International

The Savannah River Site (SRS) Citizens Advisory Board’s Nuclear Materials Committee unveiled Tuesday a resolution opposing the Department of Energy’s (DOE) proposal to receive U.S.-origin highly enriched uranium (HEU) from Germany for processing and disposition at the South Carolina facility. The draft position document supports a “No Action” alternative to a potential HEU shipment to […]

Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant Units 1-3 are now completely free of spent nuclear fuel, State Specialized Enterprise ChNPP announced Monday after unloading the Central Hall 1 cooling pool and moving the spent fuel into wet storage. Chernobyl, which experienced a catastrophic power surge in 1986, resulting in what is considered the worst nuclear accident on record, […]

Australia-based mining giant BHP Billiton on Monday announced it would award $7.37 million to Peking University for research aimed at promoting carbon capture, utilization and storage in the Chinese industrial sector and beyond. The three-year collaboration, which will involve additional groups, is aimed at determining policy, technological, and economic obstacles to using CCUS in industry, […]

Two “champions” designated under the Paris Agreement on Monday issued their road map for promoting climate change action across the globe through 2020. Nearly 200 nations last fall approved the global climate accord during the 21st Conference of the Parties (COP21) to the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). Among the decisions of the landmark […]

Petrochemical company SABIC will join the Teesside Collective, a planned industrial carbon capture and storage network in the United Kingdom’s most carbon-intensive area, the collective announced Friday. Industrial energy and water services provider Sembcorp Utilities UK, BOC, Lotte Chemical UK, and GrowHow, comprise the rest of the collective. “We are excited to join Teesside Collective. […]

A top adviser to President Barack Obama on Monday cited a lack of Russian engagement as a major obstacle in fulfilling the administration’s nonproliferation and arms control initiatives. Ben Rhodes, Obama’s deputy national security adviser for strategic communications, said at the Arms Control Association’s annual meeting that the administration fell short of the goals outlined […]

Nuclear material from the Japan Atomic Energy Agency’s Fast Critical Assembly reactor has arrived to the National Nuclear Security Administration’s Savannah River Site and Y-12 National Security Complex, the NNSA announced Monday. The NNSA recently decided to prepare plutonium from Japan for disposition at Savannah River and disposal at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in […]

The Boundary Dam Unit 3 carbon capture and storage project in Saskatchewan was online 67 percent of the time in May, less than in recent months, but still above the 61 percent 12-month average, operator SaskPower reported Friday in a monthly update. May is only the second month this year during which the plant did […]

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, a vocal proponent of climate change action, makes his way to Washington, D.C., this week, spurring cautious optimism that he may be preparing to announce his nation’s intention to formally join the Paris climate change agreement by the end of the year. As part of a multi-nation trip, Modi is […]

The United States is teaming with Saudi Arabia to create an “international consortium” intended to stimulate research, development, and demonstration of supercritical carbon dioxide technology, the Department of Energy announced Friday. “The announcement underscores the commitment by the U.S. and Saudi Arabia to increase government funding for clean energy technologies under the Mission Innovation Initiative […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) said last week it in May hosted at the Nevada National Security Site (NNSS) an on-site inspection activity for Comprehensive Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) inspection experts. CTBT experts from over 30 countries visited NNSS for three days to study nuclear explosive test indicators and other field experimental operations at […]

MANCHESTER, England — While Germany is looking at extending interim storage of national nuclear waste by as much as 80 years, allowing interim to become permanent storage is not an option. That’s according to German engineer Holger Volzke, who spoke here Wednesday at the conclusion of the 2016 Nuclear Decommissioning Conference Europe. Volzke is a division […]

MANCHESTER, England — Stakeholders leading the cleanup at the Sellafield nuclear fuel reprocessing and decommissioning site in Cumbria, England, cannot tolerate decommissioning cost spikes, like the 25 percent increase experienced at the site in 2005, an executive for Sellafield partner EDF Energy said Wednesday. “(The 2005 hike) is not something that we can tolerate with the funding decommissioning […]

MANCHESTER, England — Transparency will be the focus as the U.K. government tries to avoid failing for a third time to build a geologic disposal facility (GDF) for high-level radioactive waste, an official with the U.K. Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) said Tuesday. “There’s quite a lot of trust that needs to be built in the communities, […]

MANCHESTER, England – Like the United States, the United Kingdom is holding off on defining the term “community consent” in its most prominent nuclear waste storage project, the geological disposal facility (GDF). “Standing here right now, I don’t have in front of me a formula which addresses those issues,” Ivan Stone, stakeholder engagement and communications […]

INTERNATIONAL U.K. authorities underestimate the risks of attack on nuclear facilities and transports, a local government adviser concluded in a report Sunday. The Nuclear Free Local Authorities (NFLA) in what it called a “carefully researched and considered analysis of the U.K. and international nuclear security,” urged government, nuclear regulators, and industry to address issues associated with information […]

A new report from the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments (CSBA) suggests the U.S. take a more involved approach to extended nuclear deterrence posture worldwide by broadening the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s (NATO) nuclear mission and developing nuclear-sharing arrangements in other regions. According to the report, U.S. extended deterrence posture in Europe is highly […]

Mission Innovation, a group of nations pledging to double their clean energy research and development funding, kicked off its first ministerial Thursday, welcoming the addition of a new member. The European Commission officially joined the initiative that was formed at the Paris climate negotiations in December, bringing the total number of affiliated parties to 21. […]

The Paris climate change agreement has been adopted and signed by more than 170 nations, now it needs to be ratified and implemented, posthaste, U.S. Special Envoy for Climate Change Jonathan Pershing said Thursday at the Clean Energy Ministerial in San Francisco. “We’re no longer looking at text as the objective, we’re looking at implementation […]

Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz joins energy officials from 22 other nations and the European Commission this week in San Francisco for the first Clean Energy Ministerial since the 21st Conference of the Parties (COP21) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in December. The ministers settled in yesterday with a day […]

A new carbon capture and utilization technology developed by United Arab Emirates-based Engineering Solutions Minerals DMCC (ENGSL) could capture up to 1.3 million tons of carbon dioxide annually, the Masdar Institute confirmed this week. The new technology, which mixes sodium hydroxide with CO2 from flue gas to create soda ash, could cost as much as […]

In the wake of the United Kingdom’s decision to scrap its £1 billion carbon capture and storage commercialization competition, the nation’s Energy Technology Institute has revamped a request for proposals related to the program and is seeking a Generic Business Case for a thermal power with CCS (TPwCCS) project. “This involves developing an outline scheme […]

Last year saw some movement on the carbon capture and storage front, but not nearly enough for the technology to play its role in putting the world on a path to limit global temperature rise to 2-degree Celsius, according to the annual Energy Technology Perspectives report released by the International Energy Agency Wednesday. “Moderate progress […]

MANCHESTER – Like the U.S., the U.K. is holding off on defining the term “community consent” in its most prominent nuclear waste storage project, the Geological Disposal Facility (GDF). “Standing here right now, I don’t have in front of me a formula which addresses those issues,” Ivan Stone, stakeholder engagement and communications director for U.K. […]

As a whole, the Group of 20 (G20) nations are not doing enough to address the gap current clean energy investments and how much clean energy investment is needed to limit global average temperature rise to 2-degrees Celsius, according to a report out by Allianz Climate Solutions. “Together, the G20 countries will require roughly USD […]

The U.S. should take a more involved approach to extended nuclear deterrence posture worldwide by broadening the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s (NATO) nuclear mission and developing nuclear sharing arrangements in other regions, according to a report published Tuesday by the Washington-based Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments (CSBA). According to the report, U.S. extended deterrence posture in Europe […]

MANCHESTER — Transparency will be the focus as the government tries to avoid failing for a third time to build a Geologic Disposal Facility (GDF) for high-level waste, an official with the U.K. Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) said Tuesday. “There’s quite a lot of trust that needs to be built in the communities, and that […]

The Group of Seven nations will work to bring the Paris climate change Agreement into force by the end of the year, they announced last week in Japan following the G7 summit. “The G7, continuing to take a leadership role, commits to taking the necessary steps to secure ratification, acceptance or approval of the Paris […]

Scientists from Scotland and Mexico last week meet in Mexico City to forge collaborations for future carbon capture utilization and storage research. Representatives from SENER (Mexico’s Energy Ministry), leading university UNAM (Universidad Nacional Autonóma de México) and the Scottish Carbon Capture & Storage (SCCS) participated in the signing of a Letter of Collaboration between SCCS […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) hosted this month at the Nevada National Security Site (NNSS) an on-site inspection activity for Comprehensive Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) inspection experts, the agency said Thursday. CTBT experts from over 30 countries visited NNSS for three days to study nuclear explosive test indicators and other field experimental operations at […]