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Court Rules That NRC Can No Longer Accept Assurances a Permanent Waste Repository Is Coming The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission said it would stop issuing licenses for nuclear plants until it addresses problems with its nuclear-waste policy that were raised by a recent federal appeals court decision

Japan's Other Nuclear Disaster Yas Idei, 04.06.11, 06:00 PM EDT Forbes Magazine dated April 25, 2011 At the nuke dump in Rokkasho, a nation's hunger for power has spawned a financial catastrophe. In many ways the 11,000 villagers in Rokkasho, on the northeastern tip of Japan's main island, are blessed. While other towns in the remote region are run-down and financially strapped, Rokkasho boasts gleaming public buildings, immaculate recreation facilities and free picture-phones in every home. Rare in a land of massive public debt, its government has a $100 million surplus. At $170,000 per capita income is triple Tokyo's. The...

One can measure the dedication of the climate-change crowd in how they approach the zero-emissions technology of nuclear power. Some have realized that the only practical way to replace coal as a source for electricity is to invest heavily in nuclear power. Others, such as Harry Reid and his allies in the Senate, have done their best to shut the door on that path away from coal, which calls into question their motives in forcing cap-and-trade schemes onto the US. Investors Business Daily rips Reid and the administration for blocking the use of Yucca Mountain for safe fuel reprocessing, which...

The push for conversion to plug-in electric cars will do nothing to stop carbon emissions, a report by the GAO warns, throwing cold water on a push by Democrats to get more plug-ins on the road. In fact, the problem could be made worse as demand goes up at coal-fired electrical plants. Plus, the need for batteries may just have the US changing the dictators to which we’re chained, as IBD reports...

Alternative Energy: A government report says reliance on electric cars will do little to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and may merely shift our dependence on foreign sources from one set of dictators to another.It's a beautiful theory — highways full of electric cars emitting no greenhouse gases or pollutants after being plugged into an outlet in our garages overnight. The problem, according to a new Government Accountability Office report, is that the effort may only shift the problem somewhere else. "If you are using coal-fired power plants, and half the country's electricity comes from coal-powered plants, are you just trading...

Alternative Energy: A government report says reliance on electric cars will do little to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and may merely shift our dependence on foreign sources from one set of dictators to another..."If you are using coal-fired power plants, and half the country's electricity comes from coal-powered plants, are you just trading one greenhouse gas emitter for another?" asks Mark Gaffigan, co-author of the GAO report. The report itself notes: "Reductions in CO2 emissions depend on generating electricity used to charge the vehicles from lower-emission sources of energy."

U.S. policy on North seen in flux April 20, 2005 - WASHINGTON - Speaking to an American newspaper, North Korea's top diplomat in New York said the country has shut down its nuclear reactor and plans to increase its nuclear deterrent. At the same time, the United States warned that it may soon change its policy and clamp down on the North economically and militarily. According to a report in USA Today, Han Song-ryol, North Korean deputy ambassador to the United Nations, said Monday that his government has shut down its reactor at the Yongbyon nuclear complex and plans to...

North Korea ready to reprocess spent nuclear fuel into plutonium Sun Apr 17, 3:06 AM ET  Asia - AFP TOKYO (AFP) - North Korea has halted operations at a nuclear power reactor at the center of an international row, a move that could let Pyongyang reprocess spent fuel to retract plutonium and boost its nuclear arsenal, a press report said. North Korean workers re-paint a propaganda tower near the truce village of Panmunjom. (AFP/File/Jung Yeon-Je) The United States will shortly send Christopher Hill, the assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs, to South Korea, Japan and China...

Europeans are ecstatic that Bush is backing their Iran strategy. But in the end, it is the American approach to Iranian uranium enrichment that received the biggest boost. Negotiations are bound to fail, which would pave the way for UN sanctions -- and for a re-definition of the Nonproliferation Treaty.Where is all the optimism coming from? Last week, it finally became clear that United States President George Bush's newfound friendly tone and diplomatic charm, exhibited late last month during his visit to Europe, may actually be more than just show. In order to create a strong alliance with Europe, he...

AP News Alert SEOUL, South Korea (AP) -- North Korea says it has processed all of its 8,000 spent nuclear fuel rods and is using plutonium to make bombs. Copyright 2003 Associated Press. All rights reserved. MORE

Shutdown of Nuclear Complex Deepens North Korean Mystery By DOUGLAS JEHL WASHINGTON, Sept. 12 — American intelligence agencies are puzzling over evidence that North Korea has halted operations at its nuclear complex in Yongbyon, according to senior United States officials. The Yongbyon site is the only one in North Korea known to produce plutonium that can be used in nuclear weapons. The American officials said there was a debate among intelligence officials about whether the shutdown, which some described as fairly recent, reflects a technical problem, a goodwill gesture by the North, or a shift to another site. The uncertainty...

I have it from Japanese news sources this morning [7/15] (In Japanese from Yomiuri News at the designated URL link here, tomorrow, Asia Time) that the Hankyoreh News' (S. Korea) reporters reached the UN Mission of North Korea in New York City and interviewed one of the leading DPRK representative there, Mr. Han.[The article is in Japanese.] The headline is "Nuclear Weapons Are A Necessity For Us To Prevent An American Attack Upon Our Country".The nuclear blackmail threat was revealed by the North Korean UN representative today in the following context (my "Freepranslation" from the original Japanese language article...

US WARNED OF "IMMINENT" NUCLEAR PERIL July 16 2003 By Shane Green (Tokyo) & Louise Dodson (Canberra) Former United States Defence Secretary William Perry has warned that the US and North Korea are drifting towards war, with an "imminent danger" of nuclear explosions in American cities. His chilling assessment of the communist state's nuclear program came as an increasingly worried China intervened, revealing a push for talks and sending a special envoy to meet North Korean leader Kim Jong-il. Mr Perry, in an interview with the Washington Post, warned that time was running out in the nuclear crisis. "I think...

July 15, 2003 North Korea Says It Has Made Fuel for Atom Bombs By DAVID E. SANGER WASHINGTON, July 14 ?North Korean officials told the Bush administration last week that they had finished producing enough plutonium to make a half-dozen nuclear bombs, and that they intended to move ahead quickly to turn the material into weapons, senior American officials said today. The new declaration set off a scramble in American intelligence agencies ? under fire for their assessment of Iraq's nuclear capability ?to determine if the North Korean government of Kim Jong Il was bluffing or had succeeded in producing...

N. Korea informed U.S. that it finished reprocessing spent fuel rods. N. Korea told U.S. on July 8, 2003, that it finished reprocessing 8,000 spent fuel rods at Yong-byun nuclear facilities in N. Korea, according to the former (S. Korean) legislator Chang Sung-min(MDP) who was told about this from a high-level source in Washington, D.C. on July 12, 2003. He was told that, on July 8, in New York, N. Korea had unofficial working-level meeting with America. At this meeting, N. Korea informed America that the reprocessing of 8,000 spent fuel rods was complete on June 30, 2003, and that...

Report: N. Korea takes nuclear step U.S. intelligence: Evidence suggests Pyongyang is reprocessing spent nuclear fuel rods July 11 — Air samples collected near North Korea's Yongbyon nuclear facility contain the first physical evidence that North Korea has begun reprocessing spent nuclear fuel rods. NBC’s Jim Miklaszewski reports. July 11 — North Korea has begun to reprocess spent nuclear fuel rods — a critical step to produce more nuclear weapons — an intelligence report delivered to the White House on Thursday suggests, NBC News has learned. U.S. GOVERNMENT officials tell NBC News that air samples collected from the vicinity of...