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Uranium mining is touted as both a godsend and a one-way to ticket to hell on Earth. Which is it? Say this much for the Coles Hill uranium deposit in Pittsylvania, Virginia: It is already generating a lot of heat. At a public meeting in Chatham a few days ago, one protester promised to do “whatever it takes” to prevent Virginia from lifting its moratorium on uranium mining, “all the way to civil disobedience.” Another said allowing the uranium to be mined would amount to “selective regional human sacrifice.” If uranium mining is safe, then such histrionics look little different...

It's hard to overestimate the degree of naivet� on the part of the West as it heads toward another round of nuclear talks with Iran in Baghdad today. Clearly, Iran is stalling for time to develop a nuclear weapon. One example: In talks last month in Istanbul, Tehran seems to have convinced international negotiators of the sincerity and weight of a fatwa, or religious edict, by the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei that a nuclear bomb is haram — forbidden — in Islam. Last week, for instance, former French Prime Minister Michel Rocard said the fatwa will help promote confidence...

-- Kodak -- the company known for decades for its cameras and film -- this week confirmed it used weapons-grade uranium in an underground lab in upstate New York for upwards of 30 years. A company spokesman and a former scientist for the firm say there was not enough material to sustain a nuclear chain reaction. Former Kodak researcher Albert Filo said the uranium was alloyed with aluminum in plates sealed in sleeves that were not moved for three decades. The amount of fuel was about 3½ pounds, which experts say is less than one-tenth of the amount necessary to...

Unit 2 we now know completely liquified. We’ve never seen this before in the history of nuclear power. A 100% liquification of a uranium core.

Coloradans are subjected to, on average, four times more naturally occurring radiation than the average American. It is the price of living in a mountainous and geologically rich region, but the full impact of that background radiation on residents’ health is poorly understood. Aside from an increased risk of skin cancer because of higher elevations and a heightened but avoidable lung-cancer risk from radon seeping from uranium-rich soils, it appears the higher-than-average background radiation levels in Colorado, and Mesa County in particular, are still lower than what would be deemed hazardous. Some experts even believe the low levels may have...

"In our 2012 annual report, we identified a total of 51 areas, including 32 areas of potential duplication, overlap, or fragmentation, as well as 19 opportunities for agencies or Congress to consider taking action that could either reduce the cost of government operations or enhance revenue collections for the Treasury. These areas involve a wide range of government missions including agriculture, defense, economic development, education, energy, general government, health, homeland security, international affairs, science and the environment, and social services. Within and across these missions, the 2012 annual report touches on virtually all major federal departments and agencies. We...

The geopolitical foreplay is getting ridiculous. At this point it is quite obvious that virtually everyone involved in the US-Israel-Iran hate triangle is just itching for someone else to pull the trigger. And the latest report out of the IAEA will only precipitate this. Who - remember the IAEA? The same IAEA which did not find nukes in Iraq in 2003 only to be overriden by Dick "WMD" Cheney to "justify" an invasion. As RIA reports:  "The International Atomic Energy Agency officially confirmed that Iran has started enriching uranium to the 20-percent level, which can easily be turned into...

WASHINGTON, DC, January 9, 2012 (ENS) - There will be no new uranium mines on more than one million acres of federal land surrounding the Grand Canyon for the next 20 years, Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar announced today. Secretary Salazar signed a Record of Decision today during a ceremony held at the National Geographic Museum in Washington, DC, extending the current moratorium on new uranium mining claims. The decision hands a victory to environmental groups and tribes who have fought for years to keep uranium mining out of the area. The affected lands are situated in three areas,...

The Obama administration announced a federal ban Monday on new mining claims affecting a million acres near the Grand Canyon, an area known to be rich in high-grade uranium ore reserves. In doing so, the administration brushed off pressure from congressional Republicans and mining industry figures who wanted a policy change. At an early afternoon event, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar announced a 20-year ban on new mining claims on public land surrounding the Grand Canyon. On two previous occasions the secretary had imposed temporary bans on new mining claims. On Monday, he said that while uranium remains an important part...

MONTREAL - Weapons-grade uranium is quietly being transported within Canada, and into the United States, in shipments the country's nuclear watchdog wants to keep cloaked in secrecy. A confidential federal memo obtained through the Access to Information Act says at least one payload of spent, U.S.-origin highly enriched uranium fuel has already been moved stateside under a new Canada-U.S. deal. The shipments stem from the highly publicized agreement signed last year by Prime Minister Stephen Harper and U.S. President Barack Obama, amid fears that nuclear-bomb-making material could fall into the hands of terrorists. The Canadian stash gradually being shipped from...

Gov't admits nuclear substances found in waste, unreported to IAEA TOKYO (Kyodo) -- The Japanese government admitted Thursday that nuclear substances have been found in the waste of domestic facilities subject to International Atomic Energy Agency inspection, but left unreported to the U.N. nuclear watchdog. Top government spokesman Osamu Fujimura said in a news conference that the matter will be reported to the IAEA soon, but did not say how much nuclear material was involved. The chief Cabinet secretary said an investigation last year of records led to the discovery of nuclear substances that were unaccounted for in waste at...

Jeb Handwerger of www.GoldStockTrades.com joins us for a wide ranging interview covering Rare Earth Metals, Uranium and the intractable US Budget Deficit. Jeb has been following mining stocks for many years and is an authority on Rare Earths, Uranium and other mining sectors. He explains why it's crunch time for the Western World to break China's monopoly on these metals which are vital to modern life as we know it. Rare Earths go into just about every electronic item that we require in our daily lives, from cellphones, to computers, to windmills and automobilies. His view of Uranium is quite...

Kazakhstan’s international energy image is now that of one of the world’s rising oil exporters, an extraordinary feat given that, two decades ago its hydrocarbon output was beyond insignificant when the USSR collapsed. The vast Central Asian nation, larger than Western Europe, has now quietly passed another energy milestone. Kazakhstan produces 33 percent of world’s mined uranium, followed by Canada at 18 percent and Australia, with 11 percent of global output. Kazakhstan contains the world's second-largest uranium reserves, estimated at 1.5 million tons. Until two years ago Kazakhstan was the world's No. 3 uranium miner, following Australia and Canada. Together...

Iran has started moving the machines that enrich uranium for nuclear fuel from its main atomic complex in the central city of Natanz to an underground bunker near the holy city of Qom, its top nuclear official was quoted as saying on Monday. "Transferring Natanz centrifuges to Fordow (near Qom) is under way with full observance of standards," Fereydoun Abbasi-Davani told state broadcaster IRIB, adding "Fordow's facilities are being prepared and some centrifuges have been transferred."

N.Korea 'Has New Uranium Enrichment Facility' North Korea built a new underground uranium enrichment facility in Tongchang, North Pyongan Province in 2006, separately from the existing one at Yongbyon in the same province, Liberty Forward Party lawmaker Park Sun-young claimed Wednesday. Park said she had the information from a North Korean Army lieutenant colonel she only identified as Lee (52), who she claimed supervised security when the regime built the new facility. "Construction began in 2001 and was completed in 2006," Park said. "After a test run in 2007, it began extracting enriched uranium in 2009." "The Yongbyon facility is...

The United Nations nuclear watchdog released a report Saturday stating that Iran is pursuing the development of nuclear weapons, adding that the Islamic Republic has upgraded its nuclear facilities in order to defend them from possible cyber attacks. According to the report by the International Atomic Energy Agency, Iran has installed new and improved 2IR as well as 4IR centrifuges, which according to experts, will be immune to cyber attacks that were able to breach the older centrifuges. The centrifuges have allegedly been installed, the report states, in a fortified underground facility for uranium enrichment near the city of Qom.

An Iranian nuclear scientist has been shot dead outside his home in Tehran, Iranian media sources say. The Isna news agency named him as Daryoush Rezaei, 35, adding that his wife was wounded. His identity has not been officially confirmed. In 2010, nuclear scientist Massoud Ali Mohammadi was killed by a remote-controlled bomb in Tehran. Iran blamed that attack on Israeli secret service Mossad. Israel has long warned about Iran's nuclear programme. Some reports said the latest attack involved assailants on a motorcycle, but this has not been confirmed. Isna said that Mr Rezaei was an expert with links to...

India's southern state of Andhra Pradesh may have one of the largest reserves of uranium in the world, the country's chief nuclear officer says. Studies show Tummalapalle in Kadapa district has a reserve of 150,000 tonnes of the mineral, Atomic Energy Commission chief S Banerjee said. India has estimated reserves of about 175,000 tonnes of uranium. Analysts say the new reserves would still not be sufficient to meet India's growing nuclear energy needs. Mr Banerjee said that studies at Tummalapalle have shown that the area "had a confirmed reserve of 49,000 tonnes and recent surveys indicate that this figure could...

Updated : Jun 27, 2011 N. Korea's HEU Stocks May Exceed its Plutonium Stockpile in 3 Years A nuclear expert in the United States projects North Korea will obtain over 40 kilograms of high enriched uranium in three years. Olli Heinonen, former Deputy Director of the International Atomic Energy Agency posted on 38 North, a website devoted to North Korean issues that Pyongyang would be capable of producing 1.8 tons of low enriched uranium if all 2-thousand centrifuge machines at its enrichment facility in Yongbyon were operated at full capacity. He said an additional 8-hundred centrifuges would be able to...

HOBBS, N.M., April 18, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Former Senator Pete V. Domenici will be the key note speaker at the Uranium Fuel Cycle Conference, April 27 in Hobbs, N.M. The N.M. Center for Energy Policy, which is a division of New Mexico Tech, in partnership with the Economic Development Corporation of Lea County and New Mexico Junior College, is organizing the conference to bring together leaders in nuclear-related mining, energy and waste management. Domenici has long been considered one of the most consistent and forceful national advocates of the nuclear industry.