The Chalk River reactor shutdown escalated into a political issue last week, because a shortage of medical radioisotopes had developed along the worldwide supply chain. What does it say that the federal government overrode the nuclear regulator by ordering the…
Category: DUPIC
Nuclear power and Kyoto: Baird’s guest-list hints at climate strategy
Environment minister John Baird has taken some interesting people with him to the Bali climate discussions. Among them is Elizabeth Dowdeswell, an adviser to the Nuclear Waste Management Organization. As I have pointed out, the countries involved in the Asia-Pacific…
Nuclear fuel reprocessing in the U.S.: it’s a guessing game
One of the central components of the Global Nuclear Energy Partnership (GNEP) is the reprocessing of spent nuclear fuel. How much would that cost? According to the Boston Consulting Group, six percent more than it would cost to store spent…
Koreas reach nuclear deal: major implications for Canada’s role in GNEP
South Korea has achieved a stunning breakthrough in nuclear negotiations with the North. This agreement, assuming it holds, may free the South to commercialize technologies that recycle spent nuclear fuel. Prominent among these is DUPIC, which uses CANDU reactors to…
Nuclear cooperation and Canadian energy policy: Harper’s complicated decision tree
A couple of Canadian newspapers are on the prime minister for being coy about the prospects of Canada joining the Global Nuclear Energy Partnership (GNEP). They’re trying to pin him down on how Canada will deal with radioactive waste, i.e.,…