Nuclear News: The medical and economic costs of nuclear power
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Today's big stories from the nuclear industry:
The medical and economic costs of nuclear power
’Jennifer Nordstrom, co-ordinator of the Carbon-Free Nuclear-Free project has noted "Telling states to build new nuclear plants to combat global warming is like telling a patient to smoke to lose weight." A recent study sponsored by the German government (the KiKK study - Kaatsch P, Spix C, Schultze-Rath R, et al. Leukemia in young children living in the vicinity of German nuclear power plants. Int J Cancer. 2008; 1220:721-726,) examined children who lived near 16 of the country's commercial nuclear power plants. The results revealed a strongly increased risk of all childhood cancers, particularly leukaemia, the closer the proximity of the children's residence to the reactor. In particular, the study found that children less than the age five years, living within a 5km radius of the power plant exhaust stacks were more than twice as likely to develop leukaemia compared with those children residing more that 5km away. The KiKK team studied other carcinogenic factors which may be responsible for the cancer clusters but none were found.’
French nuclear fuel plant reports excess plutonium
’France's nuclear safety authority has suspended work at a nuclear fuel plant after discovering it had underestimated plutonium levels. The ASN safety agency says the plant in Cadarache failed to notice and then waited months to report several extra kilograms of plutonium in closed spaces used to manipulate radioactive material. The ASN said in a statement Wednesday "the incident had no consequences." But it
issued a warning to plant operators and suspended work on dismantling the plant. (AP)’
Land acquisition for nuclear power plant to begin today
: The process for acquiring 938 hectares of land for setting up Jaitapur nuclear power plant in Konkan will start on Thursday. The project, to be implemented with the help of France, will equip India with six European pressurised water reactors (EPRs). The EPRs are a third generation design, with each plant having a capacity of up to 1,600 MW. The project is estimated to be over in 10-12 years, following which 10,000 MW of electricity would be generated, said S K Jain, chairman and managing director of Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd (NPCIL) on Wednesday. According to Jain, the technical specifications for the first two EPRs would be decided within a month and techno-commercial negotiations would be over by this year end. He said the environmental studies have been completed and the project would receive environmental clearance from the union government in the next six to eight months.’
China 'Mostly Worried About North Korean Regime Stability'
’China may be concerned about North Korea's nuclear armament but worries more about the stability of the North Korean regime, an academic said Monday. Yun Duk-min, a professor of the Institute of Foreign Affairs and National Security, told an international seminar on South Korea-China-Japan relations in Seoul sponsored by Dongseo University's Japan Center, "China has been attentive to the resumption of the six-party nuclear disarmament talks rather than to the resolution of the North Korean nuclear issue. It merely talks about the principle of a peaceful resolution but offers no specific ideas."’
India, US accelerate talks on reprocessing n-fuel news
’New Delhi: Indian and American nuclear energy officials have held a second round of discussions aimed at setting up a dedicated national nuclear fuel reprocessing facility in India that will handle US-supplied nuclear fuel. The discussions come ahead of a visit by Indian prime minister Dr Manmohan Singh to Washington in November as the Obama administration's first state guest. It's being given to understand that both India and the United States made considerable headway in the second round of talks held in Vienna last week and have agreed to meet again early next month in a bid to wrap up negotiations before Dr Singh arrives in Washington on 24 November. These talks commenced in July this year and, under the provisions of the Indo-US civil nuclear treaty, both sides have until a year to conclude negotiations over what is referred to as 'Arrangements and Procedures' regarding reprocessing of nuclear fuel. Under Article 6 of the 123 agreement US recognises India's right to reprocess imported fuel. In turn, India has agreed to set up a dedicated national reprocessing facility under IAEA safeguards.’
