International

Brian Bradley NS&D Monitor 7/10/2015 Russia’s status as a nuclear power contributes to it being the greatest threat to U.S. national security, Marine Gen. Joseph Dunford told senators yesterday during his Senate Armed Service Committee’s confirmation hearing to become the next Chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) asked Dunford, currently […]

Lance Moore NS&D Monitor 7/10/2015 Russia is undergoing a full-scale process of rearmament and a costly modernization of strategic and non-strategic nuclear weapons programs, lagging behind the pace of U.S. modernization programs, according to a panel of nuclear experts, who in Washington yesterday said the slower pace discredits Putin’s recent nuclear posturing. The experts downplayed […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 7/10/2015 The losing teams in the Chalk River Government-owned Contractor-operated contract procurement do not have any avenue to protest the award, according to a Public Works and Government Services Canada spokesman last week. Canada used a third party independent fairness monitor to ensure the procurement abided by all rules and […]

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 yesterday. “These export opportunities could support tens of thousands of high-paying American jobs,” Countryman said in his testimony. “For […]

The losing teams in the Chalk River Government-owned Contractor-operated contract procurement do not have any avenue to protest the award, according to a Public Works and Government Services Canada spokesman last week. Unlike the United States, losing teams cannot protest the government’s decision, and because Canada used a third party independent fairness monitor to ensure […]

Should NATO deploy B61 bombs to Poland or the Baltics to respond to Russia’s westward military movement and nuclear flexing? Two nuclear experts disagreed about possible answers to this question during a July 1 discussion on Capitol Hill. Steven Pifer, Director of Brookings Institution’s Arms Control Initiative, dismissed the idea, saying it would be “provocative” […]

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 Information Act. The 900 kilograms of […]

AREVA plans to sell off its subsidiary Canberra as part of its restructuring plan, the company announced yesterday. AREVA suffered heavy losses last year, and in an attempt to right the ship, the company plans to refocus on nuclear fuel cycle activities, which would leave Canberra as disposable. “The transformation plan underway at AREVA has […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 6/26/2015 The CH2M-led Canadian National Energy Alliance team has won the contract to manage the Government-owned Contractor-operated contract for the Chalk River Laboratories, the Canadian Minister of Natural Resources Greg Rickford announced this week. The CNEA team also includes the Fluor Government Group – Canada, Inc.; EnergySolutions Canada Group LTD.; […]

Alissa Tabirian NS&D Monitor 6/26/2015 The United States must ramp up spending on defense and nuclear weapons modernization to maintain technological superiority and counter increases in Russia’s defense budget and modernization efforts, according to Rep. Mac Thornberry (R-Tex.), chairman of the House Armed Services Committee (HASC). “They continue to crank out new nuclear warheads and […]

The United States must ramp up spending on defense and nuclear weapons modernization to maintain technological superiority and counter increases in Russia’s defense budget and modernization efforts, according to Rep. Mac Thornberry (R-Tex.), Chairman of the House Armed Services Committee. “They continue to crank out new nuclear warheads and maintain an advantage on tactical warheads […]

Defense Secretary Ashton Carter yesterday said Russia’s violation of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty of 1987 and recent nuclear sabre rattling raises serious questions about Moscow’s commitment to global strategic stability. “Moscow’s nuclear sabre rattling raises questions about Russia’s commitment to strategic stability and causes us…to wonder about their respect…and whether they continue to respect […]

Alissa Tabirian NS&D Monitor 6/19/2015 After years of negotiations on issues such as enrichment and reprocessing rights, the United States and the Republic of Korea signed a renewal of their ‘123 Agreement’ on civil nuclear cooperation this week. The agreement “would permit the transfer of material, equipment (including reactors), components, information, and technology for nuclear […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 6/19/2015 A Canadian environmental group has asked a federal court to squash the Joint Review Panel’s environmental assessment report on Ontario Power Generation’s proposed deep geologic repository, the group announced late last week. Save Our Saugeen Shores, the group filing the appeal, argued the Panel failed to adhere to its […]

A Canadian environmental group has asked a federal court to squash the Joint Review Panel’s environmental assessment report on Ontario Power Generation’s proposed deep geologic repository, the group announced late last week. Save Our Saugeen Shores, the group filing the appeal, argued the Panel failed to adhere to its bylaws, resulting in a biased report, […]

President Obama has approved a proposed nuclear cooperation agreement between the United States and South Korea for peaceful uses of nuclear energy, the White House announced last week. “I have determined that the performance of the proposed Agreement will promote, and will not constitute an unreasonable risk to, the common defense and security,” Obama said […]

The International Atomic Energy Agency’s Board of Governors has approved an agreement that will create a nuclear fuel bank in Kazakhstan, the Department of State announced last week. The agreement between the IAEA and Kazakhstan will give IAEA member states access to low enriched uranium “for peaceful nuclear reactor fuel if they could not obtain […]

The Japanese government has adjusted the anticipated fuel removal dates at the Fukushima Daiichi site’s Units 1,2, and 3, the Tokyo Electric Power Company announced late last week. The new plans push the fuel removal of Units 1 and 2 until 2020, later than the originally scheduled Fiscal Year 2017 fuel removal target for Unit […]

Brian Bradley NS&D Monitor 6/12/2015 House lawmakers voted this week against an amendment offered to the Fiscal Year 2016 defense appropriations bill that would have moved $25 million from an Air Force procurement account to the defense-wide research and development account to bolster U.S. military response options to respond to Russia’s alleged violation of the […]

Kenneth Fletcher WC Monitor 6/12/2015 The proposed shipment of a batch of German highly enriched uranium to the Savannah River Site would violate both German and European law, according to a complaint Greenpeace Germany filed this week with the European Commission attempting to stop the plan. The 900 kilograms of U.S.-origin highly enriched uranium comes […]

The proposed shipment of a batch of German highly enriched uranium to the Savannah River Site would violate both German and European law, according to a complaint Greenpeace Germany filed yesterday with the European Commission attempting to stop the plan. The 900 kilograms of U.S.-origin highly enriched uranium comes in the form of graphite spheres […]

Deploying U.S. intermediate-range cruise missiles in the United Kingdom should be considered in response to Russia’s alleged violation of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty of 1987 if that country doesn’t return to compliance with the agreement, the head of the House Armed Services Committee told reporters yesterday. “I think it is definitely an option which […]

Russia remains in violation of its obligations under the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty of 1987 to not “possess, produce, or flight-test a ground-launched cruise missile with a range capability of 500 km to 5,500 km, or to possess or produce launchers of such missiles,” according to the State Department’s annual arms control compliance report […]

First Phase of Breeder Rod Shipments from Dounreay to Sellafield Done  Kenneth Fletcher WC Monitor 6/5/2015 Scotland’s Dounreay site recently completed the last shipment of an 11-ton batch of breeder reactor rods to the Sellafield site for storage in an effort to consolidate U.K. used fuel, the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority announced this week. While plans […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 6/5/2015 The Canadian government this week extended into December the federal review process for Ontario Power Generation’s deep geologic repository proposal to allow for an additional public comment period. Canada’s Minister of the Environment originally had 120 days to make a decision on the proposal following the submittal last month […]

Sen. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) urged President Barack Obama in a letter last week to engage the Canadian government to stop the construction of a proposed low-level radioactive waste deep geologic repository near the Great Lakes. Kirk joins a host of opponents, including some members of the Michigan Congressional delegation, who sent a similar letter to […]

Scotland’s Dounreay site recently completed the last shipment of an 11-ton batch of breeder reactor rids to the Sellafield site for storage in an effort to consolidate U.K. used fuel, the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority announced yesterday. While plans originally called for storing the material on site, in 2011 the U.K. government decided to remove it […]

The U.K.’s Sellafield Limited last week awarded a four-year £20 million ($30.5 million) contract to Tata Steel to refurbish waste containers and doors for the transfer of waste from legacy plants to new storage facilities. The material will allow the decommissioning of the Magnox Swarf Storage Silo. “This announcement demonstrates our commitment to ensuring value […]

Swedish energy company Vattenfall has partnered with German-based E.ON to decommission and dismantle their joint nuclear power plants, the two companies announced late last week. Following the Fukushima disaster in Japan, Germany moved to shut down all of its nuclear plants in an effort to avoid any future accidents. Eight nuclear reactors were permanently shut […]

Brian Bradley NS&D Monitor 5/29/2015 In a capstone to the successful ‘Megatons to Megawatts’ program, President Barack Obama this week terminated an executive order that had been intended to ensure payments to Russia under the program would not be impacted by lawsuits. Under the “Megatons to Megawatts” program, 500 metric tons of highly enriched uranium […]