Nuclear News: Russian vessel with radioactive cargo holed in collision
Today's big stories from the nuclear industry:
St Petersburg Times: Captain Lus, a Russian vessel with radioactive cargo holed in collision
’The Captain Lus, a Russian vessel that regularly delivers radioactive cargo to St. Petersburg from abroad for subsequent reprocessing in Siberia, has collided with The Sundstraum, a Norwegian tanker, that was carrying chemicals. The Russian ship was en route from St. Petersburg to the French port of Le Havre. According to the preliminary investigation into the incident, the vessels share responsibility for causing the collision. Rashid Alimov, head of the St. Petersburg branch of the international environmental organization Bellona, told The St. Petersburg Times that The Captain Lus, which was holed in the collision, was carrying 9 containers of urainum ore concentrate on board. The cargo totalled 182 tons in weight, but no radioactive leaks were registered.’
Lamar Alexander: Alexander Unveils Blueprint for 100 Nuclear Power Plants in 20 Years
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’July 13th, 2009 - WASHINGTON - U.S. Senator Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), chairman of the Senate Republican Conference, today unveiled a blueprint for building 100 new nuclear power plants in 20 years. He said it was his own blueprint in support of "the four-step" low-cost clean energy plan supported by the Senate GOP, which also calls for electric vehicles, offshore exploration for natural gas and oil, and doubling energy research to make renewable energy cost-competitive. Alexander said the Republican plan would "create jobs, lower utility bills and put the United States within the goals of the Kyoto Protocol on global warming by 2030 without the expensive cap-and-trade and renewable mandates passed by the House of Representatives two weeks ago."’
Reuters: Less wind, more nuclear for UK energy future -CBI
’LONDON, July 13 (Reuters) - Britain needs to build more nuclear reactors and cleaner coal plants while putting less emphasis on wind power if it wants a secure low-carbon future, business lobby group CBI said on Monday. Current government policy is making energy security and climate change targets harder to achieve because an emphasis on wind power will lead to less investment in other forms of low-carbon electricity generation, the group said in a report. Environmental group Greenpeace slammed the report, saying it would be a mistake to push away from wind power in a country with the resources and will to utilize the renewable energy source. "In Britain we have one of the best renewable energy resources anywhere in the world and a manufacturing sector champing at the bit to capture the lead in marine technologies like offshore wind and tidal power," Greenpeace Executive Director John Sauven said in a statement.’
Times of India: G-8 terms no bar, India can reprocess nuke fuel
’NEW DELHI: As Prime Minister Manmohan Singh heads to France, a key element in India's civil nuclear agreement with that country should give the government comfort when he sits down for talks on nuclear trade with President Nicholas Sarkozy. The agreement permits India to reprocess French-origin nuclear fuel on its own. France will offer to reprocess only if India asks it to. Russia is also learnt to have agreed to let India reprocess fuel that it may supply. The understanding with the two nuclear suppliers is one of the reasons why India is not overly concerned about the recent G-8 statement on non-proliferation where the grouping apparently raised the bar on transfer of enrichment and reprocessing technologies (ENR) to countries that don't have it. At this point, India is only looking to be able to reprocess foreign-origin fuel, which in principle has been granted by France and Russia in their civil nuclear agreements which are yet to be made public. The other reason for its being reassured is that since India already possesses ENR technology, it can argue that this does not apply to it.’
