Pakistan - PAEC plans N-power generation
: The Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC) on Saturday unveiled its indigenous plans to set up more nuclear power plants in the country. Speaking on the eve of his visit to the Chashma nuclear plant, Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Sardar Assef Ahmed Ali said the commission would support PAEC in enhancing its indigenous technical facilities to set up nuclear power plants. He said the commission would help PAEC reap the immense potential of nuclear energy. He said a pool of technical know-how available in the form of PAEC would be utilised for Pakistan’s socio-economic uplift.’

UK - £18 billion nuclear waste storage facility to be built underground
waste from a new generation of British nuclear power stations will be buried deep underground in a storage facility that could cost up to £18 billion to build, under plans to be announced by the Government today. Ed Miliband, the Energy Secretary, will give the formal green light to a plan to construct a ‘deep geological repository’ for permanent disposal of the 200 tonnes of high-level waste produced annually by the ten new reactors planned for Britain. Each reactor will produce about 20 tonnes of highly radioactive spent fuel per year, which will remain lethal for up to 100,000 years. The store will also provide a permanent place for the stockpile of about 5,000 canisters of high-level nuclear waste from the country’s past civil and military nuclear programmes, which are housed in a temporary facility at the Sellafield plant in West Cumbria. The Government’s announcement today that it is satisfied with the arrangements it has created for handling Britain’s nuclear waste stockpile will form part of a series of six National Policy Statements on British energy policy designed to fast-track big energy projects - including nuclear power stations, giant wind farms and clean coal plants - through the planning system.’

Iran atomic negotiator says wants speedy talks
‘TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran's chief negotiator in talks with Western powers over its atomic program said on Sunday he hoped a draft deal on nuclear fuel would be reached soon. "Tehran still welcomes the negotiations (with the six powers) on the basis of its package of proposals," state broadcaster IRIB quoted Saeed Jalili as saying. It said he hoped the talks "will be completed as quickly as possible." The United States, Britain, France, Germany, Russia and China want to persuade Iran to suspend uranium enrichment activities in return for economic and political incentives. Tehran has so far refused to halt its enrichment. A U.N.-drafted nuclear proposal would see Iran sending most of its low-enriched uranium abroad by the end of the year for further enrichment before being returned to Iran as fuel for a medical reactor in Tehran.’

'North Korea Regards OPLAN 5029 as Declaration of Warfare'
‘Pyongyang says Seoul and Washington have declared war against the reclusive regime by completing Operation Plan (OPLAN) 5029, a blueprint for dealing with ``sudden change'' in North Korea. Under the title, ``Extremely Reckless Preemptive Action,'' Unification News, a weekly North Korea journal, on Saturday noted that the joint contingency plan was an unforgivable provocation that violates the dignity and sovereignty of its regime. The announcement was made in response to South Korean media reports on Nov. 1 that Seoul and Washington appeared to have completed OPLAN 5029 in preparation for a regime collapse or other internal emergency situations in the communist North. The weekly magazine strongly denied the possibility of internal conflict, saying, ``Contingency is something unimaginable in our republic, which is firmly united with high moral standing and ideological conviction.'' Tens of thousands of North Koreans have crossed the border seeking a better life. Some 15,000 have successfully defected to the South, while an estimated 100,000 to half a million are in China seeking asylum. As for the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, the magazine said all of the communist regime's weapons have been used for self-defense purposes only, and will never be used to threaten countries or sold.’

France urges Australia to go nuclear
‘France - the world's most nuclearised country - has thrown its weight behind a nuclear power industry in Australia. The French government's environment ambassador, Laurent Stefanini, said nuclear power was a good fit for Australia, and offered his country's technological know-how to get the industry started. "We think that Australia is certainly a country that would win much from putting in place ... a nuclear program," Mr Stefanini told AAP in an interview in the ministry of foreign affairs in Paris. "It's a reliable and useful way to avoid greenhouse gas emissions." Australia, which has the world's largest uranium reserves, exports uranium to France but does not have any nuclear power reactors. Close to 80% of France's electricity comes from 59 nuclear reactors dotted across the country. Nuclear power has negligible greenhouse gas emissions; France's emissions are about one-third of Australia's on a per capita basis. "You've got the primary material, you're a serious country which is democratic, organised, and has reliable institutions," Mr Stefanini said.’

Vietnam seeks foreign loans for nuclear power project
‘VietNamNet Bridge - The government is drawing up plans to finance Vietnam’s first nuclear power plant project with foreign loans, the Minister of Industry and Trade has said. The project will cost at least US$10.3 billion, 75 percent of which will be funded by foreign loans, local newswire VietNamNet cited minister Vu Huy Hoang as saying at a National Assembly session Friday. In a report released Friday, the government said commercial nuclear power was a necessary option for Vietnam given the fast-growing demand for electricity in the country. The government estimated that power demand may rise about 13 percent this year. The two-plant project will include four reactors with a total capacity of 4,000 megawatts for 60 years. The first of the two plants, both located in the central coastal province of Ninh Thuan, is expected to start commercial operations in 2020.’

KEDO to Discuss Selling Nuclear Reactor Materials
‘Member countries of the Korean Peninsula Energy Development Organization (KEDO) will begin talks on Tuesday to tie up loose ends after it terminated the construction of a light-water nuclear reactor for North Korea in 2006. Seoul's foreign ministry says KEDO representatives from South Korea, the U.S., Japan and the European Union will meet in New York for two days. They will discuss how to go about liquidating the equipment and construction materials used in the now defunct multinational project to build a power plant. After the project's cancellation the Korea Electric Power Corporation acquired the rights to all machine parts and supplies, which are currently in storage. With prospects for restarting the project very grim and storage fees costing millions of dollars every year, the Seoul-based electric company wants to sell them.’