International

Due to lower-than-anticipated demand, URENCO is slowing down construction of the next phase of its URENCO USA uranium enrichment facility in New Mexico. “URENCO USA is continuing its expansion to 5.7 million SWU, but we are operating in a marketplace that has a much diminished demand because of the accident in Japan,” URENCO Inc. President […]

The U.K. Nuclear Decommissioning Authority’s estimate for overall lifetime costs for its cleanup work has increased about £6 billion, or about $9.2 billion, from last year’s figures in the NDA’s Annual Report and Accounts released yesterday. The cost for the NDA’s nuclear provision, which includes total costs until cleanup is wrapped up in 2137, now stands […]

As the Administration seeks a two-year extension of the current civil nuclear agreement with South Korea, a State Department official said late last week said that there should not be any economic reason for a country to develop a new enrichment capability. The rights to enrich and reprocess have been a sticking point in negotiations […]

Sellafield Limited, the site license company for the U.K.’s Sellafield site, reported that it earned £39 million in fee for the year ending last March for an after tax profit of £29 million, a significant hit compared to the previous year. The previous period it earned £59 million in fee for a profit of £42 […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration yesterday completed a cleanout of Vietnam’s highly enriched uranium, removing 11 kilograms of HEU from a research reactor in a joint operation with the Russian Federation. The material, from the Dalat Nuclear Research Institute, was flown from Ho Chi Minh City to Russia, where it will be downblended into commercial […]

URS-led Nuclear Management Partners announced Friday a switch in top management at the U.K.’s Sellafield site, moving Todd Wright from managing director to Chairman of the Board of Sellafield Limited, with former Executive Director Tony Price taking Wright’s post. Wright has been at Sellafield for five years and was managing director for two years. But […]

The U.K.’s Nuclear Decommissioning Authority has responded to critical reports on performance at the United Kingdom’s Sellafield site from a Parliamentary committee and the U.K. National Audit Office. In late January the Public Accounts Committee of the U.K. House of Commons raised issues about schedule delays, cost increases and contract structures that the Committee claimed […]

The UK’s Department of Energy and Climate Change yesterday asked for comments to help re-start the country’s search for a permanent nuclear waste disposal site after its single promising effort was voted down by a local county council early this year. In a release May 13, the Department asked that comments—particularly from those involved in […]

A founder of the Global Zero movement to eliminate all nuclear weapons yesterday criticized the Obama Administration’s approach so far toward its stated goal of a nuclear-free world. Bruce Blair of Global Zero said that the group’s goal can only be realized with a comprehensive long-term plan. “You don’t get there by a kind of […]

Moscow has been hesitant to formally participate in another round of arms control negotiations with the United States, and a senior Russian official appeared to throw another hurdle in the way of those talks. In comments to Russian news agency RIA Novosti, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov suggested that Russia was not interested in […]

The Dutch government late last week outlined intentions to move forward with plans to sell its stake in the uranium enrichment firm URENCO, paving the way for private ownership of the company. This comes after the U.K. government and the German utilities that are the remaining owners of the company have also announced plans for […]

Differences in the understanding of strategic stability from the U.S. and Russia threatens the likelihood of future arms control talks between the countries, according to Alexie Arbatov, the head of the Carnegie Endowment’s Moscow Center. In remarks yesterday at the Carnegie Nuclear Policy Conference, Arbatov said that relations between the U.S. and Russia are at […]

Suggesting that for South Korea to “prevent the unthinkable” in escalating nuclear tensions with North Korea it must start “thinking the unthinkable,” a well-known lawmaker from Seoul said yesterday that the country should consider a series of extreme options, the most drastic being temporarily withdrawing from the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty and starting up its own […]

Administration officials plan to discuss plutonium disposition with Russian officials this Thursday. The April 25 meeting comes after the National Nuclear Security Administration plans to slow down construction of the Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility and examine alternative means to dispose of 34 metric tons of surplus plutonium as part of an agreement with Russia. […]

The United Kingdom’s government has decided to move ahead with plans to sell its one-third stake in URENCO. The decision comes after the Netherlands government and the German utilities, which each own one-third of the uranium enrichment firm, also agreed to proceed with a potential sale. “Urenco is a world leading, high technology company with […]

Given U.S. concern that granting South Korea reprocessing and enrichment rights will embolden North Korea, it is unlikely that a new civil nuclear agreement with South Korea will be reached before the current deal expires in the spring of 2014, according to a former Obama Administration official.  Negotiations on a new “123” agreement between the […]

A radionuclide monitoring station in Japan earlier this month detected evidence of North Korea’s Feb. 12 nuclear test, providing additional confirmation of the test and potentially bolstering the credibility of the monitoring regime linked to the Comprehensive Test-Ban Treaty. The detection station in Takasaki, Japan, about 620 miles from the North Korean test site, detected […]

The United States and South Korea this week agreed to pursue a two-year extension on their civil nuclear agreement. Officials have suggested that a new deal would be unlikely before the current one expires next March due to Korea’s desire to pursue enrichment and reprocessing. “Because our cooperation is increasingly broad and deep, there are […]

A delegation of Russians from the state nuclear company Rosatom plans to visit the Savannah River Site today and tomorrow and visit a number of cleanup projects, but will not tour the Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility under construction at the site. MOX is part of an agreement with Russia to dispose of surplus plutonium, […]

An international group of nuclear security experts is calling on worldwide leaders to begin work on establishing a global nuclear security regime at the 2014 Nuclear Security Summit in the Netherlands. In a report released yesterday, the Nuclear Security Governance Experts Group (NSGEG) suggests that the current global nuclear security regime has been “too slow” […]

Are the prospects for a new round of nuclear reduction talks with Russia increasing? Perhaps so, according to statements from Moscow and Washington late last that emerged from Geneva. Both acting Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security Rose Gottemoeller and Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov expressed optimism after the meetings, […]

Nuclear Management Partners, the URS-led contractor that manages the Sellafield site in the United Kingdom, announced this week that it is bringing in Jack Devine as chief decommissioning officer. Devine, who served as chief closure officer for URS at the Savannah River Site, starts next month and is taking over for Jim French after his […]

Revamped Department of Energy nuclear export policies that have generated criticism from the nuclear energy industry are now drawing attention from the House Energy and Commerce Committee. The committee wrote to Energy Secretary Steven Chu yesterday, informing him that it was “strengthening” its oversight of the nuclear export policies. DOE released new draft changes to […]

The United Kingdom’s Nuclear Decommissioning Authority yesterday awarded a five year extension to URS-led UK Nuclear Waste Management to manage the National Low Level Waste Repository in West Cumbria and to develop and implement a national LLW strategy. The contractor, which in addition to URS includes Studsvik UK, AREVA and Serco, took over in 2008 […]

Magnox Limited has awarded a three-year integrated facilities management contract worth £80 million to Interserve, a U.K. support services and construction firm. The contract covers services including mechanical and engineering maintenance, office services, grounds maintenance and civil works at the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority’s 10 Magnox reactor sites, and includes an option for a three-year extension.  […]

The United States is continuing to move toward getting under the 1,550-warhead cap established by the New START Treaty, reporting that it had 1,654 strategic deployed warheads under the treaty’s counting rules as of March 1, the State Department said yesterday. The stockpile total represents a 68-warhead decrease from the last time the U.S. and […]

Approximately 150 pounds of highly enriched uranium has been removed from a research reactor in the Czech Republic in a multi-national effort led by the National Nuclear Security Administration. The Russian-origin material was removed from the Czech Republic’s Nuclear Research Institute in Rez and taken to Russia, where it will be downblended into nuclear fuel. […]

Three years to the day since President Obama and Russian President Dmitri Medvedev signed the New START Treaty, Secretary of State John Kerry said the arms control pact is working “exactly as advertised,” and he used the treaty’s success to tout another round of arms control with Russia. “We and the Russians both have ‘boots […]

The next step in arms control between the United States and Russia should include a floor of approximately 1,000 strategic deployed weapons and a cap of 2,500 total warheads for each side, according to arms control expert Ellen Tauscher. But the former Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security acknowledged at yesterday’s […]

The United Kingdom’s Nuclear Decommissioning Authority published on Friday a plan to nearly double the amount of subcontracting to small and medium enterprises over the next three years to 20 percent. That would add up to at least £300 million out of the NDA’s current annual budget of £3 billion—about half of which is spent […]