Nuclear News: French government forces Areva's 'iron lady' to bend
Today's big stories from the nuclear industry:
Financial Times: French government forces Areva's 'iron lady' to bend
’Areva's board meets today to rubber stamp what was always inevitable - the sale of the nuclear group's transmission and distribution business and its stakes in a number of blue-chip companies. This is what Areva's main shareholder, the French government, has long wanted to fund the rising investment needs of its nuclear champion. This is what Jean-Cyril Spinetta, its new chairman - also the chairman of Air France-KLM - is going to recommend. He is also expected to confirm that the government, which, through different state or state-controlled institutions, owns more than 90 per cent of Areva, has agreed to open up the company's capital to new investors, although perhaps not the investors Anne Lauvergeon, Areva chief executive, would have wanted. Ms Lauvergeon, sometimes called France's "iron lady", has long campaigned for a market flotation to open up the group's capital, which is only traded through investment certificates. However, the government has always regarded Areva as a strategic national asset. It now wants to raise funds which are urgently needed not just for investments, but also to finance the â‚2bn ($2.8bn) Areva needs to buy out Siemens, its German engineering joint venture partner.’
NJ.com: Owners of Oyster Creek nuclear plant may not release leak information
’LACEY TOWNSHIP -- The Oyster Creek nuclear power plant in New Jersey thinks it knows what caused a leak of radioactive tritium -- but it won't share the information with the public. The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission said a report addresses groundwater contaminated with tritium, some of which may be entering a cooling canal flowing into Barnegat Bay in undetectable levels. Plant spokesman David Benson said the report, which was given to the NRC, is an internal company document meant only for engineers. But the NRC may include it in an inspection report it plans to release in about six weeks.’
Augusta Chronicle: DOE officially announces it won't push SRS reprocessing plan
’The U.S. Energy Department made official today its plan to scrap a Bush administration initiative that could have brought a major nuclear fuel reprocessing facility to South Carolina. Economic developers, however, say the cancellation of the Global Nuclear Energy Partnership - published in today’s Federal Register – doesn’t mean Barnwell County and Savannah River Site won’t win a similar venture in the future. “At this point, GNEP, as a concept, is dead, but the issue of what to do with this material isn’t” said Danny Black, president of the Barnwell-based SouthernCarolina Alliance, a regional economic development consortium. The GNEP program, unveiled in 2006, was a broad plan to reprocess spent commercial nuclear fuel to maximize its efficiency, reduce waste volume and prevent its exploitation for nuclear weapons.’
Reuters: Q+A-What might happen next in Iran?
’TEHRAN, June 29 (Reuters) - Iran's leaders have weathered the biggest anti-government protests since the 1979 Islamic revolution, but the tumult over a disputed presidential election has exposed deep splits in the ruling elite. Iran's top legislative body, the Guardian Council, confirmed on Monday President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's election victory after a partial recount, official media reported. Here are some questions and answers on possible next steps in the Islamic Republic, the world's fifth biggest oil exporter, whose nuclear programme has alarmed the West and Israel. And while the world watches the ferment in Iran, the centrifuges enriching uranium are still spinning -- to fuel nuclear power stations, as Iran says, or to acquire the knowhow to make atomic bombs, as the West suspects.’
United Nations: High-level forum stresses need to tackle radioactive waste in Central
Asia
’29 June 2009 - A high-level forum organized by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) wrapped up in Geneva today with the adoption of a joint declaration stressing the need to tackle the challenge of radioactive waste in Central Asia. The meeting brought together over 100 representatives from the region, international organizations, donors and others to discuss the problems associated with the uranium tailing deposits - left over from mining during the Cold War in Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan - which contain more than 800 million tons of radioactive and toxic waste. These countries have not been able to deal with the problem adequately due to lack of resources and capacity. UNDP Administrator Helen Clark said the legacy of nuclear waste and related environmental management issues has a direct impact on human development in the region.
The Guardian: Nuclear industry accused of hijacking clean energy forum
’The nuclear power industry has been accused of trying to muscle in on plans to establish a global body to represent the renewable energy industry at a key meeting in Egypt Monday. France – a major user and exporter of nuclear technologies - is accused by critics of trying to win the top job inside the renewable organisation so it can move the International Renewable Energy Agency (Irena) towards being a promoter of "low-carbon" technologies - including atomic power. The talks in Sharm el-Sheikh are already threatening to become a major standoff between Germany and the United Arab Emirates over which country should win the right to have the headquarters of Irena based in its country. France, which recently signed a nuclear co-operation agreement with the UAE, is supporting Abu Dhabi. It also wants one of its own civil servants, Hélène Peloss, to be given the top role.’
