There’s nothing like actually seeing processes you have up to then only read or heard about. The mythical suddenly becomes real, and more normal and innocuous. Two weeks ago, I toured Areva’s MELOX plant near Avignon. MELOX makes new fuel from recycled plutonium. A couple days later, I visited the La Hague plant in Normandy, […]

Opposition to recycling used nuclear fuel in the U.S. centres around the assumption that if the U.S. resumes recycling, an activity it stopped doing in the 1970s, then that will open the floodgates worldwide. Countries that allegedly followed the U.S. lead in the 1970s will begin their own recycling programs. And, if recycling is based […]

A couple of weeks ago, the Toronto Star published an opinion piece whose author accused Canada of facilitating nuclear proliferation through international sales of uranium and CANDU reactors. It drew a couple of rebuttals: a short, pithy one from Jeremy Whitlock of AECL, a longer one from me. I’ll let readers judge for themselves whether the […]

Over the last couple days I have participated in a very interesting discussion on the relevance of proliferation concerns to the renaissance in civilian nuclear energy. This closely preceded the announcement, a few minutes ago, by the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists that the hands of its famous “Doomsday Clock” have been reset from 5 to 6 […]

Quintus Fabius Maximus, the Roman dictator whose ex post facto victory over the original Hannibal has for centuries inspired both admiration and contempt, would applaud the strategies of the major players in the Ontario nuclear reactor competition. The major players are the governments of Ontario and Canada. The decision strategy of each is pure Fabius: […]

Areva is still in the Ontario reactor competition, and remains open to playing a role in the future of Canadian nuclear research, a company executive said in a conference call on September 18. This follows the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission’s announcement on August 31 that it sees “no fundamental barriers” to licensing the new CANDU reactor in Canada. AECL, […]

Go to DOE’s GNEP internet address (www.gnep.gov) and you get a drab intro to DOE’s nuclear energy program. The acronym GNEP is nowhere to be found, nor is any explanation of what has become of one of the most ambitious, far-reaching, and problematic undertakings since the dawn of the nuclear age

The next U.S. president will face a complex challenge as he develops nuclear policy. He is on record as opposing the Yucca Mountain spent fuel repository. At the same time, he supports nuclear energy as an important part of America’s energy mix (see article). So does Steven Chu, the nominee for Energy Secretary. Does this […]

Eight years ago, European elites reacted with puffed-up outrage when the new U.S. president, George W. Bush, decided he wouldn’t ask the Senate to ratify the Kyoto Treaty. Though Bush’s decision was based on sound energy policy and sounder politics (see article), the euro-elites haughtily struck him off their Christmas list, permanently. Most have yearned […]

A Brazilian company quietly announced on July 8 its intention to acquire uranium enrichment technology and thereby become active in the full nuclear fuel cycle. This is something Canada has lobbied hard for over the past few years. The Brazilian announcement increases the diplomatic pressure on the U.S. to resolve the issue as it seeks […]