International

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 7/3/2014 Unit 3 of SaskPower’s Boundary Dam Power Station has been brought online temporarily for testing as its Oct. 2 official grand opening nears. Once operational, the facility will be the world’s first post-combustion coal-fired carbon capture and storage project. While Unit 3 being brought online marks a huge milestone […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 7/3/2014 The Norwegian Government has agreed this week to participate in a carbon capture and storage research effort under the European Commission’s Horizon 2020 Program according to a release from the Norwegian Ministry of Petroleum and Energy. The effort will establish a program to support research to be done in […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 7/3/2014 Scotland may be in the perfect position to become a major player in the future of carbon capture and storage for the United Kingdom, according to a new industry study released last week by Element Energy. The study notes the large storage capacity off the coast of Scotland in […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 7/3/2014 The European Investment Bank now expects to name the winners of a second round of funding to be provided under the New Entrants Reserve 300 program in mid-July, Kerstin Lichtenvort, team leader on NER300 in the Directorate-General for Climate Action said during a briefing at the European Union’s Sustainable […]

Sellafield Limited is looking for long-term cleanup suppliers for the U.K. site using a 10-year agreement that could be worth up to £1.5 billion ($2.5 billion), the company said yesterday. The work would come under the Decommissioning Delivery Partnership, which “is not a traditional contract but a commercial framework agreement that can be called upon […]

The U.K.’s Nuclear Decommissioning Authority is providing an extra £50 million ($86 million) in the next two years to cleanup work at the Dounreay site due to scope that was added after the contract was awarded in 2012, the NDA announced yesterday. While plans for spent fuel at Dounreay originally called for storing the fuel […]

NDA Tells Lawmakers Sellafield Lifecycle Cost to Increase by £6 Billion Kenneth Fletcher WC Monitor 6/27/2014 Lifecycle cleanup costs at the U.K.’s Sellafield site have risen by more than £6 billion ($10.2 billion) from last year’s estimate, according to an annual financial report the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority submitted to Parliament this week. The current undiscounted […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 6/27/2014 While the radiological release that occurred at the Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant earlier this year and the ongoing shutdown of the facility has not scared away potential host communities for a pilot interim storage facility in the United States, the incident has sent ripples through the […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 6/27/2014 Michigan’s U.S senators sent a second letter last week to Secretary of State John Kerry urging him to engage the Canadian government to stop the construction of a proposed low-level radioactive waste deep geologic repository near the Great Lakes. The two senators, Sens. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) and Carl Levin […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 6/27/2014 An increase in electricity demand must be addressed on the path to a low-carbon future Didier Houssin, director of Sustainable Energy Policy and Technology for the International Energy Agency said during an event hosted by the Center for Strategic International Studies this week. Houssin’s presentation was based on data […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 6/27/2014 An ad hoc committee formed by Alstom’s board of directors recommended this week accepting an offer put forth by GE for its energy business. GE first submitted an offer to Alstom in late April. Following the announcement of the GE offer, the French Government issued a decree giving the […]

RW Monitor 6/27/2014 AT FUKUSHIMA The advanced water treatment system (ALPS) at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant is back on line, TEPCO announced this week. The two of the three systems suffered a malfunction and had to be shut off, but TEPCO was able to repair and upgrade all three units. On May 23, […]

Todd Jacobson NS&D Monitor 4/04/2014 Over the last six months, the United States has reduced the size of its strategic deployed nuclear stockpile by 103 warheads, while Russia has increased the size of its stockpile, according to the latest New START Treaty data released by the State Department this week. The April 1 declaration reveals […]

Todd Jacobson NS&D Monitor 4/04/2014 Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has stoked tensions between Washington and Moscow, and the ranking member on the Senate Armed Services Emerging Threats and Capabilities Subcommittee said this week that it raised serious questions about Ukraine’s 20-year-old decision to give up its nuclear weapons as well. “The Ukraine was the third […]

Kenneth Fletcher NS&D Monitor 4/04/2014 The recent Nuclear Security Summit took important steps toward strengthening a regime beyond the summit process for protecting vulnerable material, though more work needs to be done to ensure progress in the future, nuclear security watchers said this week. A key achievement of the Summit held in the Hague was […]

Todd Jacobson NS&D Monitor 3/28/2014 Thirty-five nations at the Nuclear Security Summit in The Netherlands this week agreed to an initiative that would strengthen the international nuclear security architecture, highlighting the third gathering of international leaders to deal with strengthening nuclear security around the world. In all, leaders from 58 countries assembled in The Hague, […]

Kenneth Fletcher NS&D Monitor 3/28/2014 Plans to send a significant amount of plutonium and highly enriched uranium from Japan to the United States are raising questions for officials near the material’s likely home at the Savannah River Site. Citing concerns over plutonium already in the state, South Carolina this month filed suit against the Obama […]

Todd Jacobson NS&D Monitor 3/28/2014 Frustrated with the Obama Administration’s reaction to possible Russian violations of the Intermediate Nuclear Forces Treaty, House and Senate Republicans introduced legislation this week designed to hold Moscow accountable for the potential cheating. GOP lawmakers in the House and Senate introduced companion resolutions that would declare that Russia “violated and […]

Kenneth Fletcher NS&D Monitor 3/28/2014 Planned shipments of liquid highly enriched uranium from Canada to the Savannah River Site for processing have been delayed again, and now appear to be slated for September 2015. Officials said in late 2012 that the processing of the material could start in 2013 and end in 2016, but officials […]

Todd Jacobson NS&D Monitor 3/28/2014 The Department of Energy has dropped from its Fiscal Year 2015 budget request a laser-based protective force training system it had planned on providing to Russia due to concerns about the U.S. relationship with Moscow. The March 26 announcement from DOE Press Secretary Bill Gibbons came two days after 18 […]

URENCO USA Says Significant Inventory On Hand Kenneth Fletcher NS&D Monitor 3/21/2014 While the Nuclear Energy Institute is warning lawmakers of the potential impacts of sanctions under consideration on Russian low enriched uranium, URENCO USA says there is significant inventory on hand. The White House is considering including LEU among sanctions against Russia, and this […]

Response to Sanctions Over Ukraine Would be ‘Serious Development,’ But U.S. Hasn’t Formally Heard Threat Todd Jacobson NS&D Monitor 3/14/2014 Russia has not directly told the United States that it could halt U.S. arms control inspections in response to sanctions over a disagreement about Ukraine, senior Obama Administration officials said this week. According to Russian […]

Todd Jacobson NS&D Monitor 3/14/2014 A pair of Republicans on the Senate Armed Services Committee are accusing Pentagon policy nominee Brian McKeon of providing “misleading” answers to questions about Senate notification of potential Russian violations of the Intermediate Nuclear Forces Treaty during debate on the New START Treaty in 2010. Sens. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) and […]

Jeremy Dillon NS&D Monitor 3/14/2014 A Dutch medical isotope company will not meet its goal of shifting to the use of low enriched uranium for the production of molybdenum-99 by the 2015 target date, according to a meeting held this week with White House officials. Mallinckrodt confirmed to White House officials that it would not […]

Todd Jacobson NS&D Monitor 3/07/2014 It took nearly two years, but Rose Gottemoeller was finally confirmed as Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security by the Senate this week—but not without a fight. Gottemoeller was confirmed March 6 in a 58-42 vote despite concerns raised by a handful of GOP Senators over […]

Todd Jacobson NS&D Monitor 2/28/2014 An Obama Administration official said this week that the Senate was informed of a possible issue involving Russian compliance with an arms control treaty in the fall of 2010, several months before the Senate cleared the New START Treaty. Testifying before the Senate Armed Services Committee Feb. 25, Brian McKeon, […]

Lifecycle cleanup costs at the U.K.’s Sellafield site have risen by more than £6 billion ($10.2 billion) from last year’s estimate, according to the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority’s annual financial report to Parliament available here. The current undiscounted cost left to complete Sellafield stands at £79.1 billion, but is expected to rise by £5.4 billion under […]

NS&D Monitor 2/28/2014 IN CONGRESS Rep. Ed Pastor (D-Ariz.) announced late this week that he will not seek re-election this November. Pastor is a member of the House Energy and Water Appropriations Subcommittee, among other Congressional roles. “After 23 years in Congress serving the people of Arizona, I have decided that I will not seek […]

Kenneth Fletcher NS&D Monitor 2/14/2014 President Obama this week signed into law a two-year extension to the United States’ current civil nuclear agree-ment with South Korea, which now will not expire until March 19, 2016. The extension was needed because the Administration and South Korea require more time to work out sensitive issues, including potential […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 6/20/2014 Companies competing for Alstom’s energy business don’t just have the Alstom Board of Directors to appease, but also the French Government, as became clear this week when the government sent back offers deemed insufficient. Early this week Alstom received a joint proposal from Siemens and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries for […]