Tracking the future of nuclear energy.

Editorial Team

Nuclear Power Daily Editorial Team

Editorial Team

The Nuclear Power Daily Editorial Team produces Nuclear Power Daily's coverage of nuclear energy. We report on reactors and small modular reactors, the fuel cycle, waste and safety, policy, and fusion research. Articles reflect our team's collective editorial process, source verification, drafting, technical review, and editing, rather than a single writer's work. Nuclear Power Daily takes editorial responsibility for content under this byline. For more on how we work, see our editorial policy.

France And India Hold Nuclear Cooperation Talks

New Delhi (AFP) Jul 30, 2007 - Indian and French officials held talks on nuclear energy cooperation Monday and pledged to work on an accord similar to ones New Delhi has signed with the United States and Russia. French President Nicolas Sarkozy's diplomatic adviser met with India's national security advisor M.K. Narayanan and exchanged invitations for state visits to each country, a statement from the French embassy said. Both parties stressed their common endeavour to develop nuclear energy for peaceful purposes, including power generation plants, and agreed to conclude expeditiously a bilateral co-operation agreement thereof, the statement said.

Jul 30, 2007

China-France Nuclear Deal Signing Postponed

Paris (AFP) Jul 30, 2007 - The planned signing Tuesday of a letter of intent by China and France on the construction in China of two nuclear reactors by the French group Areva has been postponed, a French source said Monday. But he stressed that the principle of a letter of intent remains intact, with the date (of the signing) to be decided. The initial date of July 31... was postponed for technical and calendar reasons. Areva declined to comment on the report.

Jul 30, 2007

IAEA Faces Nuclear Dilemma As It Celebrates 50th Anniversary

Vienna (AFP) Jul 29, 2007 - The International Atomic Energy Agency celebrated its 50th anniversary Sunday as it continues to face the dilemma of preventing the spread of nuclear technology for military purposes while condoning it for civilian purposes. In a congratulatory note to IAEA Director General Mohamed ElBaradei posted on the agency's website, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said: the IAEA has strived to accelerate and expand its contributions to security and development. I applaud the ceaseless efforts made by the IAEA towards this end.

Jul 29, 2007

ASEAN Urges Nuclear Powers To Back Treaty

Manila (AFP) Jul 29, 2007 - Southeast Asian nations on Sunday urged the world's nuclear powers to sign on to a regional treaty aimed at keeping their corner of the world free of atomic weapons. Ahead of the Asian security summit, the 10-country Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) said the five nuclear powers that are permanent UN Security Council members should sign a protocol to the treaty. The call came as ASEAN approved a plan to strengthen safeguards against proliferation as part of its review of the Southeast Asia Nuclear Weapons Free Zone treaty, 10 years after it came into force.

Jul 29, 2007

Three-Pronged Nuclear Attack

Salzburg, Austria (SPX) Jul 26, 2007 - A trio of security vulnerabilities surrounding the use of nuclear power are highlighted today in research papers online with Inderscience Publishers. The first threat is at the source of the raw material for nuclear power itself, the uranium mine, processing plant, and transport route. Here, physical protection and security are at a much lower level than at a nuclear installation in the developed world, according to Austrian scientists writing in today's issue of the International Journal of Nuclear Governance, Economy and Ecology.

Jul 26, 2007

Russia Puts Off Bushehr NPP Launch Until Fall 2008

Moscow (RIA Novosti) Jul 26, 2007 - The Bushehr nuclear power plant in Iran cannot be completed by the fall of 2007 as suggested by Iranian authorities and will only be commissioned a year later, a Russian subcontractor said. Russia is building the $1-billion facility, Iran's first nuclear power plant, in the south of the country in accordance with a 1995 contract, and under UN supervision as Iran is under international scrutiny over its compliance with the nuclear non-proliferation regime.

Jul 26, 2007

French Firm Could Build Shield Over Main Chernobyl Reactor

Kiev (RIA Novosti) Jul 26, 2007 - Ukraine could sign a contract with a French firm in September to build a giant protective shield over a damaged reactor in Chernobyl, the scene of the world's worst nuclear disaster, the emergencies minister said Wednesday. The Assembly of Chernobyl Shelter Fund Donors made a decision in London July 17 to give its approval to the contract to build the shelter with the Novarka concern, with a preliminary cost of 490 million euros (about $680 million), Nestor Shufrych said.

Jul 26, 2007

France-Libya Nuclear Deal A Dangerous Step Warn Many

Paris (AFP) July 26, 2007 - French green groups Thursday attacked plans to build a French reactor in Libya for water desalination as a perilous masquerade that would encourage Moamer Kadhafi to get a nuclear bomb. Sortir du Nucleaire (Get Out of Nuclear) said the official reason for the reactor was a deception as the civilian and military uses of nuclear technology were indissociable.

Jul 26, 2007

Australia Considers Selling Uranium To India

Sydney (AFP) July 26, 2007 - Australia is considering selling uranium to India after New Delhi finalises a landmark civilian nuclear deal with the United States, the government said Thursday. Australia has the world's largest known reserves of uranium and has been under pressure sell the nuclear fuel to India since it agreed last year to supply rival Asian giant China.

Jul 26, 2007

US Lawmakers Threatens To Block Indian Nuclear Deal

Washington (AFP) July 25, 2007 - A bi-partisan group of lawmakers warned Wednesday that Congress could block a landmark US-India nuclear cooperation deal if it sidesteps safeguards to prevent military uses of the technology. The 23 legislators sent a letter to President George W. Bush saying the so-called 123 operating agreement, which reportedly allows India to reprocess spent nuclear fuel, could end up violating US law.

Jul 25, 2007

US Lawmakers Question Secretive US-India Nuclear Pact

Washington (AFP) July 25, 2007 - US lawmakers have warned President George W. Bush of inconsistencies amid reports Washington has agreed in principle to allow India to reprocess spent nuclear fuel under a landmark deal. The warning came after US and Indian officials finalized last week the implementing agreement for Washington to provide nuclear technology and fuel to India under a deal agreed upon by Bush and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh two years ago to highlight ties between the world's two biggest democracies.

Jul 25, 2007

Japan’s Quake-Hit Nuke Plant Says Nothing To Hide

Tokyo (AFP) July 25, 2007 - The operator of Japan's largest nuclear plant, which was damaged in a powerful earthquake, said Wednesday it had nothing to hide as UN inspectors prepared to visit. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) team is set to arrive in Japan in the next few weeks to look at the sprawling Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power plant operated by Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO). Asked to promise the company would not hide anything, TEPCO vice president Ichiro Takekuro said: If we did, we would lose the value of our company. It would be a tremendous bill to pay in the future.

Jul 25, 2007

A Russian View Of The Quake-Hit Japanese Nuclear Plant

Moscow (RIA Novosti) Jul 25, 2007 - An earthquake hit the city of Kashiwazaki in Honshu last week, causing an estimated $33.3 billion worth of damage. The Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear plant, one of Japan's largest, was in the earthquake zone. Radioactive substance leakage is reported. Japanese authorities and public are attacking the Tokyo Electric Power Company after it refused to give information on the danger. The alarm was sounded at the other end of the world, in the headquarters of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Vienna. Dr. Mohamed El Baradei, its Director General, says he hopes TEPCO will not withhold any facts from investigation.

Jul 25, 2007

IAEA To Visit Japanese Quake-Hit Nuclear Plant, As Car Production Plummets

Vienna (AFP) July 24, 2007 - The UN's nuclear watchdog agency said Tuesday it would send a team of experts to Japan in the next few weeks to examine a nuclear power plant damaged during a deadly earthquake on July 16. The IAEA intends to send a team of IAEA and international experts in the coming weeks to examine the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant northwest of Tokyo, the International Atomic Energy Agency said in a statement.

Jul 24, 2007

Energy Industry Gears Up For Nuclear Renaissance

Mcclean Lake (AFP) Canada, July 24, 2007 - Twenty years after the Chernobyl disaster poisoned the world's taste for reactors, a French firm is sniffing out fresh uranium supplies in Canada. And the race for nuclear power is back on. After the deadly Chernobyl reactor explosion in Ukraine in 1986 and a lesser scare at the Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania that rattled the United States in 1979, people were wondering whether nuclear power even had a future, said Yves Dufour, one of the directors of Areva, the world's leading civilian nuclear power provider.

Jul 24, 2007

UN To Inspect Japan Radiation Site

Tokyo (AFP) Jul 23, 2007 - Japan will let UN inspectors visit its largest nuclear plant in hopes of easing international concern after an earthquake caused a radiation leak, officials said Monday. The government has told the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) it can send a mission to the plant around 250 kilometres (150 miles) northwest of Tokyo.

Jul 23, 2007