Ahmadinejad: Iran to propose 3rd-party uranium enrichment
’Iran will propose that it is prepared to buy from a third party uranium enriched to the grade it requires for its Tehran reactor rather than carry out the enrichment itself, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Wednesday. His remarks, ahead of Thursday talks in Geneva with six major world powers about Iran's nuclear program, represent the first time Tehran has agreed to discuss specifics of its enrichment operations with the powers. "One of the subjects on the agenda of this negotiation is how we can get fuel for our Tehran reactor," the president was quoted by ISNA news agency as saying. "As I said in New York, we need 19.75%-enriched uranium. We said that, and we propose to buy it from anybody who is ready to sell it to us. We are ready to give 3.5%-enriched uranium and then they can enrich it more and deliver to us 19.75%-enriched uranium." In New York last week, Ahmadinejad said Iran would seek to enrich uranium to 20% itself if it could not find the product in the market for its research reactor in Tehran.’

UAE-U.S. Nuclear Deal Approaches Final Approval
pending civilian nuclear cooperation deal between the United States with the United Arab Emirates does not appear to face terminal threats as it enters its final month of congressional scrutiny, Reuters reported yesterday. The pact that originated with the Bush administration would grant the Gulf nation access to U.S. civilian nuclear materials and technology in exchange for its pledge not to produce reactor fuel or weapon-usable nuclear material. To annul the agreement, Congress must pass rejection legislation within 90 days of receiving the deal from the Obama administration last May. Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.) expressed
concern earlier this month about the deal's potential proliferation risks. "The State Department has failed to adequately respond to congressional inquiries regarding the proposed U.S.-UAE nuclear cooperation agreement, especially the status of the UAE's export control laws and ties to the Iranian regime," Ros-Lehtinen said.’

Increased discharge safety defended
’CUMBRIAN anti nuclear group, Core, have got into a row over raising the limit of radioactive discharges into the air from Sellafield. The gas discharges known as Antimony 125 are from the Magnox reprocessing plant which shut down for several weeks earlier this year rather than risk breaching the authorisation. Sellafield Ltd has since re-started the plant but has applied to the Environment Agency for a five-fold increase in the limit. The agency says there is no risk to the public but Core campaigner Martin Forwood said yesterday: "We deplore any increase in environmental discharges but Sellafield has got the agency over a barrel. We are now paying the price for the industry's abject failure to develop an alternative to reprocessing Magnox fuel." He accused the site operators of a "disturbing lack of technical incompetence" and a disdain for the environment in wanting such a large increase in the limit.’

Bulgarian Energy Minister Traikov: "Bulgaria Will Not Finance 51 Per Cent of Belene N-Plant Project"
’SOFIA, September 29 (BTA). "Bulgaria will not finance 51 per cent of the Belene Nuclear Power Plant project," Bulgarian Economy, Energy and Tourism Minister Traicho Traikov told journalists here on Tuesday after a round table on the project, hosted by the National Assembly. The financing of the project will be restructured, he said. To this end, the State will hire a consultant to help build the new investment structure, and a competitive bidding procedure will mandatorily be announced for a new investor. "As far as I am concerned, project financing would be the best option for the Belene N-Plant," the Energy Minister said. "Such a profitable project should find adequate bank financing," he added. "Everybody who say that this is not a purely
economic project are right, but those who say that this is a primarily political project are not right," he said.’

GBII on schedule for start-up in 2009
’The first centrifuge cascade at the new Georges Besse II uranium enrichment plan "will begin spinning at the end of the year", Areva has announced. Full production capacity of 7.5 million SWU per year at the plant is targeted for 2016. Areva said 29 September that full testing of Georges Besse II has entered its final phase and will be
completed in early November 2009. The French firm said that work is proceeding according to plan, despite the unforeseeable complications that are common to any project of this magnitude. Areva recently discovered anomalies in inspections of a certain number of non-conforming welds on a system in the South unit of the plant, made under the responsibility of the Fives Nordon company.’

Sarkozy's 'Grand Loan' to Pile on Record French Debt
. 30 (Bloomberg) -- French President Nicolas Sarkozy says that even with a record budget deficit, France needs to spend more borrowed money to kick start economic growth. Promising a "grand loan" to finance spending on everything from Paris's rail system to new supercomputers, Sarkozy is set to swell a budget shortfall that already is the highest since 1959, the year after France's postwar government collapsed and Charles de Gaulle took power. The risk is that Sarkozy's penchant for "investing" may spook bond investors even as they improve earnings prospects for companies such as Bouygues SA and Electricite de France SA. It may even undermine France's top credit rating. While Sarkozy has left the loan's size and its exact use open, he has suggested it may be used to meet energy needs or to expand Paris's transport infrastructure, helping the city to grow beyond its current borders. These investments may benefit builders such as Bouygues, Vinci SA and Eiffage SA, or utilities such as EDF and Veolia Environnement SA. All the companies are based in or near Paris.’

German activists threaten protests over nuclear issue
’Anti-nuclear activists have launched a massive on-line letter writing campaign. Activists are worried that Chancellor Angela Merkel's center-right coalition will delay Germany's planned nuclear phaseout. It took anti-nuclear activists less than a day to collected 25,000 signatures from Germans worried that the newly-elected conservative government will delay closing Germany's 17 nuclear plants, they say. The letter writers warned that if the government delays the closures, there will be "massive protests" from the anti-nuclear energy movement. "It's very rare to have such high participation in an online appeal in such a short amount of time," Christoph Bautz, the head of Campact, one of the groups that organized the letter-writing campaign said in a statement.’

Meghalaya Govt. leases out land for uranium mining despite locals protest
, Sep.30 (ANI): The Meghalaya government has decided to lease out 422 hectares of land in the West Khasi Hills region for 30 years to the Uranium Corporation of India Limited (UCIL) for pre-project developmental works, a step which is agitating a number of locals. According to locals, Meghalaya's environment has been destroyed by the through unscientific mining of coal, limestone and other natural resources. They claim that uranium mining will only add to environmental degradation of Meghalaya. "First thing is the health-issue relating to uranium mining and the impact it will have in those areas where there will be uranium mining, and the second point is that the amount of royalty that the government will get," said Michael Syiem, President, Mait Shaphrang Movement, an NGO spearheading the protest against uranium mining.’