Idaho Samizdat: Nuke Notes

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• House Committee erases GNEP from '09 budget

  Prospects are uncertain in the Senate The House Appropriations Committee voted this week to zero out funding in FY2009 for the Department of Energy's ill-fated and much maligned Global Nuclear Energy Program ( GNEP ).  This is a repeat of last year's action by the House which kicked GNEP to the curb only to see some of the cuts restored by Senate action via conference committee. The immediate... Posted Jun 28 2008, 03:07 PM by Idaho Samizdat: Nuke Notes Filed under: GNEP, DOE

• DOE to fund NGNP ~ deep burn ~ reactor design

  Two reactor R&D efforts are linked in a single grant funding opportunity The Department of Energy isn't giving up on GNEP even if Congress has repeatedly sent a strong message it isn't going to fund the program at the levels requested by the agency. In a new twist DOE has linked nuclear reactor R&D design work for the Next Generation Nuclear Plant and GNEP objectives to the the concept... Posted Apr 30 2008, 10:42 PM by Idaho Samizdat: Nuke Notes Filed under: GNEP, NGNP

• DOE releases RFI and FOA for NGNP and GNEP

  Says the government will pay more for fewer acronyms The Department of Energy this week issued a request for information (RFI) targeting industry and university groups, and other interested parties, asking for input on a prototype, low-emission nuclear plant at its Idaho National Laboratory ( INL ). It also issued a funding opportunity announcement for up to $15 million for GNEP R&D. There are... Posted Apr 17 2008, 10:38 PM by Idaho Samizdat: Nuke Notes Filed under: GNEP, NGNP

• DOE Awards GNEP grants

  The U.S. Department of Energy has awarded $18.3 million to four industry teams to further develop plans for an initial nuclear fuel recycling center and advanced recycling reactor as part of the Global Nuclear Energy Partnership (GNEP). The awards include $5.9 million to EnergySolutions; $5.7 million to the International Nuclear Recycling Alliance, led by AREVA and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries; $5.5... Posted Mar 30 2008, 06:43 PM by Idaho Samizdat: Nuke Notes Filed under: GNEP

• Great Britain joins GNEP

  Decision follows the UK's commitment to a new nuclear building program Reuters reports that the U.K. has signed up to become the 21st member of the Global Nuclear Energy Partnership ( GNEP ) and without very much political fanfare to accompany it. When Canada and Australia proposed to get involved with the international nuclear fuel management consortium, the domestic fireworks in both countries... Posted Mar 01 2008, 11:34 PM by Idaho Samizdat: Nuke Notes Filed under: GNEP, United Kingdom

• Turkey plans 5 GWe $8 billion nuclear build

  Turkey pledges guarantees for nuclear power purchases Turkey stepped into the nuclear energy spotlight last week with an announcement that it will guarantee electricity purchases for 15 years to attract investment in nuclear power stations it plans to build, Energy Minister Hilmi Guler said at a nuclear-energy conference in Istanbul. The guarantee creates a bridge between the government's intent... Posted Jan 21 2008, 10:58 PM by Idaho Samizdat: Nuke Notes Filed under: GNEP, nuclear reactors, Turkey

• GNEP might not be dead yet

  DOE comments published in Morris, IL, raise questions Hat tip to Rod Adams at Atomic Insights Blog In the great comedy send up of horror flicks Young Frankenstein , there is a terrific scene in which the dwarf Igor, player to perfection by Marty Feldman, tells Dr. Frankenstein, played with equal brilliance by Gene Wilder, about the status of series of brains preserved in glass jars. The brains are... Posted Jan 05 2008, 05:14 AM by Idaho Samizdat: Nuke Notes Filed under: GNEP, Morris Illinois

• DOE scraps GNEP spent fuel plants in PEIS

  If they're not in the PEIS, then they're off the table for site decisions next June The Department of Energy is unbundling its GNEP alternatives under the Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement ( PEIS ). Previously, all three types of massive nuclear fuel facilities were included in the review. However, in a statement posted on the agency's website this week, DOE said,it was taking... Posted Dec 20 2007, 09:31 AM by Idaho Samizdat: Nuke Notes Filed under: GNEP, PEIS

• Congress kicks GNEP to the curb

  Democrats trade nuclear funding for domestic priorities Hat tip to Nukes of Hazard Congress released today its joint House-Senate omnibus appropriations bill, the FY 2008 Consolidated Appropriations Act. GNEP took a significant hit. The bill funds the program at $179 million, $216 million below the President’s request, and roughly halfway between the House level ($120 million) and Senate level ($243... Posted Dec 18 2007, 10:27 AM by Idaho Samizdat: Nuke Notes Filed under: GNEP, appropriations

• General Electric seeks market solutions for spent nuclear fuel

  Computer simulation and full scale testing of components are part of the plan Defying conventional wisdom that the only destiny for spent nuclear fuel from commercial nuclear reactors is long-term storage, General Electric says there are big dollars at the tail end of the nuclear energy value chain. GE thinks they can bring profitable solutions to market. Speaking to the Idaho Section of the American... Posted Dec 09 2007, 04:40 PM by Idaho Samizdat: Nuke Notes Filed under: GNEP, spent nuclear fuel, General Electric, Eric P. Loewen, IL, Morris, laser enrichment, electrorefining

• Canada dances with wolves

  International nuclear agreements end nation's silence on big potential deals with GNEP and Russia. GNEP nations need Canada's uranium.  Russia needs its reactor technologies. Last summer when more than a dozen nations held a ministerial level diplomatic meeting in Vienna, Austria, on the Global Nuclear Energy Partnership GNEP, Canada sat out the meeting sending an observer instead of the... Posted Nov 30 2007, 10:32 PM by Idaho Samizdat: Nuke Notes Filed under: GNEP, Canada

• NAS - GNEP should be scaled back

  Ambitious program is said to be sidelining important reactor R&D The Associated Press reports that the National Academy of Sciences wants President Bush to abandon an ambitious plan to resume nuclear waste reprocessing. A panel of scientists said GNEP , has not been adequately peer reviewed and is betting on reprocessing technology that isn't proven. The report also said GNEP research is taking... Posted Oct 29 2007, 09:34 PM by Idaho Samizdat: Nuke Notes Filed under: GNEP, National Academy of Sciences

• Organizing the world's nuclear fuel cycle

  Sustainable energy supply requires reliable fuel and nuclear safeguards Sometimes the wizards of the nuclear world are hidden from view, and when they have organized themselves on the remote, high desert of Idaho, it seems their work might be invisible. Some light was shed on the federal government's plans for the Global Nuclear Energy Partnership ( GNEP ) at the September monthly dinner meeting of... Posted Oct 13 2007, 02:14 PM by Idaho Samizdat: Nuke Notes Filed under: GNEP, American Nuclear Society, Idaho National Laboratory, Phillip Finck

• South Africa takes a pass on GNEP

  Energy strategy will reserve uranium for its own reactors Reuters reports that South Africa declined an invitation to join a U.S.-initiated multilateral nuclear supply pact because it could undermine Pretoria's plan to revive uranium enrichment on its own soil. South Africa's no-show at a 16-nation signing ceremony for the Global Nuclear Energy Partnership created concern in many developing and even... Posted Sep 23 2007, 10:04 PM by Idaho Samizdat: Nuke Notes Filed under: GNEP, South Africa, uranium enrichment

• US pledges to reduce plutonium weapons stockpile

  Nine tons will be gone by 2012 At the GNEP meeting taking place in Vienna, Austria, this week the U.S. pledged to remove nine metric tons of plutonium, enough to make over 1,000 weapons, from its weapons stockpile. U.S. Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman made the pledge on Monday. That's 18,941 pounds or about 20 pounds of plutonium per bomb. It sure doesn't take much to wipe out civilization. Anyway,... Posted Sep 18 2007, 02:44 PM by Idaho Samizdat: Nuke Notes Filed under: GNEP, MOX fuel, plutonium