US monitors kicked out of North Korea:
U.S. monitors of North Korea’s nuclear program left the communist nation after the regime ordered them out and vowed to restart its reactor in anger over U.N. criticism of its recent rocket launch.
[...]US monitors kicked out of North Korea:
U.S. monitors of North Korea’s nuclear program left the communist nation after the regime ordered them out and vowed to restart its reactor in anger over U.N. criticism of its recent rocket launch.
[...]Jeffrey Lewis and Meri Lugo on the what removing nuclear weapons from the arsenal really means:
Speaking in Prague on April 5, U.S. President Barack Obama called the thousands of nuclear weapons sitting in world arsenals “the most dangerous legacy of the Cold War.” He proposed deep cuts in U.S. [...]
I’ve been neglecting this blog for ages, but there’s a lot going on in the nuclear weapons world of late, so I’m going to give it another go. No promises.
[...]Several stories out today on the GAO’s report on plutonium pit production costs
Interesting new study from the Congressional Budget Office. The bottom line, according to Daniel Hall, is that we’re unlikely to see the U.S. government levy a carbon cost sufficient to make nuclear power economically viable on its own.
[...]Exchange-Monitor Publications has an interesting interview up with Los Alamos National Laboratory Director Michael Anastasio.
[...]Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman got a pretty good going over in a recent congressional hearing on Yucca Mountain. From the Las Vegas Review-Journal:
Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman was scolded Thursday by a House Republican who said the Department of Energy is “ignoring political realities” by pressing ahead at Yucca [...]
The Wisconsin legislature is considering repealing a longstanding ban on new nuclear power plants. From the AP:
Wisconsin lawmakers are debating whether to lift the state’s 25-year moratorium on new nuclear power plants, with backers arguing it will shore up the energy supply and combat global warming.
Backed by business [...]
At Hanford, questions about whether the feds are providing enough cleanup money continue, according to Annette Cary:
The Department of Energy budget request for Hanford and other nuclear waste sites is $1.1 billion short, said senators in an appeal Wednesday to the Senate Budget Committee.
Under that proposal, about 500 [...]
Argentina and Brazil are teaming up on the nuclear power problem:
It has been widely reported that the two sides also agreed to build a new nuclear power plant to supply both countries and ‘develop a program of peaceful nuclear cooperation that will serve as an example in this world.’ [...]
The EIA’s monthly energy review, out yesterday, shows 2007 on track to be a record year for U.S. nuclear electricity production.
[...]Matt Wald in today’s New York Times on the rising cost of the federal government’s failure to get Yucca Mountain open:
With court orders and settlements, the federal government has already paid the utilities $342 million, but is virtually certain to pay a total of at least $7 billion [...]
My Albuquerque Journal colleague Raam Wong chased down a study by a UNM grad student who found PCBs in the Rio Grande that seem to be linked to operations at Los Alamos National Laboratory. This is contrary to the lab’s claim that the PCB levels upstream and downstream from [...]
Exelon CEO John Rowe said Tuesday that nuclear power plants give it a clear advantage in the push for a zero carbon footprint. From Platts:
[...]The state of New Mexico and the DOE have reached a deal on a fine over waste characterization problems at WIPP:
[...]From the Nevada Appeal:
[...]Finally, Reid said there will be a renewed effort to cut Yucca Mountain funding from the Bush budget. Republican Sen. John Ensign agreed with Reid on that one point.
A couple of proposed nuclear power plant projects have collapsed, according to Dan Yurman:
[...]The Seattle PI’s Joel Connelly asks the obvious question: If all the politicians are so adamant about not Yucca Mountain, where is the alternative?
[...]My Albuquerque Journal colleague Raam Wong did a nice piece (ad or sub. req.) in this morning’s newspaper about the last days at Los Alamos for some departing lab scientists: (more…)
[...]The Department of Energy, ever optimistic, is characterizing recent setbacks to the GNEP program as “a minor redirection of our path forward.” (more…)
[...]By me, on some subtext in last week’s nuclear weapons complex reconfiguration announcement:[...]
Battelle announced Friday that it will submit a bid to run PNNL: (more…)
[...]Frank Munger (the long time beat reporter covering Oak Ridge) reports on a possible shift in NNSA’s thinking about future uranium manufacturing (note that I’ve added Frank’s blog to the blogroll):[...]
Progress and controversy, then more progress and more controversy, at NIF. From David Perlman: (more…)
[...]The National Nuclear Security Administration is expected to unveil its “complex transformation” plan in early December. Expect to to say pits for new bombs will be made at Los Alamos, and old ones will be taken apart at Pantex: (more…)
[...]Cleaning up the big uranium mill tailings pile out by Moab will cost a lot more than folks thought. From Dan Yurman:[...]
From Annette Cary, word of further delays in cleaning up Hanford’s K Basins: (more…)
[...]New International Energy Agency study suggests nukes must be part of any realistic CO2 reduction scenario: (more…)
[...]From Dan Yurman, details on the China-Russia nuclear power deal.
[...]Hans Kristensen of the Federation of American Scientists on the expansion of the U.S. nuclear weapon target set: (more…)
[...]The folks at McClatchy have a nice piece today on what we know and don’t know about Iran’s nuclear intentions:
[...]My attempt to explain the byzantine budget process:
The new fiscal year starts on Oct. 1— in just 10 days. But Congress hasn’t completed any spending bills, and partisan bickering has broken out in Washington over what to do about the problem.
In the long term, the battle is over [...]
Frank Munger had a story yesterday on the costs of the new Uranium Processing Facility at Oak Ridge:
Steven Wyatt, a spokesman for the National Nuclear Security Administration in Oak Ridge, said there is no firm price tag for the Uranium Processing Facility at this point, but he acknowledged that [...]
My colleague Raam Wong writes about an oversight in the implementation of the new Los Alamos contract:
An oversight during last year’s change in management at Los Alamos National Laboratory may have helped the contractor that now runs the lab avoid a multi-million-dollar fine.
The Department of Energy’s contract with [...]
China has signed a deal with Westinghouse to build four nuclear power plants, according to Dan Yurman.
[...]A new GAO report expresses skepticism about the prospects of the DOE submitting a usable Yucca Mountain license application next year:
It’s unclear whether the Energy Department will be able to submit a sufficiently high-quality Yucca Mountain license application by its self-imposed mid-2008 deadline, congressional investigators reported Friday.
By law, the [...]
The New Mexico Environment Department has ordered the Department of Energy to remove a drum from the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant that was inadvertently shipped containing liquids:
New Mexico Environment Department Secretary Ron Curry today ordered the U.S. Department of Energy to immediately remove a waste container from the Waste [...]
