Some other stories from the nuclear industry you may have missed:

Idaho Samizdat: NRC public meeting Dec 10 on Areva's Idaho plant
‘Areva's planned $2.4 billion uranium enrichment plant, to be built about 18 miles west of Idaho Falls as the crow flies, needs a license from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) before it can break ground. To that end, the agency is holding a public meeting in Idaho Falls on Wednesday, December 10th, to explain the licensing process.’

CJBK: Candu reactor could be bomb springboard: Greenpeace
‘One of Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd.'s flagship nuclear reactors can be misused by other countries to build atomic weapons, an environmental group warns in a new report.’

Tinicenter.com: Africa Focus: Toxic scandal in Somalia gave birth to new piracy
‘The escapades of Somali pirates made headlines last week. But the media has ignored the injustice behind the phenomenon, writes Simon Assaf. When the Asian tsunami of Christmas 2005 washed ashore on the east coast of Africa, it uncovered a great scandal. Tonnes of radioactive waste and toxic chemicals drifted onto the beaches after the giant wave dislodged them from the sea bed off Somalia.’

Newspost Online: Solar power as good as nuclear energy to run Martian colony in future
‘With growing concerns about the safety of a nuclear powered mission to Mars, a research team has suggested that solar energy may be a viable alternative, and would supply all the power a Martian colony would need.’

Haber27.com: Iran proposes joint nuclear consortium
‘Iran has proposed that a joint consortium to construct and develop light water reactor plants be established by Persian Gulf states’

Press TV: Iran builds reactors with native expertise
‘An official in the Iranian nuclear organization says the country has acquired necessary native knowledge for building nuclear reactors.’

Or so says India journalist Pallava Bagla, in France at the invitation of the French government, about France’s so-called flagship European Pressurized Water Reactor which Bagla suggests India is considering purchasing. ‘Mother’ is a useful comparison, we suppose, all the other reactors being smaller and making messes, smells, noises and, generally behaving like feral children.

Regular readers of Nuclear Reaction will of course know all about Areva’s EPR. The technology has quite the reputation as disastrously expensive and extremely problematic. Not that you’d find that out from Bagla’s piece that extols the reactors virtues as told to him by Areva.

He says ‘the Finnish [EPR] reactor being made at Olkiluoto is likely to start generating power next year’. He’s only three years out, with recent estimates saying the Olkiluoto reactor won’t now produce a watt of electricity until 2012 at the earliest after huge schedule overruns. He also fails to mention the massive cost increases and multiple safety violations that have dogged the Finnish project.

Bagla goes on to describe EPRs as ‘monsters’. Here we can agree. When you look at the two current EPR construction projects in France and Finland – rampaging, out of control, terrifying and ugly – ‘monsters’ is the word we’d use as well.

In another demonstration of the lack of public confidence in nuclear power, citizens of Zurich, Switzerland voted yesterday to phase-out the city’s use of nuclear energy. Over 76 per cent of those voting supported the phase-out.

More details when we have them.

Some other stories from the nuclear industry you may have missed:

Punch Nigeria: FG begins review of nuclear power plants’ legislation
‘Nigeria’s quest to generate electricity from nuclear sources gained steam on Monday, with the inauguration of a committee to review the legal framework guiding the implementation of the national nuclear power programme.’

CNN: AEP: Cook Nuclear Unit May Not Return To Service Until 2010
‘American Electric Power Co. (AEP) said Monday the shutdown of a unit at its Cook nuclear power plant could stretch into 2010.’

Newsday: NJ nuclear plant shut down after electric problem
‘The Oyster Creek Nuclear Generating Station remains shut down following a weekend problem with one of its two main electrical transformers. Just after 9 p.m. Friday, an electrical fault occurred in one of the transformers that converts Oyster Creek's output for use on the grid that serves the region. That caused the plant to shut down automatically. ’

Indian Express: Use of sea route by terrorists raises concerns about ports, n-reactors
‘The use of sea route by terrorists to reach Mumbai has raised concerns about the security of India’s nuclear establishments, many of which are near the seashore. The heightened concern came on a day when the Union Ministry of Shipping, Road’

Philstar.com: Napocor to sign memo with Korean firm for nuclear power
‘The National Power Corp. (Napocor) will sign a memorandum of understanding with the Korea-based Korea Electric Power Corp. (Kepco) for the conduct of a feasibility study on the rehabilitation of the Bataan Nuclear Power Plant (BNPP), officials said over the weekend.’

Tricity Herald: First glove boxes removed from Hanford's 300 Area
‘The first contaminated glove boxes have been removed from Hanford's 300 Area just north of Richland as cleanup progresses there to more hazardous buildings.’

Reuters: Hill to meet N.Koreans in Singapore this week
‘U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Chris Hill will meet North Korean officials in Singapore ahead of December 8 multilateral talks in Beijing on persuading North Korea to abandon its nuclear programs, a U.S. official said on Monday.’

‘The nuclear industry has hitched a ride on the climate change bandwagon, proclaiming that nuclear power will solve the world’s global warming and energy problems in one sweeping “nuclear renaissance.” As you might expect, there’s a catch. Nuclear energy faces escalating capital costs, a radioactive waste backlog, security and insurance gaps, nuclear weapons proliferation, and expensive reactor decommissioning that will magnify the waste problem.’

Read the rest

Greenland Minerals & Energy has discovered a ‘major’ but ‘inferred’* deposit of uranium of over 85,000 tonnes in the south of the country.

If the company were to bring all the ore to the surface and process it for use without any significant wastage, the world’s nuclear reactors would use 75 per cent of it in just one year according to uranium usage figures from the World Nuclear Association.

* Inferred, adjective. Conveyed indirectly without words or speech: implicit, implied, tacit, understood, unsaid, unspoken, unuttered, wordless. Idioms: taken for granted.

Ever wished you were one of the corporate big boys with prime ministers and presidents hanging on your every word and throwing cash at you? Ever wanted to display your incompetence and open yourself to ridicule on a global stage?

Well, now you can with Areva’s Build your own model of the EPR. You too can have your own state-of-the-art, third generation, much-delayed and over-budget farce.

So get out your scissors, glue, and stupidity, and make your own untried and untested construction disaster. Decorate it in a seasonal way and send us a photograph. We’ll award a prize to the best one. We’ll also award a prize for the best excuse for not finishing your reactor on time. Poor quality materials? Improperly trained construction workers? Guidelines not followed properly? You decide.

The deadline is December 24. No, wait, it’s January 31st. May 1st? 2012?

Some other stories from the nuclear industry you may have missed:

The Hindu: Earthstone signs pact with Niger Republic
‘MUMBAI: The Earthstone group, a diversified multinational group headed by non-resident Indian (NRI) Pankaj Shah, has, through its wholly-owned subsidiary Earthstone Uranium FZE, entered into an agreement with the Government of the Republic of Niger, whereby the Republic of Niger will grant Earthstone Uranium four exploration permits for uranium and associated elements’

Pacific Free Press: Canada's Uranium Bonanza Trampling First Nations
‘Late on November 28th, the Ardoch Algonquin First Nation was advised that Ontario, Frontenac Ventures Corporation, the Algonquins of Ontario and Shabot Obaadjiwan First Nation had signed a memorandum of accommodation in regard uranium exploration in the Algonquin homeland near Ardoch, Ontario. This memorandum of accommodation was signed while a consultation between Ontario and the Ardoch Algonquin First Nation was still being developed to insure a comprehensive and fair process. The present agreement represents the colonial relationship that the Crown has had with Aboriginal people for the last century and a half in which treaties and land sales follow an extended period of intimidation, denial of responsibility, divide and conquer, and outright illegal actions. The history of this situation speaks for itself.’

The State: Critics assail nuclear plan
‘Opponents took aim Monday at SCE&G’s $9.8 billion plan to build two nuclear reactors at its Jenkinsville plant.’

Energy Central: Spinning Value
‘Entergy Corp.'s planned spin-off of its unregulated nuclear generation units is creating a lot of stir among shareholders and activists alike. The idea is to create additional value for those shareholders willing to incur more risks. But opponents of the concept fear that ratepayers and taxpayers will bear the costs of any failures.’

Great Lakes IT Report: NextEnergy Boss Sees Sharp Job Growth In Renewables
‘Within a relatively few years, Keith Cooley believes that Michigan could see hundreds of thousands of new jobs in renewable energy technologies. And Cooley is in a place to help make that happen -- he's the new CEO of NextEnergy, the state's renewable energy industry accelerator.’

The London Times: EDF may sell capacity to win British Energy deal
‘EDF could be forced to auction part of its UK power-generating capacity on the open market to clear competition hurdles facing its proposed £12.5 billion takeover of British Energy, The Times has learnt. The measure is one of a number of remedies being discussed between European regulators in Brussels and the French state-controlled energy group.’

The new report commissioned by Greenpeace warns that Canada’s CANDU-6 nuclear reactor, designed by Atomic Energy of Canada Limited (AECL) in the 1970s, is unsafe and too dangerous to build according to modern regulatory standards.

The report, “The Risks of Operating Candu 6 Nuclear Power Plants,” warns that countries hoping to buy new reactors, such as Romania, Turkey, Argentina and Jordan, would have to forgo thorough safety reviews if they were to build a CANDU-6. These include standards intended to prevent catastrophic radiation releases from terrorist attacks or accidents.

Read the full report in English or in French.

You might be forgiven for thinking it was EPR week on Nuclear Reaction. This is the third article about Areva’s ill-fated ‘state of the art’ European Pressurized Reactor this week. And it’s only Wednesday.

To tell the truth though, with the torrent of tales of disaster coming out of the much troubled EPR construction sites in Finland and France, pretty much every week is EPR week. In fact, the stories come so thick and fast we’re struggling to keep our forthcoming EPR briefing paper up to date.

Today’s news is that EDF, partners in the EPR construction at Flamanville in France, are to announce today that the cost of power generated by the reactor will be 20 per cent more expensive than planned. That’s 55 euros a megawatt hour instead of the 46 euros promised in May 2006 when the project began meaning the project will cost a total of €4 billion, up from the original €3.3 billion.

And with the reactor’s completion slipping a year to 2013, it looks like the history of the EPR construction in Olkiluoto, Finland is repeating itself in Flamanville.

Some other stories from the nuclear industry you may have missed:

Policy Forum Online: Obama and North Korea: The Road Ahead
‘Peter M. Beck, Professor at American University in Washington, D.C. and Yonsei University in Seoul, notes "several suggestions that would greatly increase the chances of successful negotiations" with the DPRK including insisting "that any deal reached between Pyongyang and Washington incorporates improved North-South relations... If the North follows through with its threat to close border crossings between the two Koreas, it would completely undo the rapprochement of the past decade. Washington should make it clear that this is unacceptable."’

YaleGobal Online: Burma’s Nuclear Temptation
‘Rich with uranium and desperate for control, the Burmese junta may find a nuclear option attractive’

World Nuclear News: Japan Steel Works to triple capacity
‘Japan Steel Works (JSW) has announced that it will triple its capacity for manufacturing heavy forged components for nuclear power plants by mid-2012.’

World Nuclear News: India outlines nuclear power ambitions
‘India has reaffirmed its commitment to thorium fuel cycle, proposing to construct a dozen indigenously-developed nuclear power reactors. These units will be supplemented by imported conventional reactors.’

AFP: EDF reveals $4.5-bln counter-bid for half of Constellation nuclear
‘French state-controlled electricity giant EDF said on Wednesday it was ready to pay 4.5 billion dollars (3.53 billion euros) for half of the nuclear activities of US group Constellation Energy.’

Caboodle.hu: Hungary's new nuclear waste dump receives first load
‘The first 16 barrels of low and medium radioactivity waste were deposited at Hungary's new nuclear waste facility at Bataapati (SW) on Tuesday.’

Times Union: Nuclear cleanup to cost billions
‘While it will cost taxpayers billions to clean out dangerous radioactive waste from a defunct nuclear fuel reprocessing plant, storing it there would cost billions more over the centuries - and risk contamination of Lake Erie.’

Gulf News: Abu Dhabi meet shows the way to diversify energy resources
‘The 14th ECSSR Energy Conference on Nuclear Energy in the Gulf Region, which concluded on November 26, discussed the relatively recent nuclear programmes in India, Pakistan, Iran and Israel, as well as future peaceful nuclear energy programmes in GCC countries.’

As we said yesterday, EDF have confirmed that the construction of their EPR reactor in Flamanville, France will cost 20 per cent more than planned.

The spin as to why costs have risen is, we have to say, mighty:

The updated construction cost of the EPR being built in Flamanville came out at €4bn in 2008 euros, (+20% higher than the previous estimated cost of €3.3bn in 2005 euros). This update takes into account increase in prices and the effects of some contractual indexes due to higher raw material costs and the impact of technical and regulatory evolutions.

The ‘impact of technical and regulatory evolutions’? What does that mean, you may be asking. It sounds like deliberately obfuscating language doesn’t it? Allow us to translate. What EDF are saying here is that costs have had to rise because they themselves did not pay enough attention to the required standards of quality and safety.

Just take a look. From the outset there were problems with supervision and quality control. The initial blasting to prepare the site had problems. The reinforcing of concrete was not done properly. Cracks were found in the reactor’s foundations. In April this year the French nuclear watchdog ASN announced that a quarter of the welding they had inspected in the reactor’s steel liner was defective. Construction work was halted for a month. The list goes on and on.

EDF sacrificed quality and safety standards in favour of keeping to the construction schedule. Ironically, those short cuts only led to more delays and cost overruns.

Some other stories from the nuclear industry you may have missed:

7th Space: DOE Cites Bechtel National Inc. for Price-Anderson Violations
‘Washington, D.C. – The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) today issued a Preliminary Notice of Violation (PNOV) to Bechtel National, Inc. (BNI) for nuclear safety violations at DOE’s Hanford Site near Richland, Washington. BNI is the contractor responsible for the design and construction of the Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant (WTP) at the Hanford Site in southeast Washington State. ’

Centre for Biological Diversity: Bush Administration Withdraws Rule Protecting Grand Canyon From Uranium Mining
‘In its latest last-minute attempt to roll back environmental regulations, the Bush administration today announced that it will finalize a new rule that eliminates a regulatory provision requiring the Bureau of Land Management to withdraw lands from mining when Congress determines that there is an emergency situation requiring immediate action. The new rule defies a June 25th emergency resolution by Congress requiring Secretary of Interior Dirk Kempthorne to withdraw a million acres of federal lands adjacent to Grand Canyon National Park from uranium mining.’

The Daily Telegraph: Rolls Royce and Balfour Beatty lead British involvement in new nuclear power stations
‘Areva and the two British companies said they would work closely with French energy producer EDF and E.ON, making the first new European Pressurized Reactors (EPRs) in the UK for 20 years.’

The Hindu: Nuclear business to top Medvedev agenda
‘NEW DELHI: Russian President Dmitry Medvedev arrived here on Thursday with a pact on furthering nuclear cooperation capping the agenda.’

Associated Press: EdF to lead up to euro50B in nuclear plant investment
‘Electricite de France SA said Thursday it will invest up to euro50 billion with its partners over the next 12 years to build next-generation nuclear plants in Europe, the United States and China.’

We offer this jewel without comment:

‘…there is a direct relationship between energy used per capita and standard of living, and those who are practicing 100% conservation live in abject poverty.’

(Clinton R. Wolfe of Citizens for Nuclear Technology Awareness)

Here’s chief executive of Areva, Atomic Anne Lauvergeon, needing some affection:

My dream is that in future we will be helped and defended by Barack Obama and Gordon Brown, as well as by Nicolas Sarkozy.

And you have to think, good grief, isn’t the nuclear industry helped, defended, subsidised, bailed-out, and generally treated like a cute little puppy enough by governments around the world?

‘My dream is that in future we will be helped and defended…’? What you have here from Ms Lauvergeon is an implicit admission that her company and its shoddy products couldn’t exist without government help. Areva, she’s saying, is basically a parasite.

Areva’s had so much love and attention but it wants more, more, MORE!

Here it is again:

Global energy giant Areva submitted the second and final part of its loan guarantee application to the [US] Department of Energy Dec. 2, asking for the federal government to guarantee $2 billion in loans to finance its proposed Eagle Rock uranium enrichment facility near Idaho Falls.

That’s a lot of help and defending you want there, Areva. Do really need that much? You’re very needy, in fact. We’re worried about you.

Well we couldn’t end the week without one more EPR story, could we? Things continue to go from bad to worse in Flamanville, France, where EDF and Areva are building their ‘state-of-the-art’, third generation reactor.

Yesterday we heard that the cost of the project has risen by a fifth from €3.3bn to €4bn in 2008. Today we hear that there are yet more problems with the reactor’s construction. The French nuclear watchdog ASN has announced this week that they have found defects in the reactor’s steel liner (the metal shell that protects the reactor) due to corrosion. They don’t seem to be having much luck with that liner – earlier this year if was found that a quarter of inspected welds in it were defective

And you know what? The French government are preparing to announce a second EPR for France. Isn’t that great?

(For more details, in French, visit Greenpeace France)

We were just getting ready to pack up for the weekend when news came through from our brand new African office. Barely have they got up and running and power company ESKOM has seen the light, abandoning a plan to invest in two French nuclear reactors.

Here's some coverage from Bloomberg highlighting the trouble caused by the decision. Of course if they'd gone with wind power they could have been looking forward to their first clean power by now. It's much quicker to set up a windfarm than even license a nuclear plant.

Just because we've only just opened the office doesn't mean we haven't been to South Africa before. Our campaign visited the country a few months ago, trying to help the government see through Areva's dodgy sales pitch, and six years ago we carried out the action shown below. That's us, nothing if not persistent.

In a country suffering energy poverty and lacking in financial resources nuclear power makes even less sense than usual. Windfarms could deliver cheaper power in a fraction of the time it takes to build a nuclear power station, and South Africa is the perfect place to introduce concentrated solar power.

Some other stories from the nuclear industry you may have missed:

Bloomberg: Pakistan Nuclear Scientist Obtained Parts in Japan, Kyodo Says
‘Abdul Qadeer Khan, a scientist regarded as the father of Pakistan's atomic program, said he obtained key components for nuclear enrichment when he visited Japan, Kyodo News reported.’

Worldwide Faith News: Government Spies on Taitung Church for Opposing Nuclear Waste
The Presbyterian Church in Taiwan’s aboriginal presbytery in Taitung city and county joined a movement opposing nuclear waste storage in Taitung. In recent days, church members have reported that Taitung county police department and Taitung investigation bureau have sent representatives to monitor church activities. Officers have repeatedly appeared during fellowship meetings, community gatherings and worship services.’

Tehran Times: Poland’s Tusk says France may help build nuclear power plant
‘Poland, which relies on coal for 93 percent of electricity, will probably seek French help to build its first nuclear power plant. ‘

Financial Times: EDF hopeful of windfall by extending life of its reactors
‘EDF is hoping to secure a multibillion-euro windfall by extending the lifecycle of its nuclear power stations. This could prove crucial to maintaining its top grade credit rating as it invests billlions in acquisitions and plant renewal.’

Contract Journal: Balfour Beatty no.2 McNaughton explains the firm's Areva JV
‘Balfour Beatty's new chief operating officer Andrew McNaughton has explained the thinking behind Balfour Beatty's announcement yesterday that it has formed a joint venture with one of these, Areva.’

The Straits Times: Nuclear power not ruled out
‘PRIME Minister Lee Hsien Loong does not rule out the possibility of Singapore having a nuclear power plant in the long term.’

SFGate: Activists to appeal nuke waste storage approval
‘An activist group has decided to appeal federal regulators' approval of a radioactive waste storage plan at the Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant near San Luis Obispo.’

BBC: Powering Africa's future
‘For many people, solar energy is the most obvious route for a continent blessed with abundant sunshine. However, some countries are already heading in the nuclear direction.’

AFP: Doubt over NKorea talks as envoys gather in Beijing
‘North Korean nuclear talks envoys headed to Beijing on Sunday despite serious doubts over the latest disarmament meeting after Pyongyang said it would refuse to recognise Japan.’

Financial Times: Eskom cancels plans to build nuclear plant
‘In a big setback for the world’s renascent nuclear industry, South Africa’s publicly owned utility, Eskom, on Friday cancelled plans to build a new multi-billion dollar plant.’

Human sexuality is an amazing, complex thing. People can be turned on by the strangest things. For example, in the UK last year, a man was prosecuted for making love to his bicycle. The media labelled him a ‘cyclesexualist’.

So what do we call someone aroused by nuclear power stations? Radiasexual? Fissionophile?

We ask because Lady Barbara Judge, chairwoman of the UK’s Atomic Energy Authority, has found a novel way of describing nuclear power. ‘Atomic was a dirty word but now it's certainly a sexy one,’ she said.

That’s right. Nuclear power is sexy. No, it’s not the first word we’d have used to describe it either. Is it all to do with hot ‘rods’ being ‘inserted’ to get things steamy, do you think?

The operators at the Czech nuclear plant at Temelin say, ‘There is no better feeling than to watch the indicators, as the neutron flux increases and the reactor slowly wakes up. It is actually something like an orgasm of a reactor.’ No better feeling? Oh dear.

Be honest though, is this sexy?

Reactor construction at Olkiluoto 3 (© Greenpeace/Nick Cobbing)

No? How about this:

Anslem Roanhorse Jr., executive director of the Navajo Nation Division of Health, said 520 radioactive uranium mines on the Navajo Nation were abandoned without being cleaned up.

No, us neither. What about this:

Just as Britain decides to build new nuclear power stations, new research, commissioned by the German government, reveals that children under five who live within 5 km of a nuclear power plant, have twice the risk of suffering from the blood cancer leukaemia.

Feeling sexy yet? If anybody finds any of that arousing, we’d like to suggest they seek professional help immediately. It’s difficult to believe that such things give anyone a tingle in the trousers.

There’s only one aspect of the nuclear industry that’s even remotely sexy: the enormous injections of hard cash. We can only assume that it’s the thought of the nuclear industry’s bank accounts tumescent with taxpayers’ billions that’s getting Lady Judge all hot and bothered.

Some other stories from the nuclear industry you may have missed:

Wall Street Journal: Nuked: Economic Downturn Threatens Nuclear Power’s Renaissance, Too
‘The economic slowdown and collapsing oil prices have generated plenty of hand-wringing over the fate of renewable energy. But nuclear power isn’t off the hook, either. South Africa’s decision Friday to cancel plans for its second nuclear reactor is a sign that the nuclear industry has yet to overcome one of its most dogged obstacles: economics.’

Tri-City Herald: EPA, HAB concerned over DOE deadlines
‘The Department of Energy chose to suspend work to meet 23 legal cleanup deadlines at Hanford without making adequate attempts to work with its regulators, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. The EPA and the Hanford Advisory Board reacted last week to DOE's announcement that it would miss the deadlines for cleanup in central Hanford because of too little funding in the budget for fiscal 2009.’

The Hindu: Russian uranium will power Tarapur nuclear plant again
‘India’s deal with Russia for supply of uranium, worth $700 million, will be for five years which is extendable, authoritative sources said on Monday. The contract for the supply of 2,000 tonnes will cover not only reactors run on Russian technology but also the U.S.-origin Tarapur nuclear plant as well as others now running at half the capacity due to fuel constraints.’

CNN: Constellation Energy Board Authorizes Discussions With EDF
‘Constellation Energy Group Inc. (CEG) said Monday it will begin discussions with Electricite de France SA over its unsolicited bid for half of the company's nuclear business.’

Digital Chosunilbo: Six Parties Seek to Verify North Korea's Nuclear Program
‘Six countries meeting in Beijing are trying to work out how to best verify North Korea's account of its nuclear program. The six parties are set to continue this week with meetings in Beijing.’

Greenville Online: Critic of SRS reprocessing predicts its demise
‘A former federal energy official and critic of a proposal to recycle spent commercial nuclear fuel at the Savannah River Site near Aiken said he believes enthusiasm for the project is waning, especially in Congress.’

So what’s going on at Japan’s Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power plant? This is the biggest nuclear power plant in the world and the combined capacity of its seven reactors is 7,965 MW. But like EPR, the biggest reactor in the world, it is also seriously crippled.

Black smoke rises from a burning electrical transformer near one of the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear reactors. © AP/PA Photos / Japan Coast Guard, HO

The site has been closed since July 2007 when an offshore earthquake led the government to suspect that the seven so-called earthquake resistant reactors weren’t all that earthquake resistant after all. The plant suffered an onsite fire that took a long time to extinguish as local fire brigades were not available and access roads were severely damaged. The plant suffered a number of leaks and aftershocks overturned drums of radioactive waste.

The quake and its associated ground acceleration exceeded by several times the plant's designed resistance and may have caused hidden damages to plant’s structures and safety systems. Whether this damage can be properly detected is heavily disputed among Japanese experts.

Nevertheless, utility TEPCO has pushed hard to get the reactors back into service despite potential weaknesses and the reality-proven fact that earthquakes can severely exceed the maximum forces against which the buildings were designed.

This year, the plant has just seen its second fire in as many months. On the first occasion the operator for some reason allowed the fire to burn for an hour before alerting firefighters. Despite Japan’s nuclear watchdog ordering the Tokyo Electric Power Co. to draw up fire prevention measure, the second broke out on Monday this week.

Fortunately (for the Tokyo Electric Power Co. at least), the IAEA inspectors, who had found ‘evidence confirming the findings of previous missions regarding the safe performance of the plant during and after the earthquake’, had already gone home.

Some other stories from the nuclear industry you may have missed:

G-Online: Is your garlic irradiated?
‘Want irradiated garlic? Go to the supermarket and buy Chinese garlic. I saw documents the other day from the Chinese nuclear industry that gave the specifications for the irradiation machines used in their garlic industry.’

Fairfield Weekly: Save the Fish
‘Millstone built us a new bridge. Millstone replaced the leaky roof on our food pantry. Millstone built a playscape for disabled kids. From some of the testimony last week, you'd hardly know that the Millstone nuclear power plant was up for a water discharge permit and not the Rotary Club's corporate citizenship award.’

Reuters: Areva in talks with India's NPCIL on reactors
‘France's Areva is in talks with state-owned Nuclear Power Corp of India Ltd (NPCIL) to supply 1,600-megawatt reactors, the Mint reported on Tuesday, citing a company official.’

Associated Press: DOE calls for bigger nuclear waste dump
‘The Bush administration said Tuesday there are no technology constraints to a major expansion of the proposed nuclear waste site in Nevada, calling for possibly tripling the amount of highly radioactive used reactor fuel that could be stored there in manmade underground caverns.’

The Guardian: Council leaders offer Lake District as nuclear dump
‘The Labour leadership team at Cumbria county council has agreed to make an "expression of interest" that would pinpoint an area around the Lake District as the most likely place for Britain's first high-level nuclear waste dump.’

Bloomberg: Normandy Dairy Towns Challenge EDF Over Nuclear Reactor Plans
‘In a corner of France known for Camembert cheese and apples, state-controlled Electricite de France SA plans to build 200 foot- tall steel pylons with high-voltage cables to carry electricity from a nuclear plant. The proposal would add to the 400,000 volts that pylons already carry from two existing reactors. “We will be living in a microwave oven,” said Jean-Claude Bossard, mayor of Le Chefresne, home to 300 people and about three times as many cows. “We want proof that there won’t be dangerous health effects.”’

Today is the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. It turns out that the UDHR is roughly the same age as the nuclear industry. So, it bears repeating that the nuclear industry walks hand in hand with some of the world’s worst human rights abusers. While the nuclear companies are counting their cash they’re ignoring the real costs.

The examples are many. Look at some of the world’s largest uranium producers. If the nuclear ‘renassance’ does take off, those countries in the nuclear club are going to have to make more deals with tyrants and torturers.

Kazakhstan, Russia, Niger, Namibia and Uzbekistan produced half of the world’s uranium last year and their share of the market is set to rise.

Look at Kazakhstan, expected by many to become the world’s largest uranium producer. Kazak president Nursultan Nazarbayev rules a corrupt legislature where opposition parties are not represented. Freedom of speech is under attack there and a corrupt judiciary undermines the right to a fair trial. Opposition activists can expect harassment and prisoners and detainees can expect to be abused and ill-treated.

Look at the dictatorship of Uzbekistan where detainees can look forward to being questioned police who think nothing of using boiling water and broken bottles as the tools of their trade.

Look at Niger that supplies France with 30 per cent of its uranium. The people of Niger have shared little in the deal – the country sits at the bottom of the United Nations Human Development Index which measures life expectancy, literacy, and educational attainment. And look at the Areva uranium mine in the country where the workers are told informed about health risks and analysis shows radioactive contamination of the air, water and soil.

This is what we can look forward to in a glorious nuclear future – a future where 60 years of human rights mean little. A nuclear future built on not just incompetence, cover-up and wasted billions but also the blood and oppression of other human beings.

Some other stories from the nuclear industry you may have missed:

Science Daily: Wind, Water And Sun Beat Biofuels, Nuclear And Coal For Clean Energy
‘The best ways to improve energy security, mitigate global warming and reduce the number of deaths caused by air pollution are blowing in the wind and rippling in the water, not growing on prairies or glowing inside nuclear power plants, says Mark Z. Jacobson, a professor of civil and environmental engineering at Stanford.’

Fairview Post: Clog the gears of the nuclear P.R. machine
‘Obviously they’re not giving up on this project. Bruce Power recently presented a cheque for $15,000 to the Town of Grimshaw for the new arena. Where did this money come from? It came from the people of Ontario. They paid for it and are still paying for it with their contaminated water, inflated energy bills and higher taxes. Just as we will be. They will be paying the environmental, financial and social costs of nuclear power long into the future long after the power stops flowing. Just as we will be.’

Global Security Newswire: North Korea Nuclear Talks Deadlocked, U.S. Says
‘Diplomats from six nations failed to make headway today in their attempt to produce a plan for verifying North Korea's atomic activities, which would be another step toward eliminating the Stalinist state's nuclear sector, the top U.S. envoy said today.’

Nuclear Power Daily: EU backs plan to build nuclear fuel bank by 2010: Solana
‘The European Union backs plans to create a nuclear fuel bank before 2010 which would ensure supplies and cut the need for nations to enrich uranium, EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana said Tuesday.’

Market Watch: Shaw Chairman Urges National Commitment to Build Nuclear Power Plants
‘The Shaw Group Inc. Chairman J.M. Bernhard Jr. called for a national commitment to build up to 50 nuclear power plants by 2030, telling a gathering of power industry leaders that the jobs, clean electricity and energy independence created by a "nuclear renaissance" offer a unique platform to achieve the "hope and change" pledged by President-elect Barack Obama.’

Whatever civilization exists in North America a million years from now, it will still be dealing with Dalton McGuinty’s most long-lasting legacy – radioactive waste.

No matter what members of the McGuinty government or nuclear lobbyists say, they cannot guarantee that their toxic legacy won’t harm future generations. They’ve created a mess and are leaving it for future generations to manage.

Read the rest

One of the features of the nuclear industry that makes you doubt your own sanity (and trust us, there are many) is the way in which it manages to operate outside of conventional reality. It’s as if it exists in a parallel universe where up is down, black is white, and huge handfuls of money are hurled at the incompetent and mendacious.

Let’s be honest, if you did your job, whatever it is, in the same way that Areva (for example) are doing theirs while building the EPR reactors in France and Finland, you’d have been fired long ago and your former employer would have made certain that you never, ever, worked again. You’d starve, penniless and unloved, in the gutter.

Some other stories from the nuclear industry you may have missed:

The Guardian: Areva's Savannah partners wins $3.3 bln U.S. deal
‘Savannah River Remediation LLC, a business partnership that features French utility Areva, has won a U.S. waste management contract worth $3.3 billion over a period of six years. Areva said in a statement on Thursday that the contract would see Savannah River Remediation LLC treat and dispose of radioactive liquid waste at a site in South Carolina.’

Peopleandplanet.net: Renewable energy can counter economic downturn
‘At a time when major US companies are announcing job layoffs almost daily, the renewable energy industry is hiring new workers every day to build wind farms, install rooftop solar arrays, and build solar thermal and geothermal power plants. The output of industrial firms that manufacture the equipment for these energy facilities is expanding by well over 30 per cent a year. These investments both create jobs and help prevent climate change from spiraling out of control.’

Building: Is Europe losing its nuclear construction skills?
‘Work on Europe’s third generation of nuclear reactors is not going to plan. The first plant is being built in Olkiluoto in western Finland. It was meant to start operating next year, but the present estimate is that it will not be ready until 2012 at the earliest. It will also cost at least 50% more than was originally thought. Meanwhile, at Flamanville in Normandy the same European pressurised water reactor is being built for EDF, and this is going the same way. Recent reports claim that it is nine months behind schedule – which does not bode well for a project that has been on site for barely a year.’

It’s official. The U.S. Department of Energy has admitted that Yucca Mountain, the still under construction nuclear waste depository in Nevada, is full before it’s even open for business. The American nuclear industry will soon have produced more nuclear waste than the Yucca Mountain facility is licensed to hold.

With time running out on the Bush Administration and with Barack Obama being against the Yucca Mountain facility, what happens next is anyone’s guess.

To think, Yucca Mountain is twenty years late and $32 billion over budget, and it should come to this. It's pathetic, really.

Here at Nuclear Reaction, if we were to name our favourite nuclear power plant, it would probably be Tricastin in France. It’s not that Tricastin is likeable from an environmental or aesthetic point of view - quite the opposite in fact. With its multitude of leaks and accidents this year alone, poor Tricastin is the poster child for can and does go wrong with the nuclear industry. It certainly kept this blog busy during the Summer months.

It’s just that we can’t help but feel a little bit sorry for it. We’ve said before that Tricastin is like an old dog, past its prime, making messes everywhere, getting in the way and generally causing hassle for everyone. Anyone with an ounce of human feeling would do the poor beast a kindness and put it to sleep.

But no. Tricastin’s owners Areva believe there’s still life in old dog yet. They plan to build a second uranium enrichment facility on the site. Work ‘will begin in the next few weeks, and be finished by the end of 2016’. Which, judging by Areva’s current terrible performance in building new reactors in France and Finland, probably means 2030 at the earliest. Poor Tricastin. It would seem it still has some long, hard and messy years still ahead of it.

Some other stories from the nuclear industry you may have missed:

Times of the Internet: Uranium contamination found in Conn. Towns
‘Uranium contamination poses a threat in as many as 16 well water systems serving thousands of people in Connecticut, a newspaper investigation found.’

Montsame Agency: URANIUM DEVELOPMENT ATTRACTS TO MONGOLIA
‘The number of governments and private companies showing interest in the uranium deposits in Mongolia, constituting about one-fifth of the world's known total, keeps on increasing, Undesnii Shuudan daily paper writes.’

International Herald Tribune: Battle in a poor land for riches beneath the soil
‘Uranium could infuse Niger with enough cash to catapult it out of the kind of poverty that causes one in five Niger children to die before turning 5. Or it could end in a calamitous war that leaves Niger more destitute than ever. Mineral wealth has fueled conflict across Africa for decades, a series of bloody, smash-and-grab rebellions that shattered nations. The misery wrought has left many Africans to conclude that mineral wealth is a curse.’

Irish Times: North Korea warns it may slow pace of disabling nuclear plant
‘NORTH KOREA has said it may slow the pace at which it takes apart its nuclear plant, which produces bomb-grade plutonium, after the US said it would suspend energy aid to the secretive communist enclave.’

Standart: The Construction of NPP Belene Starts in July
‘The construction of Bulgaria's second nuclear power plant, Belene, will probably start in the second half of next year, when the Nuclear Regulatory Agency (NRA) is expected to issue a construction permit. The news was spread by NRA representative Sergey Tsochev. ’

Times of the Internet: Fla. nuclear plant a refuge for crocodiles
‘A crocodile colony at the Turkey Point nuclear power plant in Homestead, Fla., has grown to about 400 of the big reptiles.’

GlobalSecurity.org: Iran, 7th in producing UF6 - IAEO official
‘Iran's Atomic Energy Organization (IAEO) Deputy Mohammad Qannadi said on Sunday that Iran is the 7th country in production of Uranium Hexaflouride (UF6).’

Japan Times: Chubu Electric looking to raze two reactors
‘NAGOYA (Kyodo) Chubu Electric Power Co. may decommission two long-suspended reactors in the Hamaoka Nuclear Power Station in Shizuoka Prefecture and build a new alternative reactor there, sources said Saturday.’

Back in August we told you about the Marshall Islands where the US tested 67 nuclear weapons in the 1940s and 1950s. The concrete dome over the nuclear waste dump on the island of Runit is already deteriorating despite it only being 30 years old and needing to last 24,000 due to the half-life of the plutonium underneath.

Unfortunately, the $400 million the US paid the islands between 1964 and 2004 was deemed ‘in full and final settlement of all past and future claims deriving from the nuclear tests.’ The dome continues to crumble and the islanders continue to die of radiation-related cancers.

Last week the US government again refused further compensation, repeating that it had discharged its responsibilities:

More than 22 million dollars remains unpaid for personal injury awards and about two billion dollars is outstanding for land damage awards made by the Nuclear Claims Tribunal [set up by the two governments to compensate those displaced or suffering health problems due to the tests.]

The islands’ President Litokwa Tomeing suggested diverting other US aid to help but this has been rejected. ‘The purpose you suggest falls outside of the uses of sector grant funds and would not be an acceptable proposal’ a letter from the US Interior Office. Or, in other words, easing people’s suffering is not considered an ‘acceptable’ use of the US’s money in this case. Who writes like that when people dying?

But just look at those numbers. Twenty-two million. Two billion. President Tomeing wants a mere $1.2 million a year diverted from US aid to the support of the victims of the US nuclear weapons testing problem. Those are small prices to pay for a little compassion you would have thought.

Then think of the sums being thrown at failing banks and investors. George Bush’s Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 alone gave $700 billion to bail out the banks. And unlike the bankers, the Marshall Islanders didn’t bring it all on themselves. Quite the opposite.

The inhabitants of the Marshall Islands have got it all wrong. They’ve only got themselves to blame, when you think about it. They should have bought themselves suits, got high-powered city jobs and then caused an economic collapse. The Bush Administration would now be throwing cash at them, and far more than they need.

Some other stories from the nuclear industry you may have missed:

Counterpunch: Dr. Chu's Nuclear Prescription
‘The reaction from safe-energy advocates is mixed to the proposed appointment of Steven Chu as U.S. energy secretary by President-Elect Barak Obama. Mixed is a charitable response to the prospects of Chu being in charge of the U.S. Department of Energy.
Although he has a keen interest in energy efficiency and solar power and other clean forms of renewable energy, Chu is a staunch advocate of nuclear power.’

The Economic Times: Areva inks pact with NPCIL to supply 300 tonnes of uranium
‘French energy firm Areva, the world’s largest nuclear power company, has signed an agreement with government-run monopoly Nuclear Power Corporation of India (NPCIL) to supply about 300 tonnes of uranium annually. This is the first major nuclear fuel supply agreement by the Indian firm after the approval of the Indo-US civil nuclear deal early this year.’

NBC: AREVA Forms New U.S. Enrichment Company
‘AREVA announced Friday the formation of AREVA Enrichment Services, LLC (AES) - a new subsidiary responsible for U.S. enrichment services and the future owner and operator of the Eagle Rock Enrichment Facility under development near Idaho Falls, Idaho.’

Scitizen: "Proliferation is a state issue"
‘Nuclear energy power plants may be booming in the next few years. What risks of nuclear weapons proliferation might this bring? This is what Scitizen asked Thomas Cochran, a nuclear physicist and former director of the Natural Resources Defence Council nuclear program. He warns us against allowing non-weapon countries to have uranium enrichment plants and nuclear reprocessing fuel plants. ’

Scitizen: Civil plutonium can be used to make effective nuclear weapons
‘Can the plutonium recovered from spent civil nuclear-power reactor fuel elements (civil plutonium) be used to fabricate nuclear weapons with significant explosive powers?’

Bloomberg: Constellation Said to Favor Stake Sale to EDF Over Buffett Deal
‘Constellation Energy Group Inc. is nearing an agreement to sell Electricite de France SA half of its nuclear-power business for $4.5 billion and terminate a planned takeover of the entire company byWarren Buffett’s MidAmerican Energy Holdings Co., people familiar with the situation said.’

The Australian: UAE, US in draft nuclear pact
‘THE United Arab Emirates has agreed to a draft pact with the United States for civilian nuclear co-operation, the first such deal between Washington and a Middle East nation.’

China View: Jordan makes efforts to live up to peaceful nuclear ambition
‘In a drive to reduce the country's dependence on imported hydrocarbons, the government mapped out a nuclear energy program last year, under which Jordan will have its first nuclear reactor up and running by 2016, with more to be built in the years leading up to 2030.’

You may have noticed that here at Nuclear Reaction we have something of a dark sense of humour. We’re able to laugh at the worst aspects of the nuclear industry. There is so much black comedy in nearly all the leaks, accidents, incompetence and cover-ups.

But even we’re prepared to admit that a joke can go too far.Our favourite French nuclear disaster zone Tricastin is in the news again. And this joke is getting very old.

This time, a storage and maintenance facility for contaminated equipment the site’s nuclear reactors was flooded when heavy rainfall caused the River Gaffiere (contaminated by a previous leak from Tricastin) to burst its banks. France’s nuclear watchdog, ASN, is yet to declare on the severity of the incident.

Now, regular readers of this blog will know that we’ve featured some spectacular stupidity shown by the nuclear industry. We’ll be the first to admit to not being experts in the construction of nuclear facilities (this blog is a testament to the fact that nobody is).

Did it not occur to the facilities designers to look at the nearby river and think, ‘hmmm, we might be in trouble it we get a lot of rain’? Why not? Isn’t it slightly worrying that they can’t they show the same good sense as monkeys?

India’s monkey population should put in a tender for France’s next nuclear facility. At least they can properly evaluate the consequences of rising water levels.

Some other stories from the nuclear industry you may have missed:

National Post: Kidnapping an attempt to send 'strong signal' to Canada
‘The rebel leader who claimed to have kidnapped two Canadian UN officials in Niger is a former government minister who has been implicated in a political killing and threats to attack the country's uranium industry.’

Greenville Online: House panel slams supervision of SRS reactor fuel project
‘A congressional subcommittee has alleged mismanagement in a $4 billion project to build a facility to convert weapons-grade plutonium into commercial nuclear fuel at the Savannah River Site near Aiken.’

The New Republic: Is There Really Such Thing As Carbon-Free Energy?
‘Advocates for nuclear power may think that they've found an abundant source of carbon-free energy. But have they considered the carbon emissions that would result from the burning of the world's cities if, say, the expanded use of nuclear power led to increased nuclear-weapons proliferation and, hence, to nuclear war? That's just one of many possibilities that Stanford's Mark Jacobson deals with in a new paper (mentioned at ClimateProgress earlier this week) that tries to parse out the full life-cycle carbon footprint of each supposedly carbon-neutral energy source. Coal plants that sequester their carbon end up having the biggest carbon footprint, mostly because not all the carbon-dioxide gets captured before it enters the atmosphere. Nuclear power turns out to be the second-most carbon intensive, and not just because of the climate risk posed by all those burning buildings.’

Times of India: Kalpakkam N-plant made a no-fly zone
‘Following heightened threat perception to sensitive installations, the government on Tuesday declared the Kalpakkam nuclear power plant in Tamil Nadu a no fly zone to prevent any 9/11 kind of targeting of this sensitive site. Kalpakkam now joins the only other atomic installation, Tarapur in Maharashtra, to have flights barred over its immediate airspace.’

China Daily: China's largest nuclear plant gets under way
‘Construction of the country's largest nuclear power plant got under way on Tuesday. The 70 billion yuan ($10 billion) project was approved by the State Council on Nov 12, said an official with China Guangdong Nuclear Power Group (CGNPG), the State-owned nuclear energy investor.’

AFP: Nuclear engineer jailed over Iran software plot
‘An engineer at the largest nuclear power plant in the United States who illegally transported software to Iran was jailed for 15 months, justice officials said Tuesday.’

STLtoday: Pump failure shuts AmerenUE's Callaway nuclear plant, again
‘For the second time in three days, an electrical problem with a water pump led AmerenUE to shut its Callaway nuclear plant. Missouri's lone nuclear plant was manually shut at 5:14 p.m. Sunday because of an electrical fault in the motor of a condensate pump, AmerenUE spokesman Mike Cleary said. The exact cause of the problem was still being determined on Monday.’

AFP: UN ministerial meeting on Iranian nuclear program
‘Ministers from the six nations involved in talks on Iran's nuclear program will meet Tuesday at the United Nations with representatives of several Arab countries, diplomatic sources said.’

Washington Post: Panel Cites 'Tipping Point' On Nuclear Proliferation
‘The development of nuclear arsenals by both Iran and North Korea could lead to "a cascade of proliferation," making it more probable that terrorists could get their hands on an atomic weapon, a congressionally chartered commission warned yesterday.’

Regular readers will know that the building of two state-of-the-art European Pressurized Water Reactor (EPR) at Olkiluoto in Finland and Flamanville in France has been a disaster by any definition of the word. Massively over budget, hugely behind schedule, problems with welding in steel reactor liners and framework, cracking concrete in the foundations, disregard for safety standards and inspections – the list is a long one.

So, with all that in mind, what could possibly be happening here?

Three nuclear power projects that would use Areva’s latest reactor design are moving forward this week to seek federal loan guarantees that could help them secure financing.

Companies UniStar, AmerenUE and PPL have submitted applications for government loan guarantees so they can build EPR reactors in Maryland, Missouri and Pennsylvania respectively.

Areva’s sales team must have incredible power of persuasion. Or hypnotism. Or mind-control. Maybe their team leader is Professor Xavier from the X-Men. How else to explain these American companies ignoring what’s going on in Finland and France?

The only other explanations could be that the executives of UniStar, AmerenUE and PPL are dangerously incompetent or Areva have been less than honest with them about how things are going at Olkiluoto and Flamanville.

But wait, what’s this? Loan guarantees, you say? What is a loan guarantee anyway? It’s ‘a legal obligation to compensate a lender if the borrower fails to repay a loan’. That explains everything. UniStar, AmerenUE and PPL can afford to be as reckless as they like. The American taxpayer will clear up the mess when things go wrong.

Some other stories from the nuclear industry you may have missed:

The Whitehaven News: company selected for nuke clean-up contract
‘URS’ Washington Division, which leads Sellafield’s Nuclear Management Partners, has been selected for a major nuclear clean-up contract in the United States.’

Reuters: Slovaks pick Czech CEZ for 4-6 bln euro nuke plant
‘Slovakia chose Czech power company CEZ on Wednesday as the strategic partner for a new nuclear power plant expected to cost 4-6 billion euros, the biggest foreign deal for the leading central European utility.’

Albanian Economy News: Nuclear Power: Curse or Opportunity?
‘Balkan states are gambling on the nuclear option as the best way to reduce the energy shortage but whether the risks pay off remains to be seen.’

EasyBourse: Poland Needs At Least 2 Nuclear Pwr Plants;Eyes Private Owners-PM
‘Poland needs at least two nuclear power plants to cope with requirements of the European Union's climate package approved last week, Prime Minister Donald Tusk said Wednesday.
"Poland, especially its Northern part, needs at least two nuclear power plants. We need to find their owners among private companies," Tusk told radio TOK FM in an interview.’

Reuters: TEPCO mulls building nuclear plants overseas
‘Tokyo Electric Power Co, Asia's largest utility, is considering building nuclear power plants overseas, Kyodo News Agency reported on Wednesday.’

Bloomberg: Constellation Backs EDF Bid, Rejects Buffett Takeover
‘Constellation Energy Group Inc. agreed to sell half of its nuclear-power business to Electricite de France SA for $4.5 billion, abandoning a deal to sell itself to Warren Buffett’s MidAmerican Energy Holdings Co.’

The Japan Times: Rokkasho plant too dangerous, costly: expert
‘Japan's plan to reprocess and recycle spent nuclear fuel in a reprocessing plant in the village of Rokkasho, Aomori Prefecture, will be a huge waste of electricity users' money and an environmental threat, according to a French atomic power expert.’

Yesterday the UK government opened a public consultation on the required legal justifications for building new nuclear power stations.

The Justification exercise is required under EU law to ensure that nuclear power developments are in the public interest. Conducted at a high level and using generic terms, it essentially means to show that the overall benefits of the use of ionising radiation in the generation of power outweigh any health detriment.

As part of the justification process, four different reactor designs are being considered: AECL’s ACR-1000 (or the Advanced Candu Reactor), Areva’s EPR (European Pressurized Reactor), GE-Hitachi’s ESBWR (Economic Simplified Boiling Water Reactor), and Westinghouse’s AP1000. All are so-called 3rd Generation reactor designs. Let’s take a brief look at them.

• Atomic Energy of Canada Limited’s ACR-1000 reactor is still on the drawing board. Construction on a single reactor of this kind has yet to begin anywhere in the world. In other words, it’s an untested design. A prototype.

• Despite China’s plans to build at least four Westinghouse AP1000, and applications filed in the US to build 12, the design is also untested. There are also doubts over the cost of build the AP1000. Projected costs to build two in Alabama in the US range between $9.8 billion to $17.5 billion, up from $6.4 billion to $7.1 billion a year ago [http://www.ajc.com/services/content/printedition/2008/12/13/nuke.html].

• GE-Hitachi’s ESBWR is another design with a question mark over its head. In November this year, Exelon Nuclear dropped the design for its proposed new site in Texas, saying other designs offered ‘greater commercial and schedule certainty’ [http://www.world-nuclear-news.org/NN-Exelon_changes_mind_over_design_of_new_reactor-2511088.html]. That is, they are cheaper and will be ready earlier. Again, the design has yet to be built anywhere and has yet to receive approval from the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

• Of Areva’s EPR design, what is there left to be said? This blog is a catalogue of the many, many failings of Areva while trying to build EPR reactors in Finland and France. Hardly a week goes by without yet more bad news emerging from either Olkiluoto or Flamanville. Cost and schedule overruns, construction defects, the flouting of safety procedures – you should know the long and almost unbelievable story by now.

It’s difficult to find any, using the word of the UK government, ‘justification’ for these designs. EPR comes out looking the worst of the four but only because it is actually off the drawing board and causing trouble in the real world. The other three designs have as much potential for mayhem.

Some other stories from the nuclear industry you may have missed:

San Luis Obispo: Mothers for Peace petition prompts nuclear regulators to change policy
‘The Nuclear Regulatory Commission Wednesday announced that operators of the nation’s 104 commercial nuclear reactors will have to evaluate whether operational changes or conducting tests or experiments would have the unintended consequence of reducing plant security. If so, the plant operator would have to get approval from the NRC.’

Carnegie Endowment for International Peace: Venezuela: A Nuclear Profile
‘Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez has spoken of developing nuclear energy since at least May 2005, but few have taken him seriously. Argentina and Brazil have, for the most part, rebuffed his requests for nuclear cooperation. Yet recent signals of interest by Russia and France may indicate the possibility of nuclear exports to Venezuela, if declining oil prices do not undermine Venezuela's ability to pay. No matter what, all nuclear suppliers should exercise caution as long as Chávez perpetuates his antagonistic role in the region, defiance of international norms and, in particular, efforts to cultivate a closer Venezuelan-Iranian relationship.’

Postman Patel: Atoms for Peace - the world's first commercial use of nuclear powered electricity - Shippingport Atomic Power Station 17-12-57
‘On October 17th 1956 at 12.16 GMT the Queen pushed a lever, a clock ticked round and Calder Hall - in what the Lord Privy Seal, Rab Butler described as an "epoch making" event, sent the first commercial nuclear powered electricity to the National Grid. It was of course a mere dribble of power that left the plant , most was consumed on site in the rest of the nuclear bomb factory.’

Some other stories from the nuclear industry you may have missed:

Bloomberg: Chubu Electric Predicts Loss From Scrapping Reactors
‘Chubu Electric Power Co., Japan’s third-biggest power producer, revised its earnings outlook and predicted a record loss after scrapping two reactors that are more than 30 years old.’

International Herald Tribune: The man behind the French nuclear power expansion
‘Pierre Gadonneix, chief executive of Électricité de France, has firmly established the French power giant in the English-speaking world by acquiring half of Constellation Energy's U.S. nuclear plants for his company and taking over British Energy.’

The Jordan Times: Aqaba site under consideration for Kingdom’s first nuclear power plant
‘The government is examining a location near Aqaba for the establishment of the Kingdom’s first nuclear power plant, expected to be built within eight years, with plans in place for further reactors, a senior official said on Sunday.’

Bloomberg: Mitsubishi Heavy, Areva to Tie Up in Nuclear Fuel, Nikkei Says
‘Areva, a French nuclear power company, will buy about 30 percent of the shares of Mitsubishi Nuclear Fuel Co., which is owned by Mitsubishi Materials Corp. Mitsubishi Heavy, the newspaper said, without giving a value for the deal or saying where it obtained the information.’

Reuters: Areva's Niger uranium mine to go ahead despite price fall
‘French nuclear power group Areva will press ahead with its plan to build a 1 billion euro ($1.40 billion) uranium mine in Niger despite falling world prices for the fuel, the firm said on Friday.’

China Daily: Nuclear power to get a big boost
‘China is aiming to have a nuclear power capacity of 60 gigawatts (GW) by 2020, a 50 percent jump from an earlier target outlined in its energy blueprint, industry sources said.’

Delaware Online: French utility seeks to recruit Exelon
‘Paris-based EDF, which agreed this week to buy a 50 percent stake in Constellation's five existing reactors for $4.5 billion, wants to expand the U.S. UniStar Nuclear Energy partnership, Jean-Pierre Benque, senior executive vice president of EDF North America, said.’

Financial Times: Nuclear plant closure delayed
‘A nuclear reactor that was scheduled to shut down on New Year's Eve has been given an extended lease of life, easing fears of power shortages next year. But Greenpeace, the environmental pressure group, said yesterday that the 40-year-old Magnox reactor at Oldbury in Gloucestershire was a threat to health that should be closed immediately.’

Back in September we told you about the UK’s then Business Minister John Hutton (he’s since become the pro-nuke Defence Minister) wild hopes for the nuclear industry in the UK.

One of his over-optimistic claims was that a nuclear ‘renaissance’ in Britain could create 100,000 jobs. We asked:

Who will train those workers? Will that be expected of the contractors building the reactors? In that case, with the cost of nuclear build rocketing, won’t the contractors save money in training costs by simply importing the skills from abroad as they do elsewhere, rather than create a skills base from scratch in the UK? Almost certainly.

Here’s how it’s looking in the UK right now after French utility EDF’s £12.4 billion buyout of nuclear power operator British Energy:

Dougie Rooney, national officer of [trade union] Unite, said that unless EDF is forced to sell strategic parcels of land it has acquired, it would be very difficult for an alternative reactor maker to compete and would mean most of the skilled work for the construction of new power stations would be done in France.

We hate to say we told you so but, well, we told you so. To honest, a child could have predicted it. With the price of wind and solar technologies falling and their efficiencies rapidly climbing, surely Rooney would serve his members better by looking to those soon to be huge industries.

That said, he is correct about EDF. In a time of economic crisis that is squeezing the nuclear industry, profits will always get priority over the needs of a foreign workforce. Why would EDF go to all the trouble of training UK specialists when its own are so geographically close? It makes no sense. Like the nuclear industry.

Bad news from our favourite nuclear idiots, French state-controlled nuclear reactor maker Areva when it announced on Friday that its 2008 profits are to take hit. One of the reasons for the fall is the need for ‘an additional provision was set up in the second half of the year on the OL3 EPR reactor project in Finland’. Which means that the budget of the ill-fated project at Olkiluoto has spiralled out of control and is now costing Areva money.

Areva has only itself to blame. In its hubris and arrogance, it offered the OL3 reactor as a ‘turnkey’ project. This meant that the price paid by Finnish utility TVO was capped at three billion Euros. With the budget rocketing to somewhere around double the initial projections, Areva is having to find the extra hence the fall in profits.

In other words, so over-confident were they in their abilities to build OL3 on time and on budget, they said they wouldn’t have to raid Finnish taxpayers wallets any more than for 3.2 billion Euros. Areva’s incompetence meant they’ve had to raid their own wallet. We bet they won’t be so confident or so considerate of the taxpayer next time.

Some other stories from the nuclear industry you may have missed:

Capistrano Dispatch: Feds: San Onofre Nuclear Power Station's Backup Batteries Down for Years
‘The San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station will receive additional oversight from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission as a result of a "white" inspection finding related to problems with an emergency battery used for supplying power to plant safety systems. The plant, operated by Southern California Edison Co., is located near San Clemente.’

Reuters: Bechtel wins Egyptian nuclear power contract
‘The Egyptian government has chosen Bechtel Power Corp as contractor to design and consult on the country's first nuclear power plant, a statement from the Ministry of Electricity and Energy said on Monday.’

Bolsamania: Barclays: EDF gains approval for British Energy acquisition
‘The EU has approved EDF's proposed acquisition of British Energy subject to:
• The divestment of Sutton Bridge generation plant (owned by EdF) and Eggborough (owned by BE)
• The sale of certain minimum volumes of electricity in the British wholesale market
• The unconditional divestment of a site potentially suitable for building a new nuclear power station at either Dungeness or Heysham in the UK at the purchaser's choice and ending one of the merged entities three grid connection agreements with the National Grid at Hinkley Point in the UK.’

Fox 12: Truck Carrying Radioactive Load Crashes
‘A semitrailer that was carrying a low-level radiation load jackknifed and crashed on Interstate 84 Monday afternoon.’

CNN: Brazil to get nuclear sub technology from France
‘The presidents of France and Brazil are set to sign several bilateral agreements, including a defense accord that would make Brazil the first Latin American nation to possess a nuclear-powered submarine.’

Bloomberg: Uranium Declines as Investors Sell, Utilities Delay Purchases
‘Uranium-oxide concentrate for immediate delivery fell $2, or 3.7 percent, to $52 a pound, Denver-based pricing service TradeTech LLC said in a report Dec. 19. Weekly demand was more than 6 million pounds, about 2.2 million pounds more than supply. There were three trades last week totaling 1.2 million pounds.’

If you want an example of the spin, cover-up and pure self-denial of the nuclear industry, you could do worse than take a look at this little self-congratulatory announcement from the operators of the Kozloduy nuclear plant in Bulgaria:

According to the yearly report of atomic plant "Kozloduy" for 2008, for a 12th consecutive year the plant ends without an unplanned activation of emergency protection of sixth block.

Few are the atomic plants in the world, for which such an accomplishment can be reported.

It is, needless to say, complete rubbish. Back in 2006…

On March 1, block 5 of the Kozloduy NPP in North Bulgaria experienced what is arguably its largest incident to date. Out of the 60 regulation (or control) rods in the reactor, 22 did not appear to be functioning. This means that in the case of an emergency shutdown with loss of cooling water, it would not have been possible to stop the reactor quickly, which could have led to a meltdown.

The incident only became public knowledge almost two months later, after whistleblowers released information to Austria and Germany and the incident's subsequent upgrade from (International Nuclear Event Scale) INES 0 to INES 2.

The Kozloduy director, Ivan Ivanov, was fired from his position four months after the incident and Bulgarian Economy and Energy Minister Ovcharov has also come under attack from environmental groups that accuse him of exaggerating international support for the Belene nuclear power plant project.

Alas, many are the atomic plants in the world, for which such an accomplishment can be reported.

Don’t forget it’s not too late to enter our Christmas competition.

Go over to nuclear village idiot Areva’s website, print off the instructions and build yourself your own EPR reactor. To help inspire you, here’s what we came up with at Nuclear Reaction:

And if Areva can extend their deadline, so can we. All entries should now be submitted by January 1st 2009. Simply take a photograph of your reactor, upload it to a photo album website like Flickr and leave us a link in the comment for this post.

Can you do better than us? Areva can’t.

Some other stories from the nuclear industry you may have missed:

Asahi.com: EDITORIAL: Hamaoka nuclear plant
‘Chubu Electric Power Co. has decided to retire two old nuclear reactors and build a new state-of-the-art reactor at the same nuclear power plant. The first-ever reactor "replacement" in the nation will be made at the company's Hamaoka Nuclear Power Station in Shizuoka Prefecture.’

Yahoo! News: Bush pushes Persian Gulf nuclear agreement
‘The Bush administration is quietly advancing a nuclear cooperation agreement with the United Arab Emirates (UAE), raising concerns in Congress and among nonproliferation experts about the deal's repercussions in a volatile region.’

Baltimore Sun: Groups protest Constellation's nuclear energy plans
‘More than a dozen members of citizen and environmental groups protested Constellation Energy's nuclear energy partnership with a French utility at the company's Baltimore headquarters this morning and said they were concerned about additional investment in nuclear energy and the way those plants will be financed.’

Council on Foreign Relations: Obama's North Korea Dilemma
‘Obama, writing in a 2007 Foreign Affairs article, said he supports "sustained, direct, and aggressive diplomacy." But the problem underlying negotiations with North Korea, experts say, is that Pyongyang has no intention of giving up its weapons anytime soon. "I think we're sort of condemned to that process because we don't really have any alternative," says CFR Vice President Gary Samore, who worked on the Agreed Framework to resolve the North Korean nuclear issue during the Clinton administration.’

Seasons greetings to all our readers.

* With apologies to Clement Clarke Moore

Some other stories from the nuclear industry you may have missed:

Forbes: Some Oklahoma lawmakers look to nuclear energy
Some Oklahoma lawmakers are exploring the possibility of developing nuclear power in the state to create an alternative source of energy for its residents and encourage power producers to make the state a center for the distribution of energy throughout the region.
But Oklahoma power generators say they are more focused on wind power and other renewable energy sources as well as conservation efforts to meet the growing demand for power. They believe that a nuclear power plant is too expensive and would take too long to build to be a viable energy alternative for the state.

Ria Novosti: Russia hopes Obama administration will listen in START talks
Russia hopes the new U.S. administration will be more ready to listen to Russia's position regarding a replacement for a strategic weapons treaty, a deputy Russian foreign minister said Thursday. "We hope very much that the next administration will have more of a desire and readiness to accept our case in this area," Sergei Ryabkov told a press conference in Moscow. The Strategic Arms Reduction (START-1) Treaty signed between the Soviet Union and the United States in 1991 expires on December 5, 2009.

Reuters: EDF says gets EU objections to long-term contracts
EDF has received objections to long-term contracts with electricity end-users in France from European regulators, the French utility said on Wednesday. The agreements, which relate in particular to major manufacturers, were likely to limit "access to the French electricity market and may lead to an abuse of its dominant position", according to the European Commission, EDF said.

Welcome to the inaugural Nuclear Reaction Awards 2008. As the year comes to its close we’d like to recognise those who have help make the nuclear industry the over-subsidised and under-scrutinised joke it is today.

Today’s Award: Outstanding contribution to the anti-nuclear energy cause

There could only be one winner of this award. No company has worked harder this year to help destroy what’s left of nuclear energy’s ragged reputation. Whether it be building massively over-budget and behind schedule reactors with thousands of safety issues, mining uranium in the poorest countries of the world, or spinning around the world while feverishly trying to sell its untested technology.

The company is, of course, Areva. We salute it for providing so many examples this year of how nuclear power is anything but clean, safe and cheap and how its supporters are anything but trustworthy.

We hope that in years to come that the word Areva, like the word 'boondoggle’, will come to be synonymous with unbelievable wastes of time and money. Try it out this Christmas if you’re given an expensive but useless present. ‘This musical toilet roll holder is so Areva…’

Some other stories from the nuclear industry you may have missed:

Ajc.com: America’s passage of nuclear power
Subtle but weighty: President-elect Obama should prepare for the sobering reality that “the football” represents to the U.S. and the world. It is a simple transfer of immense power. On Jan. 20, an unobtrusive military officer carrying a small leather-bound metal briefcase will follow President George W. Bush up to Capitol Hill. After the inauguration ceremony, he will accompany President Barack Obama back to the White House.

The Arizona Republic: Palo Verde Plant Applies for new nuclear permit
The Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station west of Phoenix has applied to renew all three of its reactor licenses, which begin expiring in 2025. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission limits the first license on nuclear plants to 40 years, after which a reactor operator - such as Arizona Public Service Co., which owns Palo Verde - can apply for a 20-year renewal.

Energy Business Review: Areva signs agreement to strengthen presence in Brazilian nuclear sector
French nuclear power generation solutions provider Areva and Brazilian electricity utility Eletronuclear have signed a memorandum of understanding to extend the industrial co-operation between the companies. Areva said that, it has indicated through the MoU, its commitment to the expansion of Brazil's nuclear plant fleet.

Welcome to the inaugural Nuclear Reaction Awards 2008. As the year comes to its close we’d like to recognise those who have help make the nuclear industry the over-subsidised and under-scrutinised joke it is today.

Today’s Award: The Best Nuclear Spin of 2008

As you can probably imagine, we spoilt for choice for candidates for this award. Media stories are packed with nuclear industry insiders and government ministers telling us that nuclear energy is going to save time, money, energy and the planet.

Who can forget Areva’s attempt to convince us that nuclear power looks as easy and appealing as building a LEGO model and can make people in Shanghai bars to fall in love? Or the New York Times spinning the propaganda that EPR reactors are ‘the world’s safest and most powerful’ despite none being in operation and the only two currently under construction being in total disarray? How about South African utility Eskom employing a brand consulting firm to ‘boost’ nuclear’s image and employ prominent "nuclear ambassadors"?

But for sheer jaw-dropping over-optimism and misplaced faith in the nuclear industry’s abilities, the award must surely go to the World Nuclear Association. The organisation’s Nuclear Century Outlook report tried to convince us of a scenario where 10,000 nuclear reactors could be built before the end of the century.

It means that 120 reactors must be built every year. Which is ten reactors every month. Which is one reactor every three days.

We’ve seen some wild claims on behalf of the nuclear industry this year but none came even close to this. World Nuclear Association – we salute you!

Some other stories from the nuclear industry you may have missed:

York Daily Record: USA - Local nuke plants didn't sense earthquake
Parts of York County and the surrounding region shook from Saturday's 3.4-magnitude earthquake in Lancaster County, but neither of the area's two nuclear plants sensed vibrations, a U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission spokesman said Sunday. The Three Mile Island nuclear plant is roughly 30 miles west of the earthquake's epicenter just outside Manheim. The Peach Bottom power station is about 35 miles south. Both facilities are equipped with seismic monitoring equipment, NRC spokesman Neil Sheehan said.

The Local: Germany - Economists criticise planned nuke phaseout
Leading economic institutes have warned that the German economy could suffer if the government refuses to delay the country's planned phaseout of nuclear energy. According to a report published by the news agency DDP on Sunday, a number of top institutes, fear that the consequent higher electricity costs would increase pressure on consumers and the economy at large in what are already difficult times. But heavy criticism of the institutes' position has come from the environmental protection organisation BUND, whose chairman Hubert Weiger vehemently rejected the claims. "This is pure lobbying for energy companies. The even larger protests against the (nuclear waste) transports in November, which again highlighted the lack of adequate disposal of radioactive waste, shows what people think of this kind of
approach."

BBC News: UK Dungeness - Meetings to discuss nuclear plans
A series of public meetings is to be held next month to discuss the possibility of building a new nuclear power station at Dungeness. British Energy and environmental consultants Royal Haskoning will be on hand to answer questions from people living on Romney Marsh. The site, on the Kent/Sussex border, is being considered for a new reactor.

The Korea Times: DPRK - NK May Seek More Aid From Obama
It appears likely that North Korea has high hopes for the incoming Barack Obama administration in Washington. The reclusive regime may be under the impression that it could get better deals, including more economic aid and other incentives, from the new progressive U.S. government, according to a report. The U.S. News and World Report, a U.S.-based news magazine, argued in its latest December issue that next year, Pyongyang may seek more incentives and economic and fuel aid for continuing to dismantle its nuclear programs. The report said that North Korea is now a ``de facto'' nuclear power. It also warned that it's far from clear whether Pyongyang genuinely wants to give up all its nuclear capabilities.

AFP: South Korea announces 28.5 bln dollar energy plan
South Korea on Sunday announced a massive investment plan to build more power plants, including 12 new nuclear reactors in the next four years, to meet growing energy demand. It plans to spend 37 trillion won (28.5 billion dollars) between 2009 and 2022 constructing 12 commercial reactors and 19 thermoelectric power plants, the ministry of knowledge economy said in a statement. The ministry said 12 nuclear reactors -- including eight under construction -- would be completed by 2012.

The Japan Times: Japan sent uranium to U.S. in secret
Enough highly enriched U.S. uranium to make about 20 nuclear weapons was sneaked back to the United States from Japan over a 12-year period until last summer in a secret operation aimed at keeping it out of terrorists' hands, a senior U.S. official and Japanese specialists recently revealed. The uranium, which was provided to Japan by the United States to build five nuclear research reactors, totaled more than 500 kg.

Welcome to the inaugural Nuclear Reaction Awards 2008. As the year comes to its close we’d like to recognise those who have help make the nuclear industry the over-subsidised and under-scrutinised joke it is today.

Today’s Award: The Worst Nuclear Construction of 2008

Oh, come on, you didn’t think it was going to be anything else, did you? The award goes to Areva’s OL3 reactor currently under construction in Olkiluoto, Finland. There really was no other competition.

Not due to open unto 2012, three years late, the reactor is also massively over budget. Some 1,500 defects have been found in its construction so far. Then there was the ‘small’ fire. A disturbing disregard for safety guidelines and inspections at the site was publicised by Greenpeace in August. It was revealed that load-bearing welds in the reactor’s steel frame have not been done properly. Workers were warned about speaking out about safety concerns.

Olkiluoto stands as a monument to the hubris, deception and stupidity of the nuclear industry. If the state-of-the-art third-generation OL3 is to be the gold standard of reactor design and construction in the coming nuclear ‘renaissance’ then the industry is in a lot of trouble.

Some other stories from the nuclear industry you may have missed:

The Age: Bomb survivors seek end to nuclear arms
Ikeda Michiaki closes his eyes and clenches his fist as he remembers the darkness that descended upon Nagasaki after an atomic bomb was dropped on the Japanese city in 1945. Mr Michiaki was in Sydney with other Hibakusha - or atomic bomb survivors - on a stop-off as part of a three-month global sea voyage to share their experiences and oppose nuclear weapons. Western Australian Greens senator Scott Ludlam, who travelled with the survivors for five days, said the government needed to remove any mention of nuclear weapons from its security policy. "We still have nuclear weapons embedded in our security policy. We lie under the United States' nuclear umbrella," Mr Ludlam told reporters.

The Advertiser: Maralinga nuke tests - Brits 'dumped n-waste at sea'
NUCLEAR waste ordered to be removed from the South Australian desert after atomic tests in the 1950s may have been dumped at sea rather than shipped to the UK. It has been a mystery as to how much radioactive waste was at Maralinga following the tests and what the then reluctant British Government did with it. Declassified British government documents to be released publicly today under the 30-year rule reveal the final resting place of the plutonium that had littered the desert was probably the ocean floor. "The Ministry of Defence considers that, however carefully presented, a reference to disposal of plutonium at sea could provoke opposition, eg from the Greenpeace movement, to our sea dumping program," one confidential memo read by The Advertiser states.

Christian Science Monitor: Backyard reactors? Firms shrink the nukes.
Hundreds of miles from the nearest power plant, the roughly 700 residents of Galena, Alaska, depend on costly generator-supplied electricity for their homes. But now, they want to go nuclear. No, not a traditional hulking nuclear power plant. That would be far too big. Instead, town leaders have signed up for what some call a “pocket nuke” or “nuclear battery” that produces just 10 megawatts – about 1 percent of the energy an average nuclear plant generates. Japanese manufacturer Toshiba has told the town it will install its new “4S” (Super-safe, small, and simple) reactor free of charge by 2012.

World Nuclear News: Two more reactors under way in China
Work on two new nuclear power reactors was inaugurated on 26 December - just 11 days after a ceremony for the start of work on six other units. The latest units to officially enter the construction phase are at Fangjiashan, near the existing Qinshan nuclear power plant in Zhejiang province.

Bloomberg: North Korea Ties Nuclear Dismantling to Japan Oil, Kyodo Says
North Korea may stop dismantling its nuclear facilities unless Japan provides oil, Kyodo reported today, citing an unidentified official at the communist state’s embassy in Beijing.

WKBT: Feds: More Training Needed in Wisconsin for Nuclear Accidents
Wisconsin emergency officials want to spend nearly a million dollars to bolster training for nuclear accidents after responders made at least a half-dozen mistakes during training. The Federal Emergency Management Agency evaluated a training exercise at the Kewaunee nuclear power plant in December 2007. The agency's report documented a number of shortcomings, including volunteer field teams that didn't realize they had been exposed to too much radiation, inaccurate radiation readings and wrong information distributed to the public.

AP: Swiss nuclear smuggling suspect freed from prison
A Swiss man suspected of involvement in the world's biggest nuclear smuggling ring has been released from prison after more than four years of investigative detention, his family said Sunday. Urs Tinner, 43, was freed several days ago, his mother Hedwig Tinner told The Associated Press by telephone from eastern Switzerland. His brother Marco Tinner, 40, remains in detention while prosecutors appeal his release to the federal criminal court in Bellinzona, she said, refusing to comment further on the case. A public trial for the Tinners could prove uncomfortable to the Swiss government. According to court documents published in August, federal prosecutors believe the Tinner brothers were CIA informants and that U.S. pressure prompted the Swiss government to destroy some of the evidence in the case.

Japan Times: Japan - Three utilities to ship in MOX fuel in 2009
Three electric utilities are planning shipments of mixed oxide plutonium-uranium fuel from France sometime between January and March that would arrive by sea between April and June, according to sources.

Fair Home: Nuclear Powered Planes To Become A Reality?
Researchers at a Government funded project believe that nuclear powered planes may well be on their way to becoming a reality sooner rather than later. With the ever rising cost and decreasing availability of the petroleum needed to power conventional aircraft, as well concerns as the ecological damage they cause, governments and aerospace companies are searching for other sources of fuel for aircraft, and in nuclear fuel they seem to have ‘rediscovered’ one.

Welcome to the inaugural Nuclear Reaction Awards 2008. As the year comes to its close we’d like to recognise those who have help make the nuclear industry the over-subsidised and under-scrutinised joke it is today.

Today’s Award: The Worst Nuclear Facility of 2008

This is an award that has seen fierce competition. There were many nominations and our judges had a very difficult time in choosing the winner.

Would it be the nuclear waste storage facility at Yucca Mountain, Nevada, 20 years over schedule, $32 billion over budget and officially full to capacity even before it opens?

Would it be the darling of the US nuclear industry, Vermont Yankee? With her collapsing cooling tower, three coolant leaks in a year, her attempt to bankrupt concerned citizens groups, and a huge shortfall in the decommissioning fund, Vermont was a strong contender for the award.

How about Sweden’s Oskarshamn reactor where cleaners and maintenance staff were asked to guard the perimeter fence when security systems failed. Or the UK’s Sellafield where the seagulls are radioactive and have to be culled by sharpshooters? Or the uranium enrichment plant in Iran where the security is so tight they even arrest the pigeons?

No, in the end, there could only be one winner: Tricastin.

What a year it’s been for the nuclear power facility in Southern France. The spill of ‘only’ 18,000 litres of a uranium solution that made its way into the Gaffiere and Lauzon rivers, tributaries to the Rhone. The contamination of 100 workers. The false alarms. The higher than normal radioactive emissions that led to France’s nuclear watchdog ordering operations be suspended. The nearby wine makers changing the names of their wines because they fear being associated with the region will damage their reputations. The two fuel units becoming ‘snagged’ during refueling. The flooding of a facility storing contaminated equipment.

Tricastin, we salute you. You truly are a poster-child for the nuclear ‘renaissance’.

Some other stories from the nuclear industry you may have missed:

Top News: EdF - Brussels turns up the heat on French power giant
The European Union's executive on Monday turned up the heat on French power giant Electricite de France (EdF), confirming that it suspected the former monopoly of breaking EU competition rules. The European Commission has sent a "statement of objections" to the French-based company calling for clarification on the details of its contracts with industrial clients, a press release issued in Brussels said. The commission is concerned that such contracts may make it harder for industrial clients to switch to another provider and ban them from re-selling the electricity they buy, the press release said.

Bloomberg: RWE Gets Grid Accord for Planned Welsh Nuclear Plants
RWE AG's U.K. unit reached agreement with National Grid Plc to connect as many as three nuclear plants to the country's power network as it plans 10 billion pounds ($14.6 billion) of investment in new British generation capacity.

Forbes: US - NRG urges shareholders to reject Exelon offer
Power generator NRG Energy Inc. on Tuesday again told shareholders to reject utility Exelon Corp.'s $6 billion all-stock offer for the company because it is too cheap. In a letter to shareholders, NRG's president and chief executive, David Crane, and Chairman Howard Cosgrove said Exelon also continues to not provide adequate details on how it will finance the deal.

Bloomberg: China to Help India Design Power Plants as Domestic Orders Slow
China won contracts to design coal- fired power plants in India, Asia's third-biggest economy, as slowing domestic orders prompt companies to expand overseas. A venture by China's largest nuclear-power plant builders and a construction company in the eastern province of Shandong will design two generators of 1,980 megawatts each in India, the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission said today in a statement on its Web site.

Reuters: Areva unit seeks US permit for uranium enrichment
A unit of France's Areva Group on Tuesday applied to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission for permission to build a $2 billion uranium enrichment plant in Idaho, the company said. Areva Enrichment Services, based in Bethesda, Maryland, last May announced plans to build the Eagle Rock Enrichment Facility 18 miles from Idaho Falls.

Welcome to the inaugural Nuclear Reaction Awards 2008. As the year comes to its close we’d like to recognise those who have help make the nuclear industry the over-subsidised and under-scrutinised joke it is today.

Today’s Award: The Most Amazing Nuclear Miracle of 2008

There are many claims as to the miraculous nature of nuclear energy. That it’s clean. That it’s safe. That it’s cheap. That it’s going to help save the planet. That it’s going to help irrigate deserts. Truly, many people see it capable of some amazing things and this year was no exception.

Nuclear energy was responsible for two particularly stunning miracles this year - so stunning in fact, that we’ve decided to give them both the award.

Who could possibly forget, when in July this year, nuclear energy in India freed convicted criminals from prison and made the critically ill rise up from their beds and walk? Jaw-dropping scenes were also witnessed as India was allowed access to nuclear technology by the rest of the world without having to sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

And who could have predicted that, on the other side of the world, nuclear energy would bestow the ability to see the future on Jukka Laaksonen, head of Finnish nuclear safety authority, STUK? Writing to Anne Lauvergeon, CEO of Areva, who are leading Finland’s disastrous Olkiluoto 3 nuclear reactor construction, Laaksonen said: ‘I have no doubts about the acceptability of the final product’.

How could Laaksonen possibly know that if he didn’t have the ability to see the future? The alternative explanation of the head of a nuclear watchdog snuggling up with the very people he’s supposed to be scrutinising is too ridiculous to contemplate.

Here’s to the nuclear energy and its miraculous properties. And here’s to more miracles in 2009. The Finnish and India nuclear industries are going to need them.