‘SEOUL, May 13 (Reuters)
- After undercutting its main rival by a
cool $16 billion on a single Middle East
nuclear power deal, South Korea aims to
use its pricing prowess to win orders in
Turkey, Poland and the emerging powerhouses
of China and India. But turning a decent
profit from a global push into nuclear power
is looking tough as major rivals wake up
to the South Korea threat. A consortium
led by Korea Electric Power Corp (KEPCO)
and with very public backing from the government,
undercut traditional suppliers such as France
to win a $40 billion contract to build and
operate four reactors in the United Arab
Emirates late last year. KEPCO officials
said France's Areva and Japan's Mitsubishi
beat off the South Korea firm as preferred
bidders in a Jordan bid. A difficulty for
KEPCO in the Turkey and Jordan bids is that
both must include financing -- up to around
$4.4 billion, or about 50 percent of each
order. India's reactor project does not.
Analysts pointed to a bilateral agreement
with India on nuclear power cooperation
to be signed in July as helpful for the
Koreans. "The Indian project is to
build a reactor with land and money provided.
If the Koreans win, it will become a catalyst
(for more Indian deals)," said Deok-sang
Yoo, analyst at Dongbu Securities.’
Top North Korea general
and Kim confidant out of job
‘SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea has pushed
one of its highest-ranking military officers
into retirement, its media said on Friday,
in a rare announcement that experts said
may indicate frustration with yet another
policy blunder. "Kim Il-chol was relieved
of the posts as member of the National Defence
Commission of the Democratic People's Republic
of Korea and first vice-minister of the
People's Armed Forces for his advanced age
of 80," the North's official KCNA news
agency said, without offering further details.
Kim, 80, was a close confidant of leader
Kim Jong-il who served since 1998 as a vice
chairman of the National Defence Commission,
the centre of power in the secretive state.
What is unusual is the report itself announcing
an official's retirement, when normally
only deaths are reported in the North's
media. "One possibility is that Kim
Il-chol was sacked to take responsibility
for the announcement on nuclear fusion,"
said Yang Moo-jin of the University of North
Korean Studies in Seoul. Pyongyang said
this week it had succeeded in creating a
nuclear fusion reaction to produce energy,
a claim experts said was absurd for a country
so poor it cannot generate enough power
to light itself at night.’
+ More
Japan gov't approves
nuclear fuel programs
‘TOKYO, May 13, 2010
(Kyodo News International) -- The government
Thursday approved programs to build and
operate a plant for the processing of plutonium-uranium
mixed oxide, or MOX, and a facility for
storing spent nuclear fuel in Aomori Prefecture.
They are Japan's first such facilities and
are key components of a nuclear fuel cycle.
Japan Nuclear Fuel Ltd. plans to build the
plant in the village of Rokkasho to process
MOX powder from an adjacent spent nuclear
fuel reprocessing plant into fuel assemblies
from 2015. But the company has indicated
a possible delay beyond the year. Recyclable-Fuel
Storage Co. plans to construct the facility
in the city of Mutsu to store spent fuel
from nuclear plants of Tokyo Electric Power
Co. (OOTC:TKECY) and Japan Atomic Power
Co. for some 50 years before reprocessing
at the Japan Nuclear Fuel plant. Construction
is scheduled to start in July and be completed
by 2012.’
Japanese firms stick
with Sellafield MOX Plant
‘Confidence gained through performance improvements
and talks with ten Japanese nuclear utilities
means the Sellafield MOX Plant (SMP) will
continue to operate 'in the longer term.'
The future of the underperforming fuel facility
has long been uncertain, but improvements
in output under new management regime appear
to have made the difference. The NDA said
that it talked with the ten Japanese nuclear
utilities "to aim to convert all their
plutonium recovered in the UK into MOX fuel."
After work by the NDA's commercial subsidiary,
International Nuclear Services, new arrangements
are in place that the NDA said "make
the continuing operation of the plant economically
acceptable in the longer term." Business
planning manager John Clarke added that,
"Agreement has now been reached between
the NDA and Japanese utilities on an overall
framework for future fabrication of MOX
fuel in SMP." The NDA has asked Sellafield
managers, the Nuclear Management Partners
(a consortium of Washington International
Holdings, Amec and Areva), to make the improvements
to performance "on the earliest timescale"
to be ready to begin a new Japanese job
as quickly as possible after current work
is completed.’
Cauldron Energy kicks
off drilling at Las Marias uranium project
‘Cauldron Energy (ASX: CXU) has commenced
its first drill program at the Las Marias
uranium project, located in the province
of San Juan, Argentina. In total, 500 to
600 metres of HQ core drilling is proposed
as an initial program, which is to be followed-up
in the second half of the year with further
drilling. Targets include undercover extensions
to surface mineralisation that have returned
assays of up to 1,305 ppm U3O8 and exploration
drilling results are expected to be returned
my mid to late June 2010. Cauldron’s Chairman,
Tony Sage, stated ‘while the company is
currently drilling in South Australia and
has committed to drilling on its main projects
in Australia over the next six months, discretionary
exploration programs and budgets subsequent
to that are likely to focus more on the
overseas projects.’
+ More
Greenpeace finds radioactive
hotspots at India’s Mayapuri scrapyard
Blogpost by jmckeati
- May 14, 2010 at 2:40 PM Add comment
Early this morning, a team of two radiation
experts from Greenpeace began a combing
operation at the Mayapuri scrap market and
discovered that, despite official assurances
that that market is free from contamination,
there is still radioactive contamination
which poses a severe health threat to local
people.
Mayapuri scrapyard has
been at the centre of a health scandal after
a local scrap market dealer was found to
be suffering from severe radiation sickness.
The Greenpeace investigation has identified
at least 6 hotspots with one registering
more than 5000 times natural background
radiation levels. Greenpeace has identified
and marked the contaminated areas and has
shared information with local people and
the concerned authorities.
“We came here to verify
whether the claim made by the government
guaranteeing that this area is safe is really
true. The fear and doubts in the locality
is palpable and unfortunately today we discovered
that the area is still contaminated with
radioactivity and that local workers are
still being exposed to unacceptable levels
of radiation. We consider these failures
as a serious breach of nationally and internationally
accepted procedures”, said Karuna Raina,
Nuclear campaigner, Greenpeace India.
The Greenpeace team,
with the help of radiation monitors such
as an identiFINDER gamma spectrometer and
a RadAlert gamma dosimeter, scanned the
area around one of the shops where the cobalt
60 pencils were recovered. The claims made
by the government have been proven to be
false.
The survey results show
that there are extremely high levels of
radioactivity in localized hotspots, a person
is squatting in these areas would be exposed
to unacceptable radiation risks in excess
of the annual dose limit according to Indian
standards. For example, in the hotspot with
5000 times background radiation, a person
would receive the maximum permissible annual
dose of 1 millisievert in just a matter
of 2 hours. “While the risk in the hotspots
is severe, the solution is simple as the
hotspot can be decontaminated very quickly
by properly trained and equipped inspectors”,
said Jan Vande Putte, Greenpeace Radiation
Safety expert. “The authorities should immediately
decontaminate the hotspots and do a thorough
survey of the other shops as well. We have
shared all the relevant information with
the workers in the area to ensure that there
is no panic created.”
“This is the consequence
of a flawed policy that makes the nuclear
regulating body subordinate to institutions
that promote nuclear technology in India.
This clear conflict of interest allows for
transparency and accountability to be compromised.
India is gravely unprepared for the planned
massive expansion of its civilian nuclear
program”, said Ms. Raina.
Making a link to the
contentious Civilian Nuclear Liability Bill
that was introduced in the midst of a walk
out by the opposition parties in parliament
and is now before the Congress led standing
committee on Science and Technology, Raina
noted that accidents like the one that happened
in Mayapuri are not covered by the bill.
Greenpeace has been campaigning against
the unconstitutional clauses in the Bill
including an attempt to cap liability. “This
incident highlights the need for a rigorous
study of the risks involved in operation
of nuclear power plants. There must be a
vigorous and informed public debate and
relevant opinions ought to be gathered by
the parliamentary standing committee for
science and technology that is examining
the bill. Otherwise it would be a mockery
of safety and justice”
Setting sail to shut down bluefin tuna fisheries
On this page
Extinction is forever
Time and tuna are running out
Marine Reserves - NOW!
Check out the latest blogs on this issue:
Feature story - May 15, 2010
The Rainbow Warrior is heading out to confront
one of the most irresponsible and destructive
fishing operations in the world. Mediterranean
bluefin tuna have been exploited to the
brink of extinction - making them the most
visible and tragic example of oceans and
fishery mismanagement.
Scientists have warned
that the fishery will collapse if business
continues as usual. The species must be
allowed time to recover and the Mediterranean
bluefin fishery should be closed immediately.
We will be enforcing the clear scientific
recommendations and calling for an urgently
needed network of Mediterranean marine reserves.
Extinction is forever
The crisis facing our oceans and key species
like the bluefin tuna requires urgent action:
the scientific consensus is that over 80
percent of the species has already been
fished. If current fishing rates continue,
scientists predict that the bluefin could
disappear as a commercial species in just
a few years. Globally, over 90 percent of
large fish like tuna have disappeared from
our oceans, and some scientists warn that
all commercial fisheries could collapse
within decades.
Politics and fishery
management have failed our oceans and set
the bluefin tuna on a one-way path to extinction.
Oliver Knowles, Greenpeace
International oceans campaigner.
As a necessary first step to bluefin tuna
recovery and to restoring our oceans to
health, we are calling for the immediate
closure of the Mediterranean bluefin fishery,
by setting bluefin fishing quotas to zero
until scientists can verify that the species
has recovered.
At the meeting of the
Convention on International Trade in Endangered
Species (CITES) in March, governments failed
to approve a ban on the lucrative trade
in Atlantic bluefin meat. This measure could
have helped avert rapid bluefin tuna extinction.
But short term interests were put ahead
of the long term survival of the species
and the future value of this fish.
Time and tuna are running
out
Urgent action to save our oceans is needed
now from governments and the public. Consumers
should avoid bluefin tuna and governments
need to put healthy oceans ahead of short-term
profits by changing fishing policies and
creating marine reserves.
Earlier this week, our
activists delayed the departure of three
bluefin tuna fishing vessels from the port
of Frontignan, France. The vessels were
among those with the highest quotas in the
French bluefin tuna fishing fleet.
Marine Reserves - NOW!
Barely one percent of the Mediterranean
Sea is fully protected - a far cry from
the 20 to 50 percent recommended by scientists.
There is a serious risk that the Mediterranean
will be exploited beyond its natural ability
to replenish and recover, affecting its
health and productivity for future generations
- not just within the immediate region,
but far beyond.
We are campaigning to
establish a global network of marine reserves
- areas of ocean off-limits to fishing,
mining, drilling and other extractive activities-
to cover 40 percent of the world’s oceans,
including the Mediterranean. This is a necessary
step to restoring our oceans and fish stocks
back to health.
