International

The adoption of the Paris Agreement on climate change in December 2015 and its speedy ratification have set the bar very high for action at the annual Conference of the Parties (COP) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), which begins today and runs through Nov. 18 in Marrakesh, Morocco. The accord […]

Sellafield Ltd. has complied with an improvement notice from 2015, stemming from safety shortfalls related to operating instructions at the Magnox Reprocessing Separation Plant, the U.K. Office for Nuclear Regulation announced Friday. The announcement did not provide specific details, other than to say that there were a number of issues related to following operating instructions […]

A Canadian federal cleanup program on Tuesday began moving 450,000 cubic meters of low-level radioactive waste away from the shoreline of Lake Ontario. Roughly 35 truckloads of waste were moved on the first day from an existing storage facility to the new Port Granby Project Long-Term Waste Management Facility, an engineered above-ground mound roughly 700 meters […]

Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed legislation that suspends the bilateral agreement under which his nation and the United States were each to dispose of 34 metric tons of nuclear weapon-usable plutonium. Putin early last month signed a decree suspending the Plutonium Management and Disposition Agreement (PMDA), citing hostile U.S. behavior and Washington’s failure to […]

Just 328 days after its adoption at the 21st session of the Conference of Parties (COP21) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, the Paris Agreement today entered into force. “Humanity will look back on November 4, 2016, as the day that countries of the world shut the door on inevitable climate disaster […]

Even if all signatories to the Paris Agreement meet their climate change commitments, the world will in less than 15 years far exceed the determined carbon emissions cap to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius, the United Nations Environment Program said in a report Thursday. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), in its […]

Carbon capture and storage was a main topic of a meeting last week between Norwegian Petroleum and Energy Minister Tord Lien and European Commission Vice President Maroš Šefčovič, the Norwegian government said Tuesday. “To achieve the ambitions of the Paris Agreement, CCS will be an important part of the solution. I am therefore glad to […]

Russia’s Beloyarsk Nuclear Power Station Unit 4 has been named a “Top Plant” for 2016 in the nuclear generation category of POWER Magazine’s annual POWER awards. The magazine noted in its announcement this week that in 2000, Russian President Vladimir Putin began a new program to expand his nation’s nuclear capacity, which included construction of […]

The United Kingdom’s energy sector will need to transition in coming decades to meet national greenhouse gas reduction targets. That transition will require a transformation of the nation’s energy networks, the U.K. Energy Technologies Institute (ETI) said in a report Tuesday. “Currently, most of the UK’s energy is moved around the country, and sometimes beyond, […]

Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has throughout his campaign has had strong words about U.S. involvement in United Nations climate initiatives. Those words, according to Patrick Michaels, director of the Center for the Study of Science at the Cato Institute, are backed up by the Republican Party’s 2016 platform. However, that opposition may not mean […]

A Canadian federal cleanup program on Tuesday began moving 450,000 cubic meters of low-level radioactive waste away from the shoreline of Lake Ontario. The first truck shipments are underway from an existing facility to the new Port Granby Project Long-Term Waste Management Facility, an engineered above-ground mound roughly 700 meters from the lake. Excavation and transport […]

Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed legislation that suspends the bilateral agreement under which his nation and the United States were each to dispose of 34 metric tons of nuclear weapon-usable plutonium. Putin early last month signed a decree suspending the Plutonium Management and Disposition Agreement (PMDA), citing hostile U.S. behavior and Washington’s failure to […]

Approval of Switzerland’s nuclear power phase-out initiative later this month will mean a $2.56 billion loss for Alpiq, the Swiss utility said in a statement Monday. The Swiss government moved to phase out nuclear power in the wake of the 2011 reactor meltdowns at Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, drawing up the Energy Strategy 2050. […]

Oil-rich Saudi Arabia will join the Paris Agreement within the week, Khalid Al-Falih, minister of energy, industry, and mineral resources, announced in a forward on the kingdom’s COP22 webpage. “It is encouraging to note that the Paris Agreement has achieved the threshold for entry into force, and Saudi Arabia is determined to see it implemented. […]

Roughly 300 million of the world’s children live in areas with unacceptable levels of air pollutions, and it is past time something is done about it, UNICEF said in a report Monday. The report, released just one week before the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change annual conference begins, calls on governments to take […]

Côte d’Ivoire, Monaco, and Niue last week joined the Paris Agreement, bringing the climate change accord’s total membership to 87. The agreement will enter into force on Nov. 4, just days before the 22nd session of the Conferences of Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, scheduled for Nov. 7-18 in Marrakesh, […]

U.K. nuclear company Magnox Ltd. is using divers for underwater dismantlement of former spent nuclear fuel storage containers in retired cooling ponds at the shuttered Dungeness A nuclear power plant in Kent, the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority said Tuesday. While it has been four years since the former nuclear power plant has contained any used fuel, the […]

The United Nations First Committee voted Thursday to begin negotiations next year on a nuclear weapons ban treaty, a major global push toward nuclear disarmament strongly opposed by the five nations that are simultaneously the permanent U.N. Security Council members and the recognized nuclear-weapon states. A total of 123 countries voted in favor of the […]

Russia’s Federal Assembly this week completed its approval of legislation suspending the bilateral agreement with the United States under which each country had committed to disposing of 34 metric tons of nuclear weapon-usable plutonium. The upper house of the country’s legislature, the Council of the Federation, signed off on the bill Wednesday. Russian President Vladimir […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) said it this week hosted international diplomats at the Nevada National Security Site and the National Atomic Testing Museum to offer demonstrations of nuclear security technologies. The semiautonomous Department of Energy agency showcased its Stockpile Stewardship Program, which maintains the U.S. nuclear stockpile without nuclear explosive testing, as well […]

While all eyes are on the first meeting of the parties to the Paris Agreement on climate change (CMA1) during the upcoming Conference of the Parties (COP22) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the most important action will be happening elsewhere, with the Ad hoc Working Group on the Paris Agreement […]

The consumption of energy derived from fossil fuels will increase in Canada through 2040, though at a slower pace than projected just 10 months ago, according to updated energy supply and demand projections released Wednesday by the National Energy Board. The board’s original forecast, titled Canada’s Energy Future 2016 (EF 2016), was released in January. […]

Renewables surpassed coal in 2015 to become the world’s No. 1 source of installed power capacity, according to the International Energy Agency’s Medium-Term Renewable Market Report 2016. “In 2015, annual renewable electricity capacity growth reached an all-time record at 153 gigawatts (GW), thanks to record additions in both onshore wind (63 GW) and solar photovoltaics […]

The Russian Council of the Federation, the upper house of the country’s legislature, on Wednesday approved legislation suspending the bilateral agreement with the United States under which each country had committed to disposing of 34 metric tons of nuclear weapon-usable plutonium. Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree on Oct. 3 that suspended the Plutonium […]

The world’s most developed economies reached that level by burning coal to power industry. The developing nations of the 21st century can, and should, take a different path, according to a report issued Tuesday by 12 global development organizations including the Overseas Development Institute (ODI), the Catholic international development charity (CAFOD), and Christian Aid. “[T]he […]

In less than two weeks, the parties of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) will gather in conference for the first time since the adoption of the Paris Agreement on climate change. This meeting, the 22nd session of the Conference of the Parties (COP22) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate […]

U.K. nuclear company Magnox Ltd. is using divers for underwater dismantlement of former spent nuclear fuel storage containers in retired cooling ponds at the shuttered Dungeness A nuclear power plant in Kent, the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority said Tuesday. While it has been four years since the former nuclear power plant has contained any used fuel, the […]

A team of industrial heavy-hitters announced Monday they would collaborate on a study to determine the potential to apply Japanese technology to carbon capture, utilization, and storage projects in Saskatchewan, Canada, and beyond. The “Japanese Consortium” partnership involves the Japan Coal Energy Center industry organization, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, and Mitsubishi Hitachi Power Systems, along with […]

India will rely on coal as it spreads electricity to millions of citizens who today go without, ClearPath founder and CEO Jay Faison said in a recent commentary. This is a massive opportunity for the United States to provide environmental assistance in the form of carbon capture systems, he said. “If there was ever a prime […]

The United Kingdom on Thursday successfully delivered 132 canisters of highly active nuclear waste to Japan, nuclear material transport contractor International Nuclear Services (INS) announced Monday. INS is a wholly owned subsidiary of the U.K.’s Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA). It joined its own subsidiary,  Pacific Nuclear Transport Ltd. (PNTL), and the NDA’s Sellafield Ltd. in transporting the […]