Free Republic

Russia's dominance in the global nuclear fuel market presents another massive challenge for Washington, especially the liberal hawks in the Biden administration, who are trying to wean Western countries off Russian energy supplies.Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm said President Biden is redoubling efforts to break the US reliance on Russian nuclear fuel, indicating domestic uranium-enrichment capacity could be increased with upcoming key legislation. "We are going to get Congressional support in a bipartisan way for us to make our own fuel cycle supply chain independent, certainly of Russia," Granholm said in an interview at the International Atomic Energy Agency in...

Washington, D.C., February 1, 2017 – ADP is designed to contain all decommission U.S. nuclear energy sites … to accelerate decommissioning of shutdown nuclear power facilities through a complete and permanent transfer of ownership of the asset, including used nuclear fuel, from utility owners to an entity who is an expert in decommissioning and used fuel management, Sam Shakir, CEO of AREVA Nuclear Materials. //Back-snip// http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/presidential-races/239819-new-questions-about-clinton-foundation-russian-nuclear Clinton Foundation donors sold one of the largest uranium mining companies in America to a Russian nuclear agency in a deal signed off by the State Department during Hillary Clinton’s tenure as secretary of...

US President Barack Obama continues to receive heavy flak for defending the nuclear deal he initiated with Iran, and then enlisting the support of his allies in the Senate to prevent rival Republican leaders from blocking its implementation. Now, Obama will likely face more criticism after Argentine President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner revealed in a speech before the United Nations General Assembly on Monday that a former Obama administration official tried to convince Argentina to provide nuclear fuel to Iran sometime in 2010. In her remarks witnessed by world leaders, Kirchner recalled how Gary Samore, who once worked as the...

The Obama administration tried to persuade Argentina to “provide the Islamic State of Iran with nuclear fuel” back in 2010. President Christina Fernandez de Kirchner made these accusations during her speech this week to the General Assembly. Nuclear fuel is a key component in nuclear weapons. This United States mainstream media ignored this story for some odd reason?

Iranian nuclear fuel stockpiles grew by a massive 20% over the past 18 months of negotiations between Iran and world powers, a report last month by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has revealed. The report comes just one month ahead of the June 30 deadline set for the P5+1 powers and Iran to finalize a deal over Tehran's nuclear program. News that Iran has been busily expanding its stockpiles contradicts claims by US President Barack Obama that the Islamic Republic had "frozen" its nuclear program during the last year and a half of negotiations. Despite that, western leaders appear...

U.S. pressing for deal with other countries to build nuclear fuel repository in Mongolia Momentum has been quickly building behind the scenes for an ambitious and controversial project led by the United States and Japan to build a nuclear fuel repository in Mongolia as Washington is trying to secure a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with other countries concerned by the end of this year. After the Mainichi reported on the proposal in May, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), which wants to be able to buy nuclear fuel from Mongolia, joined the list of countries pursuing the project, and earlier this...

One of the lesser-noted facts of the Fukushima nuclear disaster—where loss of coolant in spent-fuel pools has resulted in massive radiation releases—is that some fuel at the plant was stored in so-called dry casks, and these casks survived the March 11 earthquake and tsunami intact. This fact is likely to result in new calls to move some spent fuel out of water pools at reactor sites in the United States—where it is packed more densely than the fuel in the stricken Japanese pools—and into outdoor dry casks, experts say. "What will likely happen very quickly is that the [Nuclear Regulatory...

SITUATION: Japan is advancing with plans to reprocess spent nuclear fuel and boost its external nuclear exports. These decisions will impact the conduct of Japan’s global non-proliferation diplomacy. ANALYSIS: Assessing the degree of salience to Tokyo of non-proliferation goals will be aided by monitoring its policy in two areas: its negotiating strategy in nuclear technology supply talks with other states, and especially India, and its management of its internal nuclear power program. Other aspects of its nuclear diplomacy, including pressure for North Korean disarmament and support for enhanced global nuclear security, are likely to remain robust. External Trade Ambitions: Tokyo...

TEHRAN, Iran -- Iran began loading fuel into the core of its first nuclear power plant on Tuesday, moving closer to the start-up of a facility that the U.S. once hoped to stop over fears of Tehran's nuclear ambitions. Iranian and Russian engineers started moving nuclear fuel into the main reactor building in August but a reported leak in a storage pool delayed injection of the fuel into the reactor. "Fuel injection into the core of the reactor has begun," the state television announced. The U.S. withdrew its opposition to the plant after Russia satisfied concerns over how it would...

North Korea may be able to produce up to 14 to 18 nuclear warheads by 2019 if the multilateral talks for its denuclearization fail, a scholar said Tuesday. "If North Korea is able to refurbish its fuel fabrication plant, that production rate could continue indefinitely with its arsenal reaching 14-18 weapons by 2019," said Joel Wit, a visiting fellow at the U.S. Korea Institute at the School of Advanced International Studies, Johns Hopkins University, in a report. Wit was discussing the North's nuclear fuel reprocessing plant at its Yongbyon nuclear facilities being reactivated after it declared a boycott of the...

Note: The following text is a quote: NEWS ARTICLE ‘No Doubt’ New Iranian Nuke Facility is ‘Illicit,’ Gates Concludes By Gerry J. Gilmore American Forces Press Service WASHINGTON, Sept. 27, 2009 – Revelations that Iran has covertly been building an underground nuclear-fuel processing plant belie the Iranian-government’s denials that it is attempting to develop nuclear weapons, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said on the Sunday TV talk show circuit today. “We’ve been watching the construction of this facility for quite some time and one of the reasons that we’ve waited to make it public was to ensure that our conclusions...

The federal government mistakenly made public a 266-page report, its pages marked “highly confidential,” that gives detailed information about hundreds of the nation’s civilian nuclear sites and programs, including maps showing the precise locations of stockpiles of fuel for nuclear weapons. The publication of the document was revealed Monday in an on-line newsletter devoted to issues of federal secrecy. That publicity set off a debate among nuclear experts about what dangers, if any, the disclosures posed. It also prompted a flurry of investigations in Washington into why the document was made public. On Tuesday evening, after inquiries from The New...

Special Dispatch - No. 2349 May 8, 2009 No. 2349 "Iranian President Ahmadinejad and Nuclear Program Chief Aghazadeh Give Details of Nuclear Plan" SNIPPET: "Following are excerpts from a TV program on Iran's National Day of Nuclear Technology, which aired on Channel 2, Iranian TV, on April 9, 2009." SNIPPET: "The third stage of the project is uranium enrichment. This huge and complex project has been fruitful in the Natanz region. By now, approximately 7,000 centrifuges have been installed, and in the course of the five-year plan, this figure will rise to 50,000. Let me use this occasion to inform...

Note: The following blog entry is a quote: Blog Details Ahmadinejad: Iran's Entered Final Phase In Nuclear Fuel Production At an inauguration ceremony yesterday for a nuclear fuel production facility in Isfahan, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad expressed his pride at Iran's entering into the final phase in the nuclear fuel production cycle. He said that despite the threats from the West, "the Iranian train is moving ahead with increasing speed, on the right track." Iranian Atomic Energy Organization director Gholam Reza Aghazadeh said that the speed of the new centrifuges was five to six times greater than that of the...

TEHRAN, Iran — Iran now controls the entire cycle for producing nuclear fuel with the opening of a new facility to produce uranium fuel pellets, the Iranian president said Saturday. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad made the speech two days after the inauguration of the facility which produces uranium oxide pellets for a planned 40-megawatt heavy-water nuclear reactor near the town of Arak, central Iran. Production of nuclear fuel pellets is the final step in the long, complicated chain of nuclear fuel cycle.

“Iran’s Fuel Manufacturing Plant At Isfahan To Be Launched This Month” SNIPPET: “The fuel manufacturing plant (FMP) at Isfahan, in central Iran, is to be inaugurated in late March, according to Iranian Atomic Energy Organization deputy head Abdallah Solatsana. Solatsana said that the stages for producing nuclear fuel assemblies are being carried out according to schedule.”

Russia and Iran are planning to sign a nuclear fuel supply contract for a term of at least 10 years, the head of Russia's nuclear power corporation said on Wednesday. Sergei Kiriyenko said earlier in the day that Russia had completed the construction of Iran's first nuclear power plant at Bushehr and would soon launch a trial run. He did not say when the plant would go into operation, commenting that this would depend on the outcome of the testing. "We're unable at this stage to set an exact date for the launch; we have an agreed-on testing and inspection...

Iran gets last batch of Russian atomic fuel - agency Jan 28, 2008 TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran received the eighth and last consignment of nuclear fuel from Russia on Monday for the Islamic Republic's first atomic power plant, the official IRNA news agency reported. Russia delivered the first shipment of uranium fuel rods on Dec. 17 and urged Tehran to scrap its own plans for producing nuclear fuel, technology the West fears Iran will use for making bombs. Tehran says its work is peaceful and has refused to stop. The IRNA report said the whole consignment of 82 tonnes had...

Iranian president says to sell nuclear fuel to west in five years www.chinaview.cn 2006-10-20 16:35:58 Special report: Iran Nuclear Crisis TEHRAN, Oct. 20 (Xinhua) -- Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Friday that his country would produce nuclear fuel in five years and sell it to the West at a "50 percent discount." "We promise to produce (nuclear fuel) in the next five years and will sell it (to the West) at a 50 percent discount," Ahmadinejad told a rally in support of the Palestinian people in Tehran. Meanwhile, he said that Israel had lost reasons for its existence and...

Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko said Friday that his country should produce its own nuclear fuel for power plants, part of the West-leaning leader's effort to reduce its reliance on Russia following a dispute over natural gas prices. "We must change our uranium policy - our policy on the use of uranium for peaceful purposes," Yushchenko said on national television. "We must cooperate with international allies on a serious political and economic level so that we can have a full cycle of processing and production of nuclear fuel."