International

An Australian ship carrying 25 metric tons of radioactive waste was greeted by protesters in Sydney’s Port Kembla harbor on Saturday, after the material was reprocessed in France.   While French officials classified the cargo as high-level waste, Australia has reportedly labeled it as intermediate-level material, a discrepancy that has drawn the attention of Greenpeace […]

Alissa Tabirian NS&D Monitor 12/4/2015 Lawmakers this week criticized the Obama administration for the years-long delay in reporting to Congress their concerns regarding a Russian violation of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty and for the United States’ lack of progress in restoring Russian compliance with the treaty. The treaty between the United States and […]

Karl Herchenroeder RW Monitor 12/4/2015 In deciding whether Canada will move forward with building a deep geologic repository for spent nuclear fuel near Lake Huron, the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency said Monday that officials must decide whether Ontario Power Generation’s proposal is likely to cause “significant adverse environmental effects.” The agency’s statement follows Friday’s announcement […]

Karl Herchenroeder RW Monitor 12/4/2015 French and Australian officials have reportedly given different classifications to 10 metric tons of radioactive waste aboard a ship scheduled to dock this week in Sydney. The BBC Shanghai is carrying the material back from France, where it underwent reprocessing. While France has classified the cargo as high-level waste, the […]

Karl Herchenroeder RW Monitor 12/4/2015 The first 10 canisters for dry interim nuclear fuel storage have been delivered to the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine, State Specialised Enterprise ChNPP announced Thursday. As part of a 2007 agreement signed between Ukraine and U.S.-based Holtec International, the double-walled canisters are projected to store all spent fuel […]

GHG Monitor 12/4/2015 Our reporter for GHG Monitor will travel to Paris during the second week of the 21st Conference of Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, where a new global climate agreement is hoped to be struck. Subscribers can expect special bulletins on the proceedings throughout the week. Follow us […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 12/4/2015 While heads of state made their presentations during the first plenary sessions of the 21st Conference of Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in Paris this week, the members of the Ad hoc Working Group on the Durban Platform (ADP) were hard at work trying […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 12/4/2015 The 21st Conference of Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change saw a large focus placed on money in its first days, with several significant funding announcements made this week in Paris. Several governments, as well as private sector entities, have indicated their intentions to commit […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 12/4/2015 In response to the United Kingdom’s decision to ax a £1 billion carbon capture and storage commercialization competition, Royal Dutch Shell has announced that it will not proceed with its Peterhead carbon capture and storage project. The project, one of two that remained in the competition, would have been […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 12/4/2015 Carbon capture and storage is likely to play a role in future efforts to decarbonize the global economy, but the technology presents many challenges beyond its hefty price tag, according to a new report released this week by the United Nations Environment Programme. “There is … a clear trade-off […]

GHG Monitor 12/4/2015 ON THE INTERNATIONAL FRONT Canada-based carbon capture technology developer CO2 Solutions said last week it has received $350,000 CAD from Natural Resources Canada’s ecoENERGY Innovation Initiative to support testing of the company’s rotating packed bed (RPB) carbon capture technology. Initial testing at a scale of 0.5 tonnes per day (tpd) of CO2 […]

Alissa Tabirian NS&D Monitor 12/4/2015 Former U.S. and Russian officials this week called for an urgent restoration of the two nations’ communication and nonproliferation cooperation due to shared nonproliferation concerns. Speaking Tuesday at a conference hosted by the International Luxembourg Forum on Preventing Nuclear Catastrophe and the Nuclear Threat Initiative, former Sen. Sam Nunn (D-GA), […]

French and Australian officials have reportedly given different classifications to 10 metric tons of radioactive waste aboard a ship scheduled to dock this week in Sydney. The BBC Shanghai is carrying the material back from France, where it underwent reprocessing.   While France has classified the cargo as high-level waste, the Australian Nuclear Science and […]

Former U.S. and Russian arms control officials this week called for an urgent restoration of the two nations’ communication and arms control cooperation due to shared nonproliferation concerns. Speaking Tuesday at a conference hosted by the International Luxembourg Forum on Preventing Nuclear Catastrophe and the Nuclear Threat Initiative, former Sen. Sam Nunn (D-GA), a primary […]

In deciding whether Canada will move forward with building a deep geologic repository for spent nuclear fuel near Lake Huron, the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency said Monday that officials must decide whether Ontario Power Generation’s proposal is likely to cause “significant adverse environmental effects.”   The agency’s statement follows Friday’s announcement that Canada will delay […]

The first 10 canisters for dry interim nuclear fuel storage have been delivered to the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine, State Specialised Enterprise ChNPP announced Thursday.   As part of a 2007 agreement signed between Ukraine and U.S.-based Holtec International,, the double-walled canisters are projected to store all spent fuel from Chernobyl’s RMBK-1000 reactors […]

Amec Foster Wheeler has announced details in its surveying of about 1.2 million cubic meters of historic low-level radioactive waste from multiple sites in Ontario, Canada. The company announced Tuesday that is using an ORION ScanPlotSM overland radiation survey system in collecting radiological data. The work is a result of a Canadian Nuclear Laboratories contract […]

For a second time, the Canadian government has extended the deadline for deciding whether to move forward with Ontario Power Generation’s proposal to build a deep geologic repository in Ontario near Lake Huron. The Minister of the Environment and Climate Change announced Friday that it will make a decision on the project on March 1, […]

Lassina Zerbo, the head of the Preparatory Commission for the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO), visited National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) sites last week, including the Nevada National Security Site and the Los Alamos (LANL) and Lawrence Livermore (LLNL) national laboratories. The NNSA said that in addition to observing the operations of the Stockpile Stewardship […]

The International Partnership for Nuclear Disarmament Verification (IPNDV) last week at its second plenary meeting launched three working groups to address nuclear weapons dismantlement, inspection regimes, and warhead verification. The U.S. State Department, in partnership with the Nuclear Threat Initiative (NTI), established the IPNDV last year to build global capacity in nuclear disarmament verification by […]

Dounreay site license company Dounreay Site Restoration Limited has awarded Amec Foster Wheeler a 12-month contract for the design, safety basis, and environmental assessment of a new higher activity store to hold waste arising from decommissioning activities at the Scotland nuclear site, Amec Foster Wheeler announced yesterday. “The decommissioning of the Dounreay site is an […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) last week said it joined with the United Kingdom’s Department of Energy and Climate Change to conduct a global maritime supply chain security workshop. The workshop, held in the U.K., featured "best practices for deterring, detecting, and responding to trafficking of nuclear and radiological material that could be acquired by […]

Chris Schneidmiller RadWaste Monitor 11/20/2015 The Swedish Radiation Safety Authority (SSM) on Wednesday said it had preliminarily identified the east coast village of Forsmark as the best of several sites that have been considered to house a spent nuclear fuel storage facility. The area, which is already home to a nuclear power plant and radioactive […]

RW Monitor 11/20/2015   IN THE INDUSTRY   The United Kingdom’s National Nuclear Laboratory (NNL) and contractor Kurion on Tuesday said they have finished a major phase of testing for commissioning the company’s GeoMelt In-Container Vitrification radioactive waste conversion system at the Sellafield site. The technology, which would convert the waste into a condensed glass […]

Karl Herchenroeder RW Monitor 11/20/2015 An independent nuclear energy expert on Tuesday questioned the progress of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s lessons learned from the Fukushima Daiichi crisis, saying he doesn’t feel the American public is adequately prepared for a severe nuclear event, despite the NRC’s re-evaluation of safeguards and mitigation resources in place for U.S. […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 11/20/2015 Meeting in Paris just two weeks before the 21st Conference of Parties (COP21) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), energy ministers called for the development of a strong climate agreement. “We emphasise the need to explicitly recognise and signal for COP21 that an energy transformation […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 11/20/2015 President Barack Obama and a group of negotiators will travel to Paris in two weeks for the 21st Conference of Parties (COP21) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in hopes of striking a new global climate agreement, and congressional Republicans are none too happy about […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 11/20/2015 To better address growing concerns about climate change, the United Kingdom will begin to move away from the use of unabated coal in the next decade with a goal of closing all unabated coal plants by 2025, Energy and Climate Change Secretary Amber Rudd announced this week. “It cannot […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 11/20/2015 The European Union stands to lose more than 1 trillion euros if carbon capture and storage is not available as the region works to meet its carbon dioxide reduction targets for power and industry, the Zero Emissions Platform said in a report issued late last week. “When CCS is […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 11/20/2015 Countries around the world are already implementing policies and measures that will aid them in reaching their Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs) to the climate agreement due to be finalized next month in Paris, according to a new report from the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. The […]