The new U.S. administration effectively terminated the Yucca Mountain spent fuel repository project by removing virtually all funding for it. According to World Nuclear News, the Department of Energy announced that "The Yucca Mountain program will be scaled back to those costs necessary to answer inquiries from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), while the administration devises a new strategy toward nuclear waste disposal."
February 2009 Archives
Ukraine's Energoatom and Russia's TVEL signed a contract to supply fuel for Ukraine's reactors in 2009. Some of the fuel will use Ukrainian uranium. TVEL and Energoatom are also negotiating a long-term fuel supply arrangement for 2010 and beyond.
To make the fuel supply arrangement more attractive for Ukraine, TVEL suggested creating a joint fuel fabrication facility on Ukrainian territory. Construction of this facility would probably be part of the long-term fuel supply arrangement. Ukraine was also invited to participate in the International Uranium Enrichment Center in Angarsk.
Meanwhile, Ukraine continue to work with Westinghouse to explore a possibility of using Westinghouse fuel in Ukrainian reactors.
According to Interfax, Iran's Vice-President for Atomic Energy Gholam Reza Aghazadeh said on January 25 that Tehran was still interested in participating in the International Uranium Enrichment Center in Angarsk, Russia, while continuing its indigenous enrichment program. Stated Aghazadeh, "[w]e have given an affirmative reply long ago...on
condition that this cooperation will not create obstacles for us in achieving
our aims."
Aghazadeh also reportedly said that Iran's indigenous efforts to enrich uranium were not "an impediment" to the country's participation in the IUEC. According to the NAS-RAS report, however, the Center's participants to date have pledged to forego development of indigenous enrichment capabilities.
Aghazadeh also reportedly said that Iran's indigenous efforts to enrich uranium were not "an impediment" to the country's participation in the IUEC. According to the NAS-RAS report, however, the Center's participants to date have pledged to forego development of indigenous enrichment capabilities.
Rosatom hopes to complete the first pilot floating nuclear reactor by May 2010, Sergei Kiriyenko told journalists. He also said that Rosatom is considering about ten possible sites for its floating reactors - in Yakutiya (four stations), Chukotka, Yamal, and the Arctic.
A story in World Nuclear News has some details - the first reactor will stay in Severodvinsk, the second one, to be completed in 2012, will serve Pevek in Chukotka. These two are supposed to be 35 MWe KLT-40S nuclear reactors. Reactors in Yakutiya are reported to be a smaller ABV-type reactors.
Shirley Johnson, The Safeguards at Reprocessing Plants under a Fissile Material (Cutoff) Treaty, IPFM Research Report #6, February 2009
Russia and Romania signed an agreement that would allow Russia to bring back spent fuel of the research reactor at Turnu-Magurele, Bellona reports. The agreement was signed in Bucharest on February 19, 2009.
The reactor in Magurele is a Soviet-built reactor of VVR-S type. It began operations in 1957 and was shut down in 1997. It reportedly used HEU fuel of 36% and 80% enrichment. The volume of spent fuel is estimated to be 200 kg.
Earlier, in September 2003, Russia accepted approximately 14 kilograms of fresh HEU fuel from Romania.
The agreement is apparently part of GTRI's Russian Research Reactor Fuel Return (RRRFR) program - according to Bellona, the cost of the project, estimated to be $4.5 million, will be paid by the United States. Romania is expected to pay $700,000 to keep the processed fuel in Russia.
Armscontrolwonk.com posted IAEA Director General reports on Iran and Syria:
Implementation of the NPT Safeguards Agreement and relevant provisions of Security Council resolutions 1737 (2006), 1747 (2007), 1803 (2008) and 1835 (2008) in the Islamic Republic of Iran, GOV/2009/8
Implementation of the NPT Safeguards Agreement in the Syrian Arab Republic, GOV/2009/9
On February 17, Rosatom's Deputy Director Nikolay Spasskiy met with the Head of Mongolia's Department of Atomic Energy Sondomyn Enkhbat to sign an agreement that would see creation of a uranium deposit development joint venture. In earlier discussions with Russian nuclear industry officials, Mongolia had reportedly expressed the desire also to participate in Russia's IUEC in Angarsk. Russian officials have also previously stated that they would consider construction of a nuclear power plant of small or medium capacity in the country. The status of negotiation on these two issues is, however, unclear.
European countries established European Repository Development Organization (ERDO) to work on the concept of regional geological repositories for all kind of nuclear wastes. The 14 countries backing the proposal are: Austria, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia.
The High Flux Reactor (HFR) at Petten in the Netherlands restarted ahead of schedule to help alleviate the shortage of the Technetium-99m used in medicine. The reactor was shut down in August 2008 due to a safety problem.
Draft Fissile Material (Cutoff) Treaty, or FM(C)T, International Panel on Fissile Materials, February 2009
Completion of Japan's Rokkasho Reprocessing Plant is delayed until at least August 2009. The plant originally was supposed to begin operations in mid-2007.
TVEL corporation signed a contract to supply fuel pellets for India's nuclear reactors. The total cost of contracts is reported to be "more than $700 million". Earlier it was reported that a Rosatom representative estimated the cost of the contract to be $780 million.
The pellets will be used to manufacture fuel for the two boiling water reactor at the Tarapur plant. The supplies will last "for several years". On the Indian side, Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd (NPCIL) will be the recipient of pellets. TVEL will deliver 2000 tonnes of pellets [see update below].
At this point it is not clear where the uranium will come from and who will be providing enrichment services (although it would be natural if that is TVEL as well).
UPDATE 02/13/09: According to a World Nuclear News report, 2,000 tonnes are natural uranium pellets for India's pressurized heavy water reactor. In a separate contract, Russia will supply "about 60 tonnes of low enriched uranium pellets for India's boiling water reactor (BWR) units at the Tarapur nuclear power plant".
The Russian government approved Ukraine's joining the International Uranium Enrichment Center at Angarsk. Ukraine will be represented by the "Nuclear Fuel" concern.
At this point the foreign ministries of Russia, Ukraine, and Kazakhstan will exchange notes on the "Nuclear Fuel" participation (for some reason Armenia is not among the participants), which will constitute the agreement.
Idaho Samizdat reports:
Areva, the world's biggest manufacturer of nuclear reactors, has signed a deal with India to sell at least two and possibly six 1,600 MWe EPR nuclear reactors according to a report by Bloomberg wire service.
The reactor deal is worth an estimated at $6-9 billion for the first two reactors. They will be built at Jaitapur in the western state of Maharashtra. Significantly, deal for the Areva EPRs comes with a side agreement for supply of nuclear fuel for the lifetime of the plants, perhaps as long as 60 years. Separately, Areva has signed an initial deal with NPCIL to supply 300 tonnes of uranium to India to use in its civilian nuclear reactors.
USEC is slowing down its work on the American Centrifuge Plant (ACP) at Piketon, Ohio due to delay with getting a $2 billion loan guarantee from DOE. The corporation applied for the loan guarantee in June 2008, but did not yet get an approval. The total cost of the facility is estimated to be $3.5 billion. It's expected capacity is 3.8 million SWU a year.
Global Laser Enrichment (GLE), a partnership of GE-Hitachi and Cameco, submitted the environmental report for its Silex laser enrichment plant to NRC. The submittal is part of the licensing process. Submission of the complete application is expected in June 2009.
Rosatom is noncommittal on the Bushehr reactor start date. In September 2008, Atomstroyexport estimated that the reactor is unlikely to start before March 2009. Now, Sergei Kiriyenko says that "the launch is scheduled for this year." Iran is hoping that the reactor will begin working in the first half of 2009.
Areva signed a contract to supply Electricite de France (EDF) with uranium enrichment services. The contract is estimated to be worth more than 5 billion euro (about $6.5 billion). The services will be provided by the Georges Besse II enrichment plant.
Krasnoyarsk region has been chosen to host a large spent fuel repository that would accommodate "more than 40,000 tonnes" of spent fuel, according to Igor Konyshev, a Rosatom official. This repository appears to be different from the one the storage facility that would be attached to a reprocessing plant that is being planned for Zheleznogorsk (that facility was reported to have maximum capacity of 11,000 tonnes of heavy metal).
India and IAEA signed an agreement for the Application of Safeguards to Civilian Nuclear Facilities.
