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1 July 2010
Finland approves two new reactors
After two days of intense debate, Finland's parliament has approved construction of the country's sixth and seventh nuclear power reactors, by substantial majority votes. One will be built at Olkiluoto by TVO (which already has an Areva EPR under construction there) and one will be built by Fennovoima at Simo or Pyhajoki in northern Finland. These will add 2650 to 3400 MWe to the country's total, depending on reactor types selected. Fennovoima is a wide consortium led by E.On, and including major industrial companies and regional energy companies. Parliament also voted to increase the capacity of Posiva's high-level waste repository at Eurajoki near Olkiluoto.
WNN 1/7/10. Nuclear Power in Finland
US authority disallows political veto of waste disposal site
As part of his political pitch in Nevada before the presidential elections, Mr Obama promised to abort the Yucca Mountain waste repository project. Accordingly, the Administration's Department of Energy (DoE) has sought to terminate the project since, slashing its budget and trying to withdraw its 8600-page licence application. However, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's Atomic Safety and Licensing Board (ASLB) has now ruled that the DoE had no right to substitute its own ideas in place of those legislated by Congress. The DoE and the NRC are bound by law to complete their work at Yucca Mountain unless Congress acts to supercede the previous (1982) legislation. The DoE move to withdraw the application was rejected by the ASLB. "Unless Congress directs otherwise, the DoE may not single-handedly derail the legislated decision-making process by withdrawing the application. The DoE's motion must therefore be denied." The ALSB noted that the 1982 Nuclear Waste Policy Act had deliberately put ultimate siting authority with Congress and not with the President or the DoE. Furthermore: "When Congress selected the Yucca Mountain site over Nevada's objection in 2002, it reinforced the expectation in the 1982 act that the project would be removed from the political process and that the NRC would complete an evaluation of [its] technical merits."
WNN 30/6/10. US Nuclear Power Policy
India and Canada resume nuclear cooperation
Some 36 years after it was broken off, Canada has signed an agreement to resume full nuclear power cooperation with India. Canada had placed sanctions following India's nuclear weapon test in 1974, the plutonium for which had been made in a Canadian-supplied heavy water reactor. Any new dealings will be under full international safeguards. The agreement makes Canada the ninth civil nuclear energy partner for India following removal of trade restrictions last year. It covers uranium supply, design, construction and maintenance of power plants, sharing of reactor operating and decommissioning experience, projects in third countries, and nuclear waste management.
India's weapons material initially came from the Canadian-designed 40 MWt CIRUS "research" reactor which started up in 1960 (well before the NPT), using local uranium. CIRUS was supplied with heavy water from the USA and it was probably only after the 1962 war with China that it was employed largely to make weapons-grade plutonium, in contravention of the 1956 India-Canada nuclear cooperation agreement. Development of nuclear weapons apparently began in earnest in 1967. The Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) was formed in response to the 1974 test, and closure of CIRUS at the end of this year was a condition of NSG's 2008 change of policy on India.
WNN 28/6/10. Nuclear Power in India
Papers updated on the WNA Information Service (see WNA web site): Cooling NPPs, Uranium enrichment,
