Lithuania needs help to salvage nuclear plan

Lithuania, planning to build a new nuclear power plant by 2018, wants to strike a deal next year for a strategic investor to take 50 to 60 percent of the project, its energy minister told Reuters on Thursday. The ageing Soviet-era Ignalina nuclear power plant was shut at the end of this year after the European Union deemed it unsafe. It has the same kind of reactors as caused the 1986 Chernobyl disaster. Due to domestic disagreements, a plan for a new pan-Baltic and Polish plant has been delayed. Given recession in the region, an investor is now expected to covSer most of the costs of the project, set to be worth several billion euros. "Our plans have not changed, we are still looking at 2018," Arvydas Sekmokas, Lithuania's energy minister, said in an interview. "According to the plan, we have to sign a deal with a strategic investor in 2010," he added.

NPCIL inks MoU with South Korea's KEPCO to build N-power units

State-run Nuclear Power Corp (NPCIL) and Korea Electric Power Corporation (KEPCO) today agreed to jointly develop nuclear power projects and explore possibility to set up 1400 MW atomic plants in the country. A Memorandum of Understanding to this effect was signed by S A Bhardwaj, Director (Technical) of NPCIL and Sung Min Cho, Director General of KEPCO here. The MoU covers bilateral cooperation in the field of nuclear power through technical exchange of data, experience, visit and joint works. "The MoU includes development of nuclear power projects, operation and maintenance of nuclear power plants, nuclear fuel, manufacture and supply of equipment and components and joint study for licensibility and constructibility of APR 1400 in India,"an NPCIL release said.

India Rules Out FDI in Nuke Plants

India's atomic energy Chief Dr Anil Kakodkar has ruled out Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in the nuclear power plants but said there are no restrictions for the private sector to carry out manufacturing of nuke equipment and construction. "FDI in Indian nuclear power plants is not envisaged," said Kakodkar, the Chairman of the Atomic energy Commission (AEC), when asked if there are any plans in this regard after India came out of its 34-year nuclear isolation. Kakodkar's comments came close on the heels of Economic Survey making a pitch for greater private participation even in the sensitive sector of nuclear power generation. The Survey called for allowing up to 49 per cent FDI in nuclear power and amending the Atomic Energy Act to allow private companies in the sector. In an interview to Asian Nuclear Energy, a portal dedicated to nuclear commerce, he said India's capability to independently design and build thorium-based Fast Breeder Reactors (FBRs) will make the country a global technological leader in this crucial area in the future.

US nuclear gurus see signs of more Indian nuclear tests

US nuclear pundits feel the Indian establishment -- political, scientific, or both in concert - may be lining up to conduct more nuclear tests to validate and improve the country's arsenal before the Obama administration shuts the door on nuclear explosions. ''You bet he wants to test again,'' said Henry Sokolski, Executive Director of the Washington DC-based Nonproliferation Policy Education Center, when asked about the remarks from a key Indian nuclear scientist suggesting India's thermonuclear test was not up to mark. ''Imagine you are a nuclear weapons designer who has corrected the mistakes and ironed out the wrinkles. You would be crazy not to want to test again.'' ''You have to look at the DNA of a weapons designer. They always want to make the weapons smaller, lighter, more powerful,'' Sokolski added. ''If you blindfold them, tie their hands and leave them in the middle of a forest, they will still make their way to a test site.''

United Kingdom Faces a Quandary Over New Nuclear or Coal Power

The United Kingdom is nearing a crucial decision as it tries to tackle the climate crisis -- whether to make a major push into new nuclear power or to proliferate coal-fired power plants constructed so their carbon emissions are captured and safely stored. While U.S. officials and America's utility industry continue to mull this question, Britain's decisional clock is ticking much faster. At stake are not just the government's pressing legal commitments to slash the country's contribution to global emissions of climate-changing carbon gases, but also a stated policy goal of reducing dependence on energy imports from unstable regions. In a recent report on the country's future energy mix, Malcolm Wicks -- a former energy minister and now Prime Minister Gordon Brown's special representative on international energy -- called for a tripling of the amount of electricity produced from nuclear power plants from 12.5 percent of the national total now to 35 percent to 40 percent by 2030.

Another Major Setback for 'Nuclear Renaissance': Industry Goes 0-6 in 2009 Efforts to Overturn State Bans on New Nuclear Reactors

The so-called "nuclear renaissance" is finding few friends among state lawmakers in the United States. The nuclear power industry has been shut out across the board in 2009 in its efforts in all six states -- ranging across the nation from Kentucky to Minnesota to Hawaii -- where it sought to overturn what are either explicit or effectively bans on construction of new reactors, according to the nonprofit Nuclear Information and Resource Service (NIRS). Efforts to overturn bans also have failed to advance in Illinois and West Virginia and Wisconsin. Beyond failing to reverse a single state-level ban on new reactors, the industry also suffered a wide range of major defeats, including an effort to repeal a ban on "Construction Work in Progress" (CWIP) payments that would have been imposed on Missouri ratepayers to finance a new nuclear power plant, which was then promptly mothballed. Industry efforts to get nuclear declared "renewable" by the states of Indiana and Arizona also failed to achieve results. Also going nowhere is a California bill to lift the state's pioneering law banning new reactors until a high-level waste dump is in place. That follows a 2008 California statewide referendum drive with the same focus that failed for lack of sufficient signatures to get it on the ballot.