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Talk of a large-scale U.S. nuclear renaissance in the post-Three Mile Island era has long been stalled by the high cost of new nuclear power plants, the challenges of safeguarding weapons-grade nuclear material, and the radioactive lifespan of much nuclear waste, which can extend far beyond 10,000 years. But a growing contingent of scientists believe an alternative nuclear reactor fuel—the radioactive metal called thorium—could help address these problems, paving the way for cheaper, safer nuclear power generation. Three to four times more plentiful than uranium, today's most common nuclear fuel, thorium packs a serious energetic punch: A single ton of...

Ticaboo • Syd Auster’s father flew fighter jets to protect American soil, including this dusty company town off a two-lane road to Lake Powell. But soon the same mineral-rich landscape that Auster’s dad safeguarded decades ago will be largely owned by the country he once guarded against. By year’s end, the Russian mining company Atomredmetzoloto (ARMZ) will have a controlling stake in the Canadian company Uranium One. When that happens, the town itself, the Shootaring Canyon uranium mill a few miles up the highway, more than 10,000 acres of uranium claims in Utah and holdings in South Dakota, Wyoming and...

Wyoming’s Washington delegation is concerned about the proposed transfer of three Powder River Basin uranium facilities into the hands of a Russian company. The Powder River Basin uranium facilities have been pulled into the Iran nuclear debate on Capitol Hill with a deal that would transfer the controlling interest of Canadian-owned Uranium One to the Russian company JSC Atomredmetzoloto. The company now owns 23.1 percent of Uranium One’s common stock and is seeking a controlling 51 percent share. Commonly known as ARMZ, the company is controlled by Russia’s state agency that oversees its nuclear industry. The agency has supplied uranium...

Four leading House Republicans, citing national security concerns, are urging Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner to block the sale of a Wyoming-based uranium mine to an arm of the Russian government's main nuclear agency. The lawmakers are raising alarm over the proposed sale of a Powder River Basin, Wyoming-based uranium processing facility operated by Uranium One USA, a Canadian-based company, to Atomredmetzoloto, a subsidiary of the Russian government agency Rosatom, according to a letter obtained Tuesday by The Washington Times. The sale was first announced on Aug. 31, and the lawmakers claim that it could give Moscow control of up...

Iran has accelerated its nuclear program and currently possesses a sufficient supply of enriched uranium to make three nuclear devices, assuming it speeds up enrichment to 90 percent, according to a new report by the International Atomic Energy Agency. The report was presented ahead of a discussion by the IAEA board of governors, as well as the organization's General Assembly, which will meet in Vienna this month. According to the findings, Iran currently has 22 kilograms of uranium enriched at levels of 20 percent, and a total of 2.8 tons of uranium enriched at 3.5 percent. The material is being...

Iran's secret pipeline into the U.S. J.J. Green, wtop.com WASHINGTON - Iran Air 744 is a bimonthly flight that originates in Tehran and flies directly to Caracas with periodic stops in Beirut and Damascus. The maiden flight was Feb. 2, 2007. The mere existence of the flight was a significant concern for U.S. intelligence officials, but now a broader concern is who and what are aboard the flights. "If you [a member of the public] tried to book yourself a seat on this flight and it doesn't matter whether it's a week before, a month before, six months before --...

Russia will move uranium into Iran reactor in startup stepDespite a U.S. request to delay next week's action, Moscow is proceeding, but with one caveat: Spent fuel must be returned. By Andrew E. Kramer The New York Times Updated: 08/14/2010 01:11:57 AM MDT MOSCOW — In a move sure to disappoint U.S. diplomats trying to halt Iran's nuclear program, the Russian state nuclear-power company said Friday that it would take a crucial step next week toward starting Iran's first nuclear-power plant. The company, Rosatom, said technicians would move tons of low-enriched uranium fuel from a storage site into the reactor...

Is Kim Jong-il building a new type of weapon? On Monday Seoul announced that the Korea Institute of Nuclear Safety had detected unusually high levels of xenon gas near the North Korea border on May 14. The concentration of xenon was eight times higher than normal, and the presence of the gas is indicative of nuclear activities. Because the wind was blowing south at the time, the source of the gas could not have been one of South Korea's nuclear plants. The xenon might have originated in China or Russia, but the most likely place was the land of unexplained...

Uranium is a very unusual sector. For one, it's small. So small, that at one point in history top-producing nations like Canada and France tried to form a uranium cartel to control prices for the metal. The "uranium OPEC" failed. But production today is de facto controlled by a handful of companies. Consider this. The world's top ten uranium mines account for 59% of global production. (The top mine, Saskatchewan's McArthur River, alone puts out 15% of the world's supply.) This is very concentrated, compared to other sectors. In the copper sector, the top ten mines turn out just 30%...

Iran has been able to smuggle advanced technological equipment to its uranium enrichment plant in Natanz via a complex smuggling route based in Dubai, the Sunday Telegraph reported on Sunday. According to the report, an Iranian company has purchased control systems from one of Germany's leading electronic manufacturers. The deal was negotiated with a Dubai trading company, which in turn sold Iran a range of electronic equipment for use at its enrichment facility, the British website reported. The report comes amid growing concerns that though Iran claims its nuclear program has only peaceful aims, Tehran is in fact working toward...

Craving reliable energy that doesn't come with a big side order of carbon, the United States is taking a new look at nuclear power. some engineers also are urging a new look at an alternative to the uranium fuel those plants will inevitably use. Thorium, they say, provides all the carbon-free energy of uranium - about 300 times more, actually - with almost none of the guilt. Thorium plants cooled with molten fluoride salt would leave a fraction of the nuclear waste compared to the uranium-fueled, water-cooled plants in use today. In addition, thorium plants can't melt down and don't...

VIENNA SNIPPET: "VIENNA (AP) — Iran has amassed more than two tons of enriched uranium, the U.N. atomic agency said Monday in a report that heightened Western concerns about the country developing the ability to produce a nuclear weapon. Two tons of uranium would be enough for two nuclear warheads, although Iran says it does not want weapons and is only pursuing civilian nuclear energy."

It could be possible to get uranium from seawater in the future, claim US scientists who have devised a new way to extract uranyl ions from aqueous solutions. With the rapid depletion of fossil fuels, the search for alternative power sources is becoming increasingly important. One alternative is nuclear fission, making uranium - the fuel used in nuclear reactors - an important target for isolation. Although uranium is currently extracted from solid ores such as uraninite, it also exists in large quantities as uranyl ions (UO22+) in seawater. However, due to its distinctive shape that prevents the use of conventional...

It is perfectly obvious that Iran's latest uranium maneuver, brokered by Brazil and Turkey, is a ruse. Iran retains more than enough enriched uranium to make a bomb. And it continues enriching at an accelerated pace and to a greater purity (20 percent). Which is why the French foreign ministry immediately declared that the trumpeted temporary shipping of some Iranian uranium to Turkey will do nothing to halt Iran's nuclear program. It will, however, make meaningful sanctions more difficult. America's proposed Security Council resolution is already laughably weak -- no blacklisting of Iran's central bank, no sanctions against Iran's oil...

Did North Carolina potteries use uranium oxide glazes in the pre-WWII art pottery era? For a long time many students of North Carolina art pottery have held that they did, but this author has been unable to find any verifiable example of such a glaze. There are many examples of chromium oxide red-orange glazes, of course, and the colors of these glazes can be very similar. However, chromium oxide is not radioactive -- uranium oxide is, even in a glaze -- and chromium oxide does not glow under ultraviolet light, while uranium oxide glazes often do fluoresce in the presence...

SNIPPET: "President Chávez also announced during the visit that Venezuela is working on a preliminary plan for the construction of a “nuclear village” in Venezuela with Iranian assistance so that “the Venezuelan people can count in the future on this marvelous resource for peaceful purposes.” The transfer of Iranian nuclear technology from Iran would be a violation of U.N. Security Council Resolutions - 1737 (2006), 1747 ( 2007), and 1803 (2008) - that imposed restrictions on Iran’s nuclear technology transfers. In late September 2009, comments by Venezuelan officials offered conflicting information about Iran’s support for Venezuela’s search for uranium deposits....

<p>KAMPALA, Uganda— Iran's president is in Africa this week to build alliances to evade stronger U.N. sanctions for his country's nuclear program, ease its international isolation and strengthen its economy.</p> <p>Both Zimbabwe and Uganda, the two countries President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is visiting, have something to offer.</p>

Ukrainian President, Viktor Yanukovych, promised his US counterpart, Barack Obama, to renounce the nation’s stockpile of highly enriched uranium (HEU) during their meeting on the fringes of the nuclear security summit in Washington on April 12. In return, Washington offered financial and technical assistance, in particular $250 million to enhance security at the decommissioned Chernobyl nuclear plant. The agreement was touted as a great success by the government. However, the nationalist opposition lambasted the uranium deal as a betrayal of national interests. U.S. President Barack Obama with his Ukrainian counterpart Viktor Yanukovych at the Nuclear Summit Ukraine’s stockpile of HEU...

WASHINGTON (AP) - The White House says Ukraine is announcing it will get rid of its stockpile of highly enriched uranium, enough to build several nuclear weapons, by 2012. Robert Gibbs, spokesman for President Barack Obama, made the announcement in a briefing shortly before the U.S. leader was to open a nuclear nonproliferation conference attended by the leaders of 47 countries.

How an Iranian business with close ties to the country's nuclear program obtained restricted equipment for enriching uranium is the focus of multiple investigations being conducted by western agencies. The Wall Street Journal reported Friday night that the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and western intelligence agencies have been probing the Iranian firm's procurement of "critical valves and vacuum gauges" since Jan. 14. The IAEA launched its investigation after receiving a tip that the equipment allegedly reached the Iranian business through a Chinese company's intermediary.