Nuclear News: Nuclear power's new debate: cost
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Today's big stories from the nuclear industry:
Christian Science Monitor: Nuclear power's new debate: cost
’Overlooking the shimmering waters of Chesapeake Bay, the massive twin concrete domes of the Calvert Cliffs nuclear power station's two reactors could soon see a third sister rising alongside them. If construction begins in Lusby, Md., perhaps by 2012, Calvert Cliffs III will be part of the larger promise of a "nuclear renaissance" of reactor construction sweeping the globe, proponents say. Yet a new wave of concern is rising - not over traditional anxieties such as radioactive waste or weapons proliferation - but about the mammoth financial cost of nuclear power and who will bear it. New guarantees in coming years could also leave US taxpayers picking up the tab if nuclear utilities defaulted on their loans. In 2008, the Government Accountability Office said the average risk of default on Department of Energy guarantees was about 50 percent. The Congressional Budget Office projected that default rates would be very high - well above 50 percent." On that basis, the potential risk exposure to US taxpayers from federally guaranteed nuclear loans would be $360 billion to $1.6 trillion, depending on the number of power reactors built, the Union of Concerned Scientists' study found.’
Examiner.com: U.S.-India Civilian Nuclear Agreement: Implications of Circumventing the NPT
’The U.S. military may not be designed to fight guerilla war, but the U.S. Congress certainly is--as it demonstrated on August 1. As the heavy artillery was being unleashed by both Republicans and Democrats over universal health care, 85 Senators quietly voted a very controversial bill into law: the U.S.-India Civilian Nuclear Agreement. There is no doubt that China's rise, both military and economic, has made officials in the U.S. concerned. China's increasing dominance has required the U.S. to develop a stronger alliance with India so that neither country will become the Asian powerhouse. Perhaps what is most revealing is a subtle exchange (during the aforementioned "The World" episode) between PRI's Linda Mullins and Henry Sokoloski. Mr. Sokoloski indicated that one troubling repercussion of the US-India nuclear agreement is that "...every Middle Eastern country, and every country including North Korea or Burma [will say]...we'd like the same treatment.’
China Daily: China's nuke chief ousted for violations
’The general manager of China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC), Kang Rixin, has been deposed from his position after being investigated for "grave violations of discipline", the Organization Department of the CPC Central Committee confirmed Thursday. Kang was allegedly involved in a 1.8 billion yuan (US$260 million) corruption case, people.com.cn, the People's Daily website, reported Friday. An insider said there are two main accusations against Kang: appropriating public money to buy stocks, and interfering with the bidding results of nuclear power projects. And according to an anonymous CNNC staffer, Kang may also have taken illegal money from the company's main projects.’
Bloomberg: Cameco Says Utilities in China Stockpiling Uranium
’Aug. 12 (Bloomberg) -- Cameco Corp., the world's second- largest uranium producer, said power utilities in China are continuing to stockpile uranium, making them the market's single-largest group of buyers. Utilities in China have bought an estimated 8 million pounds of uranium, the raw material in nuclear-reactor fuel, on the spot market this year, said George Assie, Cameco's senior vice president of marketing. "Keep in mind they have 13 reactors under construction," Assie said today on a conference call with investors and analysts. "The stockpile there is for a very specific reason and that is to feed those reactors under construction." Uranium purchases by Chinese utilities this year confirm the world's most populous country is becoming a more significant force in nuclear-fuel markets, said Dustin Garrow, a Denver- based executive general manager of marketing for Paladin Energy Ltd., the world's ninth-largest uranium producer.’
New York Yimes: Iran Seeks Ban on Striking Atomic Sites
’Iran has asked the United Nations to call a meeting to consider banning attacks on nuclear installations, the semi-official Fars news agency reported. Israel has said it will not tolerate a nuclear Iran and has dropped hints about taking military action against Iran's enrichment facilities if diplomatic efforts fail to halt the nuclear program. Iran has said its program is purely civilian in nature and cites its right to nuclear power under the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty. Tehran's request, which asked for a conference of 150 nations to vote on a proposed ban, was made on Wednesday in a letter by Iran's envoy to the International Atomic Energy Agency, Ali-Asghar Soltaniyeh, according to Fars.’
Helen Caldicott - Nuclear instability
’Australia seems determined to lead the way to an unstable world which could result in two very different outcomes - global warming or nuclear winter. We burn and export coal in massive amounts producing more CO2 per capita than any other country and we are about to become one of the world's major uranium exporters. Kevin Rudd remains wedded to the coal industry and the ALP now totally supports uranium mining. The Nuclear Energy Institute in the US has spent hundreds of millions of dollars in a massive propaganda campaign to convince Americans, and indeed the world, that nuclear power is the answer to global warming, because it makes no greenhouse gases, it is clean, cheap and sustainable. These four claims are patently absurd. The truth is that very few people or organisations have calculated the true energetic cost of nuclear electricity which involves a massive industrial infrastructure including uranium mining and land reclamation, milling, uranium enrichment, reactor construction and decommissioning, cooling, transportation and ecologically safe storage of intensely radioactive waste, and ecologically safe storage of thousands of tons of waste over geological time frames.’
Israel National News: Arab League Seek EU Support for Israeli Nuclear Transparency
’(IsraelNN.com) The Arab League has written a letter to foreign ministers from the European Union (EU) in its continuing campaign for Israel to open its nuclear program to international inspection, according to diplomats who talked to the Associated Press on Thursday. An Arab-sponsored motion to that effect is scheduled for a vote next month at the general assembly of the International Atomic Energy Agency. One of the recipients of the letter is Foreign Minister Carl Bildt of Sweden, which holds the presidency of the EU. "We are hopeful that your country would support the Arab draft resolution," says the letter, which notes that "unfortunately," Sweden was among the EU nations voting to block action on the document last year.’
