China signs Candu deals with Romania and Argentina

25 July 2014

Two Chinese nuclear utilities have signed agreements that would see them cooperate in the construction and financing of new Candu units at Romania's Cernavoda plant and at Argentina's Atucha plant.

China Nuclear Power Engineering Co has signed a "binding and exclusive" cooperation agreement with Candu Energy Inc for the construction of two more reactors at the Cernavoda nuclear power plant in Romania.

The signing of the Romanian agreement comes days after China and Argentina signed a new high-level agreement towards construction of a third PHWR at the Atucha plant in Argentina. Under that accord, China National Nuclear Corporation would assist by providing goods and services under long-term financing.

New approach for selecting UK repository site

25 July 2014

The UK government has published its framework policy for the long-term management of higher activity radioactive waste, including details of how it intends to work with interested communities to site a geological disposal facility.

NRC proposes changes to used fuel storage rules

25 July 2014

The US Nuclear Regulatory Commission has issued its draft final rule and draft generic environmental impact statement on the continued storage of used fuel.

Slovenské Elektráne cooperating with police

24 July 2014

Slovenské Elektráne’s management and staff are "engaged in providing their full support" to police in an investigation into the privatisation of the Slovak utility, its majority owner told World Nuclear News.

US report urges focus on 'extreme' events

25 July 2014

A new congressionally mandated report from the National Academy of Sciences has concluded that the "overarching" lesson learned from the 2011 Fukushima Daiichi nuclear accident is that nuclear plant licensees and their regulators “must actively seek out and act on” new information about hazards with the potential to affect the safety of nuclear plants.

New strategy for Fukushima trench water

24 July 2014

New approaches to removing the contaminated water from trenches around units 2 and 3 at the damaged Fukushima Daiichi plant are being explored after attempts to freeze it failed.

Ignalina 2 decommissioning work starts

24 July 2014

Work has started at the second unit of the Ignalina nuclear power plant in Lithuania to dismantle its emergency core cooling system and to remove contaminated components from its turbine hall. The two projects are to be completed in June 2015 and by 2029, respectively.

Cosmic Recycling

Man has been sifting through trash for millennia, but the extraction of americium-241 waste from the UK's stockpile of civilian plutonium takes the exercise to a whole new dimension. Am-241 - a decay product of plutonium-241 - is the most prevalent isotope of americium in long-term stored plutonium and is currently considered to be waste.

The National Nuclear Laboratory (NNL) in north-west England is just two years away from producing the first developmental pellets of Am-241 for radioisotope power sources in its contract with the European Space Agency. Sourcing plutonium for the project from the nearby Sellafield nuclear complex, NNL chemists hope the Am-241 they are producing could one day be used in thermoelectric generators to power deep space programs. Read more..

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Symposium 2014