Yahoo! News: Bill Clinton Visits North Korea, Meets With Leader Kim Jong Il
’Aug. 4 (Bloomberg) -- Former President Bill Clinton met in North Korea with leader Kim Jong Il during a surprise visit that may help defuse tension over the communist regime’s nuclear program and secure the release of two jailed U.S. journalists.The White House denied a report from North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency that Clinton delivered a message from President Barack Obama to the country’s leadership during today’s meeting in Pyongyang. ‘That’s not true,’ White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said in Washington, referring to the report by KCNA. Clinton was met at Pyongyang airport by Kim Kye Gwan, the country’s chief negotiator at talks to dismantle North Korea’s nuclear capability, KCNA said. The mission to secure the release of the journalists wouldn’t last long, an official traveling with Clinton’s wife, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, said during a stopover in Spain. The former president and the North Korean leader ‘had an exhaustive conversation’ and a ‘wide-ranging exchange of views on the matters of common concern,’ KCNA said without giving further details. The country’s National Defense Commission hosted Clinton at a dinner in his honor that was attended by officials including Kim Kye Gwan, the agency said.’

Sydney Morning Herald: Nuclear watchdog urged to seek answers from Burma
’AMERICAN non-proliferation experts have called on the international nuclear watchdog to seek clarification from the Burmese Government over its nuclear program after a Herald report that quoted defectors claiming there was a secret military nuclear program. The report, based on interviews by Professor Desmond Ball of the Australian National University and a journalist, Phil Thornton, said the country had been developing a secret nuclear program. It revealed Burma was building a secret reactor, with North Korea’s assistance, at Nuang Laing, close to Mandalay. Daryl Kimball, of the Arms Control Association, told the Nelson Report, an influential online security report, that although there had been no evidence of a Burmese nuclear-weapons quest, whatever the North Koreans were doing must be made a priority by the International Atomic Energy Agency, of which Burma is a member. ‘The report is probably enough cause for the IAEA director-general [and Russia] to seek clarification from Myanmar [Burma] and request a special inspection,’ Mr Kimball said.

World Nuclear News: Bumpy road to budget deal
’A US-led push for increases in the budget of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) resulted only in a 2.7% boost after a difficult period of negotiation by its board of governors. It is accepted that the IAEA's role is growing in line with renewed global interest in nuclear power, while it also has a special role as an arbiter of disputes on nuclear technology such as those involving Iran and North Korea. This is at odds with a general policy for United Nations bodies to go for zero growth rates and has resulted in what outgoing director general Mohamed ElBaradei calls "critical needs [that] can no longer be postponed... [and] must be addressed with a sense of urgency." One person that agrees with ElBaradei is US President Barack Obama, whose campaign pledges included doubling the IAEA budget over four years. His concerns are primarily focused on nuclear security and maintaining the IAEA's safeguards capability. Leading the push for greater funds for the agency in 2010 was the USA, whose spokeswoman told World Nuclear News it was extremely happy with securing 2.7% growth for 2010, although it was prepared to go well beyond a reported figure of 8%.’

Steel Guru: French companies in fray to build nuclear reactors in UAE
’Bloomberg reported that Electricite de France SA will join a group with Areva SA, Total SA and GDF Suez SA that's vying to build nuclear plants in the UAE. Mr Pierre Gadonneix CEO of EDF said that "We will participate while at the same time being careful not to increase the risks for EDF, so that it will be compatible with our means." He said that the French companies are vying to build several 1,600 MW civil nuclear reactors in the UAE, which plans to select companies to develop an atomic program by the end of the year with a goal of completing the first plant by 2017. They will be competing against General Electric Company and Korea Electric Power Corporation in a battle GDF Suez SA CEO Mr Gerard Mestrallet predicted will be "ferocious."’

Reuters: France raises electricity prices, EDF shares down
’PARIS, Aug 4 (Reuters) - France plans to raise electricity prices by an average of 2.3 percent from Aug. 15 to help fund investments in infrastructure and renewable energy, the Economy Ministry said on Tuesday. The French state, which owns 85 percent of electricity producer EDF (EDF.PA) and still decides prices, will raise tariffs for households and small businesses by 1.9 percent, the ministry said. For medium-sized and big corporations, prices will be hiked by 2.8 percent, it added. The increases were less than had been suggested in recent press reports, traders said, and EDF shares fell 1.5 percent to 34.52 euros by 1313 GMT. The stock had gained last week on reports that the state would allow an increase of 3.1 percent. Early in July, Pierre Gadonneix, chief executive of EDF, had publicly asked for electricity prices to be raised by 20 percent over three to four years to fund future investments.’

iStockAnalyst: Reid Declares Yucca Victory: Senator Says Licensing Funds Erased
’Aug. 4--Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said he dealt a fatal blow to the funding-starved Yucca Mountain Project on Thursday, announcing that President Barack Obama and Energy Secretary Steven Chu have agreed to eliminate all money for pursuing a license for the nuclear waste disposal project in 2011. "The only funding allocated for Yucca will be used to conclude the work being done at the site, bringing the ill-conceived project to its rightful end," Reid, D-Nev., said in a statement. The agreement evolved after Reid cut $27 million from the project's 2010 license application funding in the Energy and Water Appropriations bill that passed Wednesday. During a conference call with former Vice President Al Gore about next month's Clean Energy Summit in Las Vegas, Reid said the Nuclear Regulatory Commission as well won't have money to continue its four-year review of the license application that Chu's predecessor, Samuel Bodman, submitted last year near the end of the Bush administration.’