Miller-McCune: Salting it Away (and Other Problems with Nuclear Waste)
’Germany's vaunted salt mine solution for low-level nuclear waste has proven to be full of holes. Rock salt, at least while it's underground, has two main properties: It can be soft and easy to mine, and it can form a watertight seal. This helps explain why the West German government started forklifting thousands of metal drums of "low-to-medium" radioactive waste into an abandoned salt mine called Asse II during the 1960s. Around 12,000 liters of groundwater leak into the mine every day. Some of it mixes with the radioactive waste. A few weeks ago, the Federal Office for Radiation Protection (BfS) finally admitted that some brine collected in Asse II had traces of tritium and caesium 137. Experts say chemical reactions between the brine and the radioactive waste could soften the salt rock and lead to a partial collapse of Asse II by 2014.’

PR-Inside.com: USEC to Pursue Discussions on Loan Guarantee
’USEC Inc. announced that it is requesting that the Obama administration review further the economic recovery and national and energy security benefits of providing a loan guarantee for the American Centrifuge Plant in Piketon, Ohio. This announcement comes in response to the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) request that USEC withdraw its application for loan guarantee funding. "We believe the American Centrifuge Plant meets the financial and technical requirements of the Department's Loan Guarantee Program as well as numerous Obama administration policy objectives," said John K. Welch, USEC president and chief executive officer. "Accordingly, we plan to pursue further discussions with DOE to work with them to address any remaining technical and financial concerns they may have.’

World Nuclear News: Russia assures Ukraine on nuclear fuel supply
’Ukraine is having trouble meeting payment schedules for Russian nuclear fuel, but suppliers say there will be no disruption. Energoatom is the national electricity generator in Ukraine, which uses 15 reactors planned in the Soviet era for 47% of electricity. It has longstanding contracts with Russia's TVEL for fuel supply but has recently signalled that it will be unable to make the advanced payments required by contract. Today, TVEL president Olga Kravets acknowledged Energotom's requests to change the schedule and responded with an assurance that "We are confident that in this difficult situation, the Ukranian nuclear power plant would be guaranteed nuclear fuel."’

Washington Times: UAE nuclear deal -- Atoms for peace or bombs for sneaks?
’President Obama wants to go to zero nuclear weapons. But his first official act of nuclear restraint - the submission to Congress of a U.S. civilian nuclear cooperative agreement with the United Arab Emirates - suggests why we might not get there. At a hearing July 8, House Foreign Affairs Committee members worried aloud that the deal with the United Arab Emirates might not be the needed "peaceful" alternative to the situation in Iran, a country accused of trying to exploit civilian nuclear energy to make bombs. Should the United States use it as a template for similar deals with other Arab states that, given Iran's program, have announced plans to build nuclear power reactors of their own? Members on both sides of the aisle were not entirely convinced.’

Kuwait Times: Egypt's nuclear program not a response to Iran's
’KUWAIT: The Egyptian nuclear program recently announced by the country's president Hosni Mubarak and approved by the US is not intended as a countermeasure against the Iranian nuclear program, said Taher Farahat, the Egyptian Ambassador to Kuwait, in a recent interview. Farahat said that while it is unacceptable for Iran or any other nation in the Middle East to possess nuclear weapons, given the threat this would pose to the region and the world, all nations have the right to pursue a peaceful nuclear energy program.’

Fresh News: Krishna says no delay on reprocessing agreement with US
’External Affairs Minister S M Krishna informed the Lok Sabha that there was no delay in the negotiations with the US on the reprocessing agreement as part of the Indo-US civil nuclear deal and officials of two countries have held talks in Vienna last week. "There has been no delay in the negotiations and nor will the arrangements and procedures to be finalised have any relation to India''s agreements in the field of civil nuclear cooperation with other countries," Krishna said. He said the reprocessing agreement was in keeping with the bilateral agreement for peaceful nuclear cooperation between India and the US.’

Cumberland News: Radiation link to death of campaigner
’RADIATION is thought to have contributed to the death of the former Sellafield worker who was jailed in 2004 for a bomb hoax at the site's visitors centre. Duncan Ball, who worked in the Magnox plant for 20 years, died on July 17. He was 49. In 2007 Mr Ball was diagnosed with a bone marrow cancer (multiple myeloma) and The Whitehaven News understands he received an interim payment from the nuclear industry scheme to compensate workers or their dependents for diseases which may be radiation-linked. The scheme was set up by BNFL and the unions at Sellafield in 1982 and compensation is paid on a balance of possibilities (20 per cent and over) that a cancer may have been induced by occupational exposure to radiation. Over the last 27 years around 1,400 cases have been assessed and a total of £6.2 million paid out in 117 successful claims. Many of the cases were linked to Sellafield but the scheme has widened to include all nuclear radiation workers.’