permanent ban on new mining claims on the 1 million acres of national forest and Bureau of Land Management land surrounding the park.
ken salazar
And H.R. 644, floated by House National Parks, Forests and Public Lands Subcommittee chairman Rep. Raul Grijalva (D-Arizona) and cosponsored by 40 House members — including Colorado Rep. Jared Polis (D-Boulder) — would make permanent a temporary moratorium Salazar imposed in July.
Independent: EPA says Churchrock cleanup delayed
After receiving overwhelming opposition to a cleanup plan for the Northeast Churchrock Mine, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is going back to the local community to try to work through concerns. The Navajo Nation wants complete removal of an estimated 900,000 cubic yards of radium-contaminated soils.
U.S. EPA and former mine operator United Nuclear Corp., a subsidiary of General Electric, have opted for total removal of the most highly radioactive waste to an approved repository, possibly in Idaho, while low-level waste would be moved to the former UNC Mill, a Superfund site that eventually will be turned over to the U.S. Department of Energy’s Legacy Management for lifetime monitoring.
The Navajo Times Online - Uranium miners, widows get warm reception
It was a very belated thank-you, but appreciated nonetheless.
Some 300 former uranium workers and their family members braved an icy wind Oct. 30 to gather at tiny Cove Chapter and celebrate the first ever National Day of Remembrance for the nation's "Cold War patriots."
Cove was one of 13 communities selected from across the country to host the historic celebration in response to a Senate resolution in March setting aside Oct. 30 as a day to honor those who worked in the country's uranium mines and mills.
The House has yet to pass similar legislation, but is being lobbied heavily by the Cold War Patriots, an organization that advocates for uranium workers of the 1940s-70s.
WWW.WPCVA.COM: Uranium dust a problem
Over the last 2 1/2 years I have been talking about the dust problem that would accompany the opening of an open-pit uranium mine in Pittsylvania County.
I have spoken about the low-level radioactive dust that would come with the blasting and the tailing piles.
(Low-level radiation accumulates in the body).
I have spoken to the supervisors probably a dozen times, with absolutely no results.
Phil Lovelace has spoken more often than I have about leakage of radioactive water from the holding ponds.
He also has received dumb looks from the supervisors.
*
In fact, one of them sometimes looks as if he is asleep.
In my opinion five of the supervisors have paid so little attention that it appears they work with Virginia Uranium.
Cibola Beacon - Uranium miners honored at remembrance event
The first annual National Day of Remembrance in honor of former uranium and nuclear workers was observed Friday at the Cibola Convention Center.
Locally the ceremony was organized by the Cold War Patriots, a non-profit advocacy group for those who worked in the uranium and weapons industries. You may have noticed a couple of PT Cruisers painted with a Cold War Patriots motif around town and wondered, as we did, what this group's mission was.
The Associated Press: Ariz. governor opposes halt on new mining claims
Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer objects to a ban on filing new mining claims on nearly 1 million acres of federal land in northern Arizona for two years while a permanent prohibition is under study.
Most of the Bureau of Land Management and National Forest land covered by a July order is in the Arizona Strip located north of Grand Canyon National Park. The rest is located south of the canyon.
There's been a flurry of new mining claims, including for uranium.
Brewer sent Salazar a letter Friday saying adequate environmental protections are in place and that modern-day mining exploration creates "minimal impact to the land."
She also says economic impacts, energy independence and national security considerations support continued exploration.
NRC committee to meet to discuss uranium study | GoDanRiver
The National Research Council governing board’s executive committee will meet next month to discuss the study that would determine whether uranium can be mined and milled safely in Virginia.
The meeting will take place Nov. 10 in Washington and will be closed to the public, said Jennifer Walsh, spokeswoman for the National Academy of Sciences.
Walsh said she does not know if the committee will decide during next month’s meeting whether to approve the study.
Virginia Uranium Inc. seeks to mine and mill a 119-million-pound uranium ore deposit at Coles Hill, about six miles northeast of Chatham. VUI, through Virginia Tech’s Center for Coal and Energy Research, would pay for the study’s first phase focusing on the technical and public-safety aspects of mining.
The Associated Press: Planned uranium mill near Naturita gets local OK
A company that wants to build one of the first new U.S. uranium mills since the Cold War has won local approval and now needs state approval.
The Montrose County commissioners last month issued a permit to Toronto-based Energy Fuels Inc. for its proposed Pinon Ridge mill 12 miles west of Naturita (nat-yur'-EE'-tah) and about 340 miles southwest of Denver.
The company is preparing to submit a 12-volume application to state health regulators, triggering a technical review.
Many area residents welcome the possible return of high-paying mining jobs. Several uranium mills operated in western Colorado until the uranium market crashed in 1981 after the nuclear accident at Three Mile Island.
Native American Uranium Miners Still Suffer, As Industry Eyes Rebirth - Working In These Times
On the Navajo Nation, almost everyone you talk to either worked in uranium mines themselves or had fathers or husbands who did. Almost everyone also has multiple stories of loved ones dying young from cancer, kidney disease and other ailments attributed to uranium poisoning.
The effects aren’t limited to uranium miners and millers; whole families are usually affected as women washed their husbands’ contaminated clothes, kids played amidst mine waste and families even built homes out of radioactive uranium tailings.
A new demand for uranium power brings concerns for Navajo groups - washingtonpost.com
Uranium from the Grants Mineral Belt running under rugged peaks and Indian pueblos of New Mexico was a source of electric power and military might in decades past, providing fuel for reactors and atomic bombs.
Now, interest in carbon-free nuclear power is fueling a potential resurgence of uranium mining. But Indian people gathered in Acoma, N.M., for the Indigenous Uranium Forum over the weekend decried future uranium extraction, especially from nearby Mount Taylor, considered sacred by many tribes. Native people from Alaska, Canada, the Western United States and South America discussed the severe health problems uranium mining has caused their communities, including high rates of cancer and kidney disease.
Uranium to Exceed $50 on Olympic Dam Slowdown, Macquarie Says - Bloomberg
Uranium will rise above $50 a pound in coming weeks because of reduced production at BHP Billiton Ltd.’s Olympic Dam mine in Australia, Macquarie Bank Ltd. said.
Prices have added 9.8 percent over the past two weeks on concern about reduced supply following an accident at Olympic Dam, the world’s fourth-largest producing uranium mine. Uranium oxide concentrate for immediate delivery traded at $47.75 a pound on Oct. 19, Roswell, Georgia-based UxC said in a weekly report.
“Uranium will go up into the low $50s over the next month,” Max Layton, an analyst at Macquarie in London, said by phone today.
Russia aims to control 25% of global nuclear fuel market by 2030 | Top Russian news and analysis online | 'RIA Novosti' newswire
Russian state-controlled nuclear fuel supplier TVEL plans to control 25% of the world's nuclear fuel market by 2030, the company's vice president said on Tuesday.
The company, which currently controls 17% of the world's market of fuel for nuclear power plants, previously said it intended to gain a 30% share.
Pyotr Lavrenyuk said the adjustment was due to "a change in global nuclear power plant construction dynamics."
In 2008, there were 436 reactors in the world, with a total installed capacity of 370 GW. By 2030, their number is expected to increase to 660.
TVEL supplies fuel to 76 power generating reactors and 30 research reactors worldwide.
Probe into uranium mine leak continues - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)
The Commonwealth supervising scientist of the Ranger uranium mine at Kakadu National Park says investigations are continuing into water contamination at the site.
Alan Hughes has told a Senate estimates committee that Energy Resources of Australia has conducted geophysical surveys to determine the impact and extent of leaking from a tailings dam at the mine.
Mr Hughes says the company has only preliminary results from the surveys and is not sure if ERA will make the findings public.
"I understand that they are having significant discussions with the traditional owners and the Northern Land Council about tailings and seepage issues on an ongoing basis," he said.
Independent: Risky business: Could Utah be an option for Churchrock mine cleanup?
Could Utah be an option for Churchrock mine cleanup?
CHURCHROCK — The Nuclear Regulatory Commission does not believe there will be a problem with shipping steel piping contaminated with special nuclear material cross-country from a former uranium enrichment facility in Oak Ridge, Tenn., to EnergySolutions in Utah. But when it comes to disposal of 900,000 cubic yards of radium- and uranium-contaminated waste from the Northeast Churchrock Mine, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has found numerous arguments for leaving it on the Navajo Nation — an alternative tribal officials and the Churchrock community say is not an option.
EnergySolutions, formerly Envirocare of Clive, Utah., is seeking a fifth amendment to a 1999 order from the NRC that allowed it to possess special nuclear material below specified concentrations. The federal agency has prepared an environmental assessment and has concluded that a “finding of no significant impact” is appropriate.
The Gillette News-Record: Gov.: Don’t transfer uranium
Gov. Dave Freudenthal is trying to stop the transfer of $150 to $200 million worth of excess government uranium to the United States Enrichment Corp. that he says will hurt Wyoming’s resurgent uranium mining industry.
Freudenthal wrote a letter to the U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu on Monday. “There is no question that the non-competitive introduction of such a large quantity of uranium will adversely impact the uranium producing industry in my state,” he wrote There also would be an extra $450 million of excess government uranium transferred in the next three years, according to the letter.
“The loss of mining and mining-related jobs in Wyoming and elsewhere will be a direct outcome of the Department’s present course,” Freudenthal wrote.
Several uranium mines in Campbell and Sweetwater counties plan to re-open under new ownership in the next year. Uranium One Inc., one of the largest uranium mining operations in the world, plans to make Wyoming the center of its U.S. operations.
The company bought the Irigaray in-situ recovery central processing plant in Johnson County, the Christensen Ranch processing facility in southwest Campbell County and several uranium resources in the Powder River Basin for $35 million. Both processing facilities already are permitted and licensed, and the company hopes to start production next year.
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