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UK University To Lead GBP 8 Million Nuclear Waste Research Programme

The University of Leeds in England is to lead a consortium of 10 universities in a national research programme looking at ways of dealing with the country’s nuclear waste. The eight million pound (13 million US dollars, 9.6 million euros) project, funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences ...


UK Regulators Begin Next Phase Of Hitachi ABWR Assessment

The UK’s joint nuclear regulators have announced that they are progressing to the next phase of their assessment of a new nuclear reactor design that could be built at two sites in the UK. The Office for Nuclear Regulation and the Environment Agency said in a statement they ...


Low-Dose Initiative Will Have ‘Major Implications’ For Radiological Protection

An initiative to bring together all the scientific research on exposure to low and very low doses of ionising radiation will improve the global radiological protection system and could have major implications for dealing with the rehabilitation of areas affected by the March 2011 Fukushima-Daiichi nuclear accident, the ...


Fukushima-Daiichi Unit 1 Accident Was Not Due To Coolant Loss, Says Tepco

The problems that led to core meltdown and fuel damage at Unit 1 of the Fukushima-Daiichi nuclear plant began as a direct result of the impact of the tsunami and not a loss of coolant from pipe failure caused by the earthquake, a report by plant operator Tokyo ...


Standardisation Is Key To Reducing Up-Front Costs, Says NEI Head

The standardisation of new nuclear units being planned for the US will be the most significant factor in reducing up-front costs for reactors, the Nuclear Energy Institute’s (NEI) president and chief executive officer has said. In an interview with NucNet, Marvin Fertel said he doubted if the US ...


Graphene Oxide Could Help With Radioactive Remediation, Say Researchers

Graphene oxide, a two-dimensional material that contains pure carbon, has “a remarkable ability” to quickly remove radioactive material from contaminated water and could be used in cleaning up contaminated sites such as the Fukushima-Daiichi nuclear plant, researchers at Rice University in Texas and Lomonosov Moscow State University have ...


UK Repository Setback As Cumbria Votes ‘No’

The UK government says it will embark on “a renewed drive” to find a community to host a deep geological repository for radioactive waste after a local authority in northwest England voted against hosting the planned facility. Cumbria County Council voted today to withdraw from the process to ...


Bulgaria Election Commission Confirms Pro-Nuclear Referendum Result

The final results of a referendum in Bulgaria mean the issue of new nuclear build will now be debated in the country’s parliament. Bulgaria’s Central Electoral Commission (CEC) yesterday confirmed the results of the nationwide referendum on Sunday on the development of nuclear energy through the construction of ...


Japan’s Regulator Unveils Proposed New Safety Measures

Japan’s nuclear regulator has presented a draft outline of new safety standards for nuclear power plants in the wake of the Fukushima-Daiichi nuclear disaster, including countermeasures against severe accidents and criteria for evacuating areas around nuclear power plants during an emergency. The proposed measures include a requirement to ...


EC Calls For ITER Parties To ‘Reconfirm Their Political Commitment’

The European Commission has called for a ministerial meeting to allow all parties to the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) to reconfirm their political commitment to the project, EU commissioner for energy Günther Oettinger has said. In a speech on 17 January 2013 at the inauguration of ITER’s ...


Swiss Phase-Out Initiative To Be Put To National Vote

The Swiss Federal Chancellery said yesterday that 107,533 of the 108,227 signatures on a popular initiative submitted by the Green Party for a partial revision of the federal constitution on the phase-out of nuclear energy are valid, meaning the measure will be put to a nationwide vote. The ...


Poland Commissioner Says Nuclear Must Be Part Of EU Energy Mix

Without a sustainable energy mix that includes nuclear energy, Europe’s economy will be less competitive, industry will move abroad and jobs will “inevitably be lost”, Poland’s deputy economy minister and commissioner for nuclear energy has said. In an article written for the policy journal ‘Europe’s World,’ Hanna Trojanowska ...


EDF Energy’s UK Plants Produce Highest Output For 7 Years

EDF Energy’s 15 nuclear reactor units in the UK produced their highest output for seven years in 2012, enough to power half of the country’s homes, the company has said. According to EDF, the 60 terawatt hours (TWh) of electricity produced by the units, at eight nuclear stations, ...


US Energy Department Announces Plans For Repository By 2048

The US would begin operating a deep geologic repository for high-level radioactive waste and used nuclear fuel by 2048 under a new strategy announced by the Department of Energy (DOE). The DOE has released a report outlining its strategy for addressing proposals of the Blue Ribbon Commission on ...


NASA ‘A Step Closer’ To Mars Missions Using Nuclear Rocket Fuel

Advanced propulsion researchers at NASA say they are a step closer to solving the challenge of safely sending human explorers to Mars and other solar system destinations using nuclear thermal rockets capable of propelling missions to the Red Planet and beyond. NASA researchers are using an innovative ...


Nuclear Energy Industry Is At ‘A New Crossroads’, Says NEA

The nuclear energy industry is at “a new crossroads” that could mark the start of a new renaissance or a slow decline as existing nuclear reactors are gradually retired, the Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) has said. In the second edition of a publication called ‘Nuclear Energy Today’ the ...