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One person was killed and more than 100 were hospitalized Friday in an explosion at the world's largest uranium enrichment plant in central Russia's Ural mountains.The incident in a workshop at the Ural Electrochemical Combine in Novouralsk happened after a cylinder with depleted uranium hexafluoride was "depressurized" at about 9 a.m. local time, according to Rosatom, Russia's state nuclear corporation, which owns the plant. Local news outlet E1 referred to the incident as an explosion..... Vyacheslav Tyumentsev, head of the Novouralsk Urban District, told residents not to panic."I appeal to the residents of Novouralsk with a request not to panic,...

LONDON, Oct 18 (Reuters) - Dutch and British wholesale gas fell on Tuesday as low demand due to warmer-than-usual weather and ample supply due to the steady arrival of liquefied natural gas (LNG) tankers put pressure on prices.The benchmark front-month Dutch contract dropped for the fifth consecutive trading day and was down 13.50 euros at 116.50 euros per megawatt hour (MWh) by 0858 GMT, the lowest level since mid-June.The British day-ahead contract fell by 23.00 pence to 35.00 pence per therm"Weak demand and comfortable supply continue to exert strong downward pressure. New weather forecasts pointing to warmer temperatures provide additional...

Moscow said Wednesday it should be part of the probe into leaks on the Nord Stream gas pipelines, after Sweden blocked off the area around the pipelines pending an investigation."There should really be an investigation. Naturally, with the participation of Russia," Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Vershinin said, as quoted by Russian news agencies..... Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said such a probe "required the cooperation of several countries."He denounced an "acute shortage of communications and unwillingness of many countries to contact" Russia.....

Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu has been side-lined by President Putin according to the British Ministry of Defence, as reported on Monday, August 29..... “Recent independent Russian media reports have claimed that due to the problems Russia is facing in its war against Ukraine, Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shogun is now being side-lined within the Russian leadership, with operational commanders briefing President Putin directly on the course of the war.”...

Wyoming’s senior U.S. Senator last week introduced legislation to keep China out of American oil reserves, days after the U.S. agreed to sell nearly one million barrels of stockpiled oil to China. Sen. John Barrasso is the lead sponsor on a bill requiring the U.S. Secretary of Energy not to sell oil to America’s geopolitical foes, or to state-owned groups working with those countries. “The (Energy) Department’s sale of crude oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) to a company owned by China… is inexcusable,” Barrasso wrote in a July 21 letter to Jennifer Granholm, U.S. Energy Secretary.The department on...

WARSAW, April 26 (Reuters) - Russian energy giant Gazprom (GAZP.MM) told Poland's PGNiG (PGN.WA) it will halt gas supplies along the Yamal pipeline from Wednesday morning, PGNiG said in a statement, although the Polish government said it had sufficient reserves........Poland's contract with Gazprom is for 10.2 billion cubic meters per year, and covers about 50% of national consumption.......Poland can replace the 10 BCM of gas by early next year, see below

An ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin has been found dead alongside members of his family in his multi-million dollar apartment in Moscow.... Avayev was previously employed at Gazprombank, which is a key part of Putin's gas-for-roubles scheme to hit back at Western sanctions.....

COVID-19: It’s all we talk about, on the cable news, and in our 6-foot socially-distanced prison walks around our silent neighborhoods. And in nearly every conversation comes the intellectual shrug, “who could have seen this coming?” A single phrase that neatly absolves governments and experts alike of any responsibility of predicting the pandemic and, if not being able to stop it, at least cushioning its blow........ But is it unfair to engage in so much 20-20 hindsight? After all, who could see COVID coming? Well, we did. We — as in nodes within the U.S. Government tasked with tracking critical...

SAN JUAN – The Puerto Rico Comptroller’s Office Thursday said it found evidence of irregularities in the electric power company’s fuel purchasing and payments for professional service. The report establishes that in eight contracts and an amendment for the purchase of $4.6 billion worth of fuel between 2008 and 2012, the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority (Prepa) did not include in the contracts a clause to charge interest for delays. Despite the absence of this clause in the contracts, the utility disbursed $3.3 million to the suppliers.......The audit of three findings indicates that $2.3 billion in payments were made to...

At the request of two domestic uranium producers, the US Department of Commerce (DOC) has launched an investigation into whether “the present quantity and circumstances” of uranium imports threatens national security. However, the US nuclear energy industry has warned that a suggested quota on imports would have a significant financial impact on the country’s reactor operators........ In their petition, Ur-Energy and Energy Fuels noted that US uranium production met just 5% of domestic reactor requirements last year. This year, domestic producers are projected to fulfil about 2% of US reactor demand...... “In 2016, the combined uranium imports from three geopolitically...

The Atomic Energy Organisation of Iran and Nuclear Power Production and Development Company of Iran have signed an additional agreement to the current commercial contract for nuclear fuel supply to the Bushehr I nuclear power plant. According to the new document, Russian nuclear fuel manufacturer JSC TVEL will replace the UTVS fuel assemblies it has supplied to the VVER-1000 reactor with its more advanced TVS-2M fuel design..... TVEL is the sole supplier of nuclear fuel to Russian nuclear power plants and also supplies 75 reactors in 14 countries, research reactors in eight countries, as well as transport reactors of the...

China has a message to President Donald Trump if he imposes heavy tariffs on steel and aluminum imports: The Asian nation will retaliate. On Friday, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross recommended that Trump impose trade measures against foreign suppliers of the metals because of national security. Trump plans to make a decision by April on the recommendation, which includes a 53 percent tariff on steel from 12 countries, including China....... "If the United States' final decision affects China's interests, we will take necessary measures to defend our rights," said Wang Hejun, a senior official at China's Commerce Ministry, according to a...

China and Pakistan will look at extending their $57 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor to Afghanistan, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said on Tuesday, part of China’s ambitious Belt and Road plan linking China with Asia, Europe and beyond....... Speaking after the first trilateral meeting between the foreign ministers of China, Pakistan and Afghanistan, Wang said China hoped the economic corridor could benefit the whole region and act as an impetus for development..... Wang said China fully supported peace talks between the Afghan government and Taliban and would continue to provide “necessary facilitation”. The Belt and Road infrastructure drive aims to...

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, following President Donald J. Trump's executive order to break America's dependence on foreign minerals, U.S. Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke signed a secretarial order directing the initial steps to producing the first nationwide geological and topographical survey of the United States in modern history. The order also directs Interior bureaus to begin work on identifying immediate domestic sources for critical minerals. "Right now the United States is almost completely reliant on foreign adversaries and competitors for many of the minerals that are deemed critical for our national and economic security. As both a former military...

Under pressure from pro-Russian activists, the City Council of Donetsk on Saturday unanimously declared itself to be the sole legitimate authority in the city, according to the ZN.UA Web site. "Until it becomes clear whether the laws passed by the Verkhovna Rada [parliament] are legitimate and the new bodies of state authority are recognized, the entire responsibility for the economic support of the territories shall be vested in bodies of local government," the council said in a resolution. The council also decided to set up a municipal police force "to ensure the peaceful existence of people on the territory of...

"At some point a line has to be drawn," the source said.... Earlier on Wednesday, U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar told a Senate hearing he would ask BP to repay the salaries of any workers laid off because of the six-month moratorium on deepwater exploratory drilling imposed by the U.S. government after the spill....

LONDON (MarketWatch) -- BP PLC's regular advisor Goldman Sachs is rumored to be preparing to fend off any potential takeover attempts for the U.K. oil major, reports the Independent on Sunday.......

The news hit the wires (NYT, Above the Law) on Thursday that BP has called upon WilmerHale’s Jamie Gorelick to help lead the company through the thicket of congressional and regulatory hearings......... But, while important, Gorelick is hardly the main player on the stage here. For BP, a whole army of lawyers from Kirkland & Ellis is working on the matter, including several high-priced partners, like Richard Godfrey, Andrew Langan, John Hickey Jr., and Mark Filip. Kirkland lawyers are, among other things, coordinating the company’s interaction with the Justice Department and its civil litigation strategy......

An advance party of 150 British infantrymen have flown into Kosovo to bolster NATO-led peacekeepers, amid accusations that recent violence has been deliberately orchestrated by ethnic Albanians in the Serbian province. The official death toll stands at 31 in the worst bloodshed since the United Nations took political control of Kosovo in July 1999. A UK Defence Ministry spokesman says another 600 soldiers would arrive over the next three days in answer to NATO's appeal for reinforcements. France says 400 of its troops are headed to the provincial capital, Pristina. Germany says it has sent 600 extra troops from an...

In a Monday statement to the Board of the UN's nuclear watchdog agency, its chief, Dr Mohamed ElBaradei announced that Iran has nearly completed a uranium enrichment site near the city of Natanz, but did not respond to US allegations that the site will give the Islamic Republic the capability to produce nuclear weapons. On the same day, Iran's government controlled newspaper, the Teheran Times, suggested in an editorial that Iran close its doors to further visits from the UN's International Atomic Energy Agency, or IAEA, until newly imposed US sanctions against the country are lifted, signalling the first official...