Microsoft word - nucbrief-060217

Nuc.brief & link
2006-02-17 UT 04:30 NFCC Nuclear Fuel Cycle Consulting

Exelon Nuclear is launching an initiative across its 10-station nuclear fleet to
systematically assess systems that handle tritium and take the necessary actions to
minimize the risk of inadvertent discharge of tritium to the environment. The assessments
will take place in 2006 and will cover pipes, pumps, valves, tanks and other pieces of
equipment that carry tritiated water in and around the plants. The initiative is intended to
significantly reduce the possibility of a tritium release of the type that occurred in the past
involving the lake “blowdown” line at Braidwood Generating Station. The initiative also
will establish new standards for inspections, responses to, and remediation of tritium
releases that have the potential to affect the environment or the public. Press release:
bout
the Braidwood Station Tritium Analysis see press release:

The European Commission has issued a formal warning against British Nuclear
Group Sellafield. Under the Euratom Treaty, the European Commission has the task of
ensuring that accounting and administrative procedures are in place to ensure that nuclear
materials in possession of companies operating nuclear facilities in the EU are not
diverted from the peaceful uses for which they have been declared. The Commission has
found that the accounting and reporting procedures presently in place at BNG SL do not
fully meet Euratom standards. This decision results from a series of inspections carried
out by Commission inspectors at the Sellafield plant.
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URANIUM
UEX Corp. announced that it has
completed its private placement for
Pan African Mining Corp. announced
that it has now received full permitting Nationales et des Industries Strategiques a Malagasy State agency. Release:
Novastar Resources Ltd. and Thorium
Power Inc., a designer of proliferation-
announced the signing of a definitive
merger agreement. Upon
with a proposed $1 billion
refurbishment of the province's only
estimated to cost about C$130 million, is only the first phase of the proposed C$1 As of December 31, 2005 the U.S.
uranium concentrate production total
was 2.7 million pounds, an 18 percent
increase compared with the 2.3 million
production after a long period of decline. operational during the 4th quarter 2005. NUCLEAR INDUSTRY
CONVERSION, ENRICHMENT
The China National Nuclear Corp.
and the China Huadian Corp. signed
the frame agreement on co-operative
construction of Huian Nuclear Power
[conversion] plant at Metropolis, Ill.,
Project in Fujian Province in Beijing.
operated safely during the past year,
As the preparing project in “the national but the agency will continue
eleventh 5-year plan”, the Huian Nuclear heightened inspections at the facility
until further corrective actions and long- achieved. Release and more:
agreement means that this project started formally. Press release:
REACTORS, NPPs, UTILITIES
US-based Westinghouse Electric Co
has reiterated to Chinese authorities
The government of Quebec was still
its unchanged commitment to
considering whether to go forward
which opposes having the federal
government takes title to spent fuel
while continuing to store it indefinitely
South Africa will spend 580 million
DECOMMISSIONING, CLEAN-UP
A Denver, Colorado federal jury
awarded $553 Million to property
owners living near the Rocky Flats
rendered against Rockwell
TRANSPORT
International Corp. and Dow
Chemical Co. Lawyer's press release:
NRC has published its report Spent Fuel
Transportation Package Response to
the Caldecott Tunnel Fire Scenario.
The results strongly indicate that neither spent nuclear fuel particles nor fission appeal the verdict and is confident of
tunnel fire such as the Caldecott Tunnel temperatures that could result in rupture A good journalistic overview about
radioactive material (i.e., SNF particles decommissioning in Great Britain: "A
within the fuel rods. Summary, report:
grab the lion's share of a £50bn British STORAGE AND WASTE
The U.S. National Association of
Regulatory Utility Commissioners
(NARUC) Board of Directors at its
REPOSITORIES
an overview of the status of the Yucca
Mountain Project at the NARUC
The U.S. NRC has released its 2005
Safety Culture and Climate Survey.
Global Nuclear Energy Initiative has the NRC improved in essentially all areas as leadership. Press release and report:
ORGANIZATIONS, PEOPLE
President Bush intends to nominate
Dennis R. Spurgeon, of Florida, to be
The German Nuclear Forum held its
Assistant Secretary of Energy
Winter Meeting in Berlin. You can
(Nuclear Energy). Mr. Spurgeon most
watch videos of speeches on the
British Energy Policy, Carl Gibson,
Group; Eröffnungsansprache, Walter Hohlefelder, Präsident des Deutschen Atomforums; Uran - limitierender
Joachim Ohnemus, Geschäftsführer MISCELLANEOUS
Energieversorgung; Jürgen R. Thumann,
competitive bids for the management
and operations contract for the Pacific
Northwest National Laboratory
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Source: http://www.nfcc.ch/files/nucbrief-060217.pdf