Connect to share and comment

S. Korea, US extend nuclear pact

Agence France-PresseApril 24, 2013 16:16
South Korea and the United States have agreed on a two-year extension to a civilian nuclear pact that Seoul wants amended to allow it to produce its own nuclear fuel, officials said Wednesday. The current pact, signed in 1974, had been due to expire next year. The extension was agreed to allow more negotiations on the heated topic of allowing the South to reprocess spent fuel rods. "The two sides reached a temporary agreement on extending the current accord by two years on the grounds that they need more time," Foreign Ministry spokesman Cho Tai-Young told reporters.

S. Korea, US extend nuclear pact

Agence France-PresseApril 24, 2013 02:30
South Korea and the United States have agreed on a two-year extension to a civilian nuclear pact that Seoul wants amended to allow it to produce its own nuclear fuel, officials said Wednesday. The current pact, signed in 1974, had been due to expire next year. The extension was agreed to allow more negotiations on the heated topic of allowing the South to reprocess spent fuel rods. "The two sides reached a temporary agreement on extending the current accord by two years on the grounds that they need more time," Foreign Ministry spokesman Cho Tai-Young told reporters.

Czech CEZ wants better bids for nuclear plant

Agence France-PresseApril 23, 2013 14:02
Czech power giant CEZ on Tuesday asked for better bids from the US and Russian groups that are vying to build two new units at its southern Temelin nuclear plant. "We certainly expect a major improvement in all respects," CEZ spokesman Ladislav Kriz told Czech television. US industrial giant Westinghouse is up against the MIR-1200 consortium, made up of Russia's Atomstroiexport and Gidropress and the Czech Skoda JS. France's Areva was eliminated from the running in October but has appealed the decision.

UK takes ownership of stored plutonium, may fuel new reactors

April 23, 2013 12:00
LONDON (Reuters) - Britain said it would take ownership of 2,950 kg of waste plutonium that it has been storing on behalf of European utilities and may reprocess it into fuel for a planned new generation of nuclear plants. The ownership change does not mean that more nuclear fuel will be brought into Britain, the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) said.

First radioactive traces from NKorea nuke test

Agence France-PresseApril 23, 2013 06:45
Possible radioactive traces from North Korea's February nuclear test have been detected for the first time, although it remains unclear what fissile material Pyongyang used, monitoring organisation CTBTO said Tuesday. "The ratio of the detected xenon isotopes (xenon-131m and xenon-133) is consistent with a nuclear fission event occurring more than 50 days before the detection," the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty Organisation (CTBTO) said.

Possible radioactive traces found from North Korea nuclear test

April 23, 2013 05:46
By Fredrik Dahl VIENNA (Reuters) - Radioactive gases that could have come from North Korea's nuclear test in February have unexpectedly been detected, a global monitoring body said on Tuesday, possibly providing the first "smoking gun" evidence of the explosion. But the April 9 measurement - almost two months after Pyongyang said it had carried out the underground detonation - gave no indication of whether plutonium or highly enriched uranium was used, it said.

Britain says will press ahead with Urenco stake sale

Agence France-PresseApril 22, 2013 07:01
Britain on Monday said it would proceed with the sale of some or all of its one-third stake in British-based uranium enrichment specialist Urenco. The British government said in a statement that it had made the decision after securing agreement from Urenco's Dutch and German partners. Britain, Germany and the Netherlands each hold one-third stakes in the nuclear fuel supplies group.

UN atomic agency urges Fukushima safety improvements

Agence France-PresseApril 22, 2013 06:30
The International Atomic Energy Agency on Monday called on the operator of Japan's crippled Fukushima nuclear plant to improve "essential systems" as it struggles to deal with leaks and power cuts. The stricken site has suffered an increasingly long line of mishaps, including a series of radioactive water leaks, that have rattled public confidence in the aftermath of the worst atomic crisis in a generation.

Government launches sale of uranium enrichment firm Urenco

April 22, 2013 05:45
LONDON (Reuters) - The government said on Monday it would sell some or all of its 33 percent stake in Urenco, the world's second-largest vendor of nuclear fuel. Three countries hold equal stakes in the security-sensitive uranium enrichment concern - Britain, the Netherlands and Germany, whose share is held by utilities E.ON and RWE. Urenco is estimated to be worth up to 10 billion euros (8.5 billion pounds) and several buyers have been reported to be ready to bid for a stake.

NKorea 'bark worse than bite'

Agence France-PresseApril 18, 2013 12:00
North Korea is incapable of carrying out most of its threats of recent weeks, a prominent US expert who has visited the country's nuclear facilities several times said Thursday. "The bark is much greater than the bite," Siegfried Hecker from Stanford University, who revealed in 2010 the existence of a uranium enrichment facility in North Korea, said in Vienna. "All of these things that they have threatened to do, most of them they cannot do," said Hecker, currently a visiting scientist at the Vienna Center for Disarmament and Non-Proliferation.
Syndicate content