Iran and Israel Envoys Were Both at Nuclear Talks

The Israeli defense minister, Ehud Barak, said on Thursday that Iran must cease all uranium enrichment, a statement that reflected Israeli concern over a draft agreement taking shape in Vienna, where earlier this week Iran took part in nuclear talks with the United States, Russia and France. Under the agreement, about three-quarters of Iran’s known stockpile of nuclear fuel would be shipped to Russia for enrichment to levels suitable for a peaceful nuclear reactor but too low for weapons. Such a deal would delay Iran’s ability to build a nuclear weapon for about a year, buying more time for President Obama to search for a diplomatic solution to the nuclear standoff. In the first response by a senior Israeli leader, Mr. Barak said what was necessary was ‘the cessation of enrichment by Iran, and not just the removal of the enriched material.’ Speaking at a conference hosted by Israel’s president, Shimon Peres, in Jerusalem, Mr. Barak urged ‘all the players’ that ‘under no circumstances should any option be removed from the table,’ meaning that the threats of tougher sanctions and military action should remain. Earlier Thursday, Israeli officials confirmed that Israeli and Iranian envoys participated in discussions at a recent multilateral forum on nuclear issues in Cairo, but they said the two representatives held no private meetings and played down the significance of the event.’

EDF, rivals have not agreed nuclear price -producers

The French electricity producers' Association (UFE) denied a press report that state-owned utility EDF had agreed with its rivals on prices at which it would supply them with nuclear electricity to bolster competition. The economic daily Les Echos newspaper said on Thursday that the parties had agreed that, as of 2010, EDF's rivals could buy electricity from the former monopoly's nuclear power plants at about 34 euros ($50.90) per megawatt hour, a price that would gradually increase to 55-60 euros until 2020. "The UFE denies the information of Les Echos newspaper which says that an agreement had taken place in the sector on a price level," the Union Francaise de l'Electricite said in a statement. The government last month announced it wanted to reform the French market to foster more competition, in line with European Union demands. The market has been fully liberalised since July 2007 but EDF still owns all of France's 58 nuclear reactor, which provide an 80 percent share in overall electricity consumption.’

The hidden costs of energy production-US$120bn in 2005

’A report just released by the National Academies of Science estimates the ‘hidden’ costs of energy production and use. These costs, which include human health effects, physical damages to buildings and other structures, and reduction in grain crop harvests caused by air pollution are not reflected in market prices of coal, oil, other energy sources, or the electricity and gasoline produced from them. Known to economists as external costs, the report estimated these costs at $120 billion in the U.S. in 2005, Health damage from air pollution associated with electricity generation and motor vehicle transportation is the largest single item. Thomas McKone, a senior scientist in Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory’s Environmental Energy Technologies Division (EETD), and Adjunct Professor in the UC Berkeley School of Public Health, was one of 18 distinguished experts in public health, economics, and energy science who wrote the report. The report was released by the National Research Council (NRC) at the request of Congress. As a branch of the National Academies of Science NRC organizes studies using the best available science by drawing on NAS membership and carefully selected experts.’

North Korea has 20 nuclear-related sites: lawmaker

North Korea has an estimated 3,000 workers at 20 sites related to its nuclear weapons programme, a South Korean legislator said on Thursday. Some 200 scientists and key researchers are among the total staff, lawmaker Lee Mi-Kyung quoted a unification ministry report as saying. Eleven of the facilities are at the Yongbyon nuclear complex and there are also nine uranium-related mines and facilities at Pyongsan in North Hwanghae province and Sunchon in South Pyongan province, she said. The ministry confirmed the figures in the report. "The government needs to set up a concrete plan on how to manage North Korea's nuclear facilities, its scientists and overall resources" in case of a regime collapse, Yonhap news agency quoted Lee as saying.’

Is the nuclear industry in meltdown?

’Politicians and electric company executives the world over are dreaming of a ‘nuclear renaissance’. But a spate of hitches at Olkiluoto 3, the new flagship reactor in Finland, go to show that this is not in the cards, believes Der Spiegel, whcih also doubts that modernising old nuclear power stations is a viable alternative. The managers of the Finnish power company TVO made one last request before ordering Olkiluoto 3, the biggest atomic power plant in the world, from Siemens and the Areva nuclear group: please paint it oxblood red and white - that’s how the quaint summer houses look on the west coast of Finland. The two companies did manage that, at least: at the moment, workers are busy applying a colourful coat of paint to the turbine hall. But otherwise not much is going according to plan at Europe’s biggest atomic building site. The customers and manufacturing companies are at loggerheads, fighting over billions in a court of arbitration. The costs are exploding (from 3 billion to 5.8), completion has been pushed back several years (from spring 2009 to 2012). But above all, critics reprove the syndicate for dangerously cutting corners. The concrete is porous, the steel cracked, and some of the construction principles are so audacious that experts from the Finnish atomic energy agency shudder at the very thought.’

What might derail the Iran nuclear deal?

Wednesday's draft agreement reached here to ship most of Iran's declared stockpile of low-enriched uranium (LEU) to Russia to be reprocessed - buying all sides a year of time - now awaits what Iran's negotiators term a "thoughtful review" in Tehran. Iranian officials said the government would make a decision on the draft on Friday but Western negotiators are worried about backsliding, including possible attempts by Iran to send smaller amounts of nuclear material abroad than agreed to in the draft. French foreign ministry spokesman Bernard Valero said Thursday that for an agreement to stick, "The [entire amount of LEU] must leave Iran in one shipment before the end of the year." The current plan calls for Russia to enrich Iran's stockpile, and then deliver it to France for processing into the fuel rods that would run a small medical reactor in Tehran. New sticking points, questions, and problems could easily emerge from Tehran, which recently admitted to another clandestine enrichment facility in the shrine city of Qom. If Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the Islamic Republic's supreme leader, decides he wants to nix the idea there are many technical exceptions his negotiators could raise - ranging from the timing of the uranium shipments to the methods, or amounts, or the manner of the uranium's return for use, which Iran says it needs to fuel the medical reactor. Put simply, there's no guarantee a deal negotiated in fits and starts this week, with few details offered, is done.’

Depleted Uranium Weapons: Dead Iraqi and Afghani Babies Are No Joke

’The horrors of the US Agent Orange defoliation campaign in Vietnam, about which I wrote on Oct. 15, could ultimately be dwarfed by the horrors caused by the depleted uranium weapons which the US began using in the 1991 Gulf War (300 tons), and which it has used much more extensively -- and in more urban, populated areas -- in the Iraq War and the now intensifying Afghanistan War. Depleted uranium, despite its rather benign-sounding name, is not depleted of radioactivity or toxicity. The term "depleted" refers only to its being depleted of the U-235 isotope needed for fission reactions in nuclear reactors. The nuclear waste material from nuclear power plants, DU as it is known, is what is removed from the power plants' spent fuel rods and is essentially composed of the uranium isotope U-238 as well as U-236 (a product of nuclear reactor fission, not found in nature), as well as other trace radioactive elements. There are reports of a dramatic increase in the incidence of deformed babies being born in the city of Fallujah, where DU weapons were in wide use during the November 2004 assault on that city by US Marines. The British TV station SKY UK, in a report last month that has received no mention in any mainstream American news organization, found a marked increase in birth defects at local hospitals. Birth defects have also been high for years in the Basra area in the south of Iraq, where DU was used not just during America's 2003 "shock and awe" attack on Iraq, but also in the 1991 Gulf War. Further, a report sent to the UN General Assembly by Dr Nawal Majeed Al-Sammarai, Iraq's Minister of Women's Affairs since 2006, stated that in September 2009, Fallujah General Hospital had 170 babies born, 24% of which died within their first week of life. Worse yet, fully 75% of the babies born that month were deformed. This compares to August 2002, six months before the US invasion, when 530 live births were reported with only six dying in the first week, and only one deformity. Clearly something terrible is happening in Fallujah, and many doctors suspect it's the depleted uranium dust that is permeating the city.’

Slovenia sees new nuclear plant in 2020

Slovenia expects to build its second nuclear power plant by 2020 and prolong the life of the current plant by another 20 years, the state-owned energy firm Gen Energija said on Thursday. Joze Spiler, head of investment at Gen Energija, which operates Slovenia's sole nuclear power plant, Krsko (NEK), said he expected the government and parliament to approve the building of the second nuclear plant next year. "If the building of the plant is approved next year, it could start operating in 2020," Spiler told Reuters in a phone interview, adding the new plant would operate for 60 years. He said Slovenia expects to choose between Toshiba unit Westinghouse, France's Areva, Japan's Mitsubishi and Atmea, a joint venture of Areva and Mitsubishi, to supply technology for the new plant. According to Spiler, the new plant would cost between 3 billion ($4.49 billion) and 4 billion euros.’