International

Brian Bradley  NS&D Monitor  8/28/2015 The International Guards Union of America (IGUA) has named Gene Lente acting president after former President Randy Lawson resigned on Monday to work for the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service (FMCS), NS&D Monitor learned this week. “I interviewed and was offered a position with the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service,” […]

Alissa Tabirian NS&D Monitor 8/28/2015 The government of Kazakhstan and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) yesterday signed a formal agreement establishing a facility in the country’s northeast that will provide a reliable supply of low-enriched reactor fuel to IAEA member states. The fuel bank, set to open in two years at the Ulba Metallurgical […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 8/28/2015 BILLINGS, Mont. —The ability to put captured carbon to viable and valuable use is integral to the success of carbon capture utilization and storage efforts, representatives from the national and state governments as well as industry said here this week at the U.S. -China Clean Coal Industry Forum. Treating […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 8/28/2015 BILLINGS, Mont. —The U.S. and China this week initiated a memorandum of understanding (MOU) signifying the countries’ intent to continued collaboration on development of clean coal technology. Assistant Energy Secretary for Fossil Energy Christopher Smith and Vice Administrator Shi Yubo of China’s National Energy Administration (NEA) initialed the MOU, […]

International Guards Union of America (IGUA) has named Gene Lente its acting president after President Randy Lawson resigned on Monday to work for the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service (FMCS), Weapons Complex Morning Briefing learned yesterday.“I interviewed and was offered a position with the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service,” Lawson said in an email to […]

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) on Friday sent a letter to President Barack Obama requesting that the White House release the Defense Department’s risk assessment of Russia’s alleged violation of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty of 1987, Cruz’s office announced yesterday. Cruz accused the White House of “blocking” the release of the Pentagon report and preventing […]

Member s of Michigan’s congressional delegation are taking stronger steps to ensure an international organization charged with overseeing the Great Lakes intervenes in Ontario Power Generation’s proposed deep geologic repository. Sens. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) and Gary Peters (D-Mich.), along with Rep. Dan Kildee (D-Mich.), yesterday announced legislation, entitled the “Stop Nuclear Waste by Our Lakes […]

Brian Bradley  NS&D Monitor  8/7/2015 Renewal of the 30-year-old U.S.-China civil nuclear cooperation agreement moved past the 90-day congressional review period on July 31, keeping the door open for U.S. private investment in the world’s fastest-growing nuclear market. However, U.S. companies will face competition from foreign companies, such as France’s AREVA, which has announced plans […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 8/7/2015 The Canadian Nuclear Laboratories late last week awarded an $86.8 million contract to a joint venture of Amec Foster Wheeler and CB&I to construct the Port Granby long-term waste management facility, the companies announced. The contract calls for the excavation of legacy low-level radioactive waste from the Port Hope […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 8/7/2015 The Tokyo Electric Power Co. announced on Sunday the successful removal of the “the largest and most complex piece of rubble” from the damaged Unit 3 reactor building at the Fukushima Daiichi site, enabling the clearing of remaining rubble and the rest of the 514 spent fuel assemblies in […]

The Tokyo Electric Power Company announced on Sunday the successful removal of the “the largest and most complex piece of rubble” from the damaged Unit 3 reactor building at the Fukushima Daiichi cleanup, enabling the clearing of remaining rubble and the rest of the 514 spent fuel assemblies in the pool. TEPCO successfully removed the […]

The Canadian Nuclear Laboratories awarded late last week an $86.8 million contract to construct the Port Granby long-term waste management facility to a joint venture of Amec Foster Wheeler and CB&I, the companies announced. The contract calls for the excavation of legacy low-level radioactive waste from the Port Hope disposal area to the new construction […]

Alissa Tabirian NS&D Monitor 7/31/2015 Expanding the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty to include countries in Europe and Asia will offset power imbalances and encourage Russia’s compliance, two experts said Monday at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). “Right now the INF Treaty issue is a diplomatic issue between the United States and […]

Brian Bradley  NS&D Monitor  7/31/2015 LA VISTA, Neb.— A senior NATO official on Wednesday here urged allies to steer the Western debate on nuclear arms away from its culture of “self-accusation,” which he said has weakened foreign confidence in U.S. extended deterrence and which he claimed was brought on, partly, by nuclear abolitionists who “hijacked” […]

Multilateralizing the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty to include countries in Europe and Asia will offset power imbalances and encourage Russia’s compliance, two experts said yesterday at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). “Right now the INF Treaty issue is a diplomatic issue between the United States and Russia, but if the Russians […]

Alissa Tabirian NS&D Monitor 7/24/2015 The use of weapon-usable highly enriched uranium (HEU) for civilian applications worldwide is becoming a thing of the past despite political obstacles, according to Andrew Bieniawski, vice president of material security and minimization at the Nuclear Threat Initiative (NTI) and a former National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) official. Bieniawski late […]

Brian Bradley NS&D Monitor 7/17/2015 Ending the U.S. civil nuclear agreement with China would diminish Washington’s visibility into Beijing’s questionable nonproliferation practices, and could tempt other countries to fill the void created by the departure of American companies, two senior State Department officials told House lawmakers yesterday. France, Russia, Japan, and South Korea could capitalize […]

Brian Bradley NS&D Monitor 7/17/2015 U.S. allies have “no confusion” that Russia remains in violation of the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, and the Obama administration has seen no indication that the Putin government plans to return to compliance, Jon Wolfsthal, National Security Council senior director for arms control and nonproliferation, said during a speech […]

Brian Bradley NS&D Monitor 7/17/2015 After the State Department this week expressed its opposition to Marine Corps Commandant Gen. Joseph Dunford’s statement to Congress last week that Russia is the greatest national security threat to the U.S., largely because of its nuclear capabilities, the nominee to be the next Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs […]

Alissa Tabirian NS&D Monitor 7/17/2015 Despite the end of U.S.-Russian Cooperative Threat Reduction (CTR) activities, nuclear security cooperation between the two countries remains strong and arms control initiatives must be jointly undertaken to be effective, Department of State officials said this week. The U.S.-Russian relationship framed several nuclear security discussions at the agency’s Generation Prague […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 7/17/2015 Senator Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) last week successfully attached an amendment to the Senate’s Department of State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs Appropriations bill that would invoke an International Joint Commission review of Ontario Power Generation’s proposed deep geologic repository in Kincardine. OPG plans to dispose of intermediate and low-level […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 7/17/2015 AREVA announced this week it will provide engineering services for nuclear site decommissioning across the United Kingdom nuclear complex. Working with the UK’s Nuclear Decommissioning Authority Shared Services Alliance, AREVA will work across twelve sites throughout the UK managed by decommissioning company Magnox Ltd., as well as the nuclear […]

U.S. allies have “no confusion” that Russia “remains in violation” of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty of 1987, and the Obama Administration has seen “no indication” that the country plans to return to compliance, Jon Wolfsthal, National Security Council Senior Director for Arms Control and Nonproliferation, said during a speech at the State Department yesterday. […]

Despite the end of cooperative threat reduction activities between the United States and Russia, nuclear security cooperation between the two countries remains strong, according to Thomas Countryman, Assistant Secretary of State for International Security and Nonproliferation at the State Department. "The U.S. and Russia continue to cooperate in the Global Initiative to Combat Nuclear Terrorism," […]

AREVA will provide engineering services for nuclear site decommissioning across the United Kingdom nuclear complex, the company announced yesterday. Working with the UK’s Nuclear Decommissioning Authority Shared Service Alliance, AREVA will provide work across twelve sites throughout the UK managed by the decommissioning company Magnox Ltd as well as the nuclear site at Dounreay in […]

The U.S. should offer “total transparency” to Russia to inspect U.S. Mk 41 Vertical Launch Systems, to help resolve claims by both sides that the other violated the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty of 1987, a nuclear expert said during a speech on Capitol Hill yesterday. In its 2014 report on arms control compliance, the State […]

The State Department on Friday voiced disagreement with a top Pentagon official’s characterization of Russia as the greatest threat to the U.S., largely because of its nuclear capability. During the Senate Armed Services Committee’s confirmation hearing Thursday of Marine Corps Gen. Joseph Dunford to be the next Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Dunford […]

Brian Bradley NS&D Monitor 7/10/2015 Renewing the 30-year-old U.S.-China civil nuclear agreement would allow bilateral nuclear supply partnerships if China becomes a larger nuclear supplier, Tom Countryman, State Department Assistant Secretary of International Security and Nonproliferation, stated in Congressional testimony submitted on Wednesday. “These export opportunities could support tens of thousands of high-paying American jobs,” […]

Jeremy L. Dillon WC Monitor 7/10/2015 The German waste that the Department of Energy proposed sending to the Savannah River Site’s H-Canyon facility “is not of a proliferation concern” where it currently resides in Germany, according to a DOE internal memo from Aug. 1, 2013, obtained by Savannah River Site Watch under the Freedom of […]

Brian Bradley NS&D Monitor 7/10/2015 The U.S. currently deploys 449 intercontinental ballistic missiles, 248 submarine-launched ballistic missiles, and 88 heavy nuclear-capable bombers, according to a New START fact sheet recently released by the State Department. The document released July 1 lists the quantity of nuclear warheads for each category of deployed and non-deployed U.S. nuclear […]