BRICS plans energy association in wake of new bank

21 July 2014

Russian President Vladimir Putin has announced plans to establish a BRICS "energy association" that will include a fuel reserve bank and an energy policy institute.

BRICS is a grouping of major emerging economies that includes Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. Fifty of the 66 nuclear reactors currently under construction are in BRICS states.

"These steps would allow us to strengthen our nations' energy security and prepare us for the creation of new instruments and new institutes to trade energy resources," Putin said. 

Iberdrola joins GE-Hitachi for Prism

23 July 2014

Prism (GE-Hitachi) 47x48Spanish utility Iberdrola will work with GE-Hitachi Nuclear Energy to develop a proposal to build a Prism integral fast reactor in the UK, but is yet to decide the scope of its involvement either as an engineer or operator of the potential plant.

Russia targets 2030 for BN-1200

22 July 2014

Russia plans to start construction of three BN-1200 sodium-cooled fast neutron reactors before 2030, the director general of Rosenergoatom, Evgeny Romanov, said on 21 July.

Russian waste transport ship completes test mission

22 July 2014

Rossita 48The Rossita, a nuclear waste transport ship donated to Russia by Italy in 2011, has completed its first mission.

Entergy opposes Indian Point outage proposal

23 July 2014

Entergy has criticized a Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) proposal to require permanent, simultaneous annual outages at both of its Indian Point nuclear power units aimed at protecting fish in the Hudson River.

Tender for Egyptian plant rescheduled

22 July 2014

A tender to construct Egypt's first nuclear power plant will now be launched by the end of 2014. The tender for the El-Dabaa plant was originally scheduled for earlier this year.

Iran eliminates 20% enriched uranium inventory

21 July 2014

C_Ashton_MJ_Zarif_(European_Commission)_48An International Atomic Energy Agency report has confirmed that Iran has completed steps to convert its inventory of 20% enriched uranium hexafluoride into forms that are less of a proliferation risk as political leaders agree to a six-month extension of an action plan aimed at curbing Iranian enrichment activities.

Industry Talk

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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