THE WORLD'S NUCLEAR NEWS AGENCY

World Nuclear Review - week ending 14th November 2003

New 'Purely Russian' Second Unit Proposed For Iran's Bushehr Site

Russia's atomic energy ministry, Minatom, has proposed that Iran builds a 'totally new' second nuclear reactor unit at Bushehr - instead of completing the unit that was started at the site in the late 1970's.

The suggestion came as Russian president Vladimir Putin announced that there were "no obstacles" to continuing co-operation with Iran in the nuclear area.

Mr Putin, who held talks in Moscow earlier this week with the secretary of the Iran National Security Council, Hassan Rowhani, said: "Iran, as a full and equal member of the international community, has all rights to develop its nuclear programmes for peaceful purposes."

Commenting on the Moscow talks, a Minatom spokesman said: "The new unit will be purely Russian - a VVER-1000 reactor - and its cost will be considerably less than the cost of the first unit."

The ministry's specialists have advised that building "anew" would be better than continuing the construction works on unit two, which were started by Siemens in 1975, but abandoned four years later following the Iranian revolution.

Mr Rowhani said his country intended to start negotiations about Russian assistance in constructing a second Bushehr unit "in the near future".

Earlier this week, in a related development, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said director-general Mohamed ElBaradei had received a letter from Iran's representative to the Agency, Ali Akbar Salehi, "conveying his government's acceptance of the Additional Protocol".

Mr Salehi also said that Iran had decided, as of 10th November, to suspend all uranium enrichment-related and reprocessing activities in Iran. Dr ElBaradei described the development as "welcome and positive". The IAEA now intends to "verify, in the context of the Safeguards Agreement and the Additional Protocol, the implementation by Iran of these decisions".

Meanwhile, Dr ElBaradei has sent his report to IAEA member states on the implementation of Non-Proliferation Treaty safeguards in Iran. The report will be considered by the Agency's board on 20th November, but it will not be released to the media "unless the board decides otherwise".

Separately, Dr ElBaradei has reiterated his view that the world should "consider multi-national approaches to the management and disposal of spent fuel and radioactive waste". He told the UN General Assembly on 3rd November: "Not all countries have the appropriate geological conditions for such disposal - and, for many countries with small nuclear programmes, the financial and human resources required for the construction and operation of a geological disposal facility are daunting."

Source: Nuclear Society of Russia / IAEA

Full report: NucNet News No. 308, 12th November

Proposed French Energy Law Includes EPR Demonstration Unit

The French government has confirmed that a proposal to build a European Pressurised Water Reactor (EPR) demonstration unit will be presented for public comment ahead of draft legislation to be sent to parliament early next year.

Industry minister Nicole Fontaine announced the decision as she presented details of the government's policy proposals (White Paper) on energy to the media on 7th November. Ms Fontaine had said last month that she would recommend the project go ahead "as soon as possible".

She added: "France is determined to keep the nuclear option open, without prejudicing the choice (of technologies) that will be available in 2012."

Source: French Nuclear Energy Society

Full report: NucNet News No. 305, 10th November

More Fuel Transfers From Soviet-Era Research Reactors On Agenda

The US and Russia aim to start consultations by the end of this year on a schedule to transfer 'all remaining potential shipments' of fresh and irradiated highly-enriched uranium (HEU) from research reactors built in the former Soviet republics to Russia.

The plan was referred to in a joint statement issued by US energy secretary Spencer Abraham and Russia's atomic energy minister, Alexander Rumyantsev, following Mr Rumyantsev's visit to the US last week.

Both sides said they recognised the "great significance of co-operation on the issue of transferring HEU research reactor fuel of Russian origin to Russia as a mutual contribution to the reduction of global stockpiles of weapons-usable nuclear materials".

The statement said that the International Atomic Energy Agency was "actively involved" in the process, adding: "An important component of this activity is the conversion of such research reactors from HEU to low enriched uranium (LEU) fuel when a suitable LEU fuel has been qualified."

According to Russia's atomic energy ministry, Minatom, the former Soviet union built a total of 20 research reactors abroad. Six were in former Soviet countries - Belarus, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Latvia, Georgia and Kazakhstan, as well as in Libya, Iraq, China, Vietnam and North Korea.

Source: Nuclear Society of Russia / US Department of Energy

Full report: NucNet News No. 306, 11th November

ITER Is 'Top Priority' In Abraham's 20-Year Research Agenda

US energy secretary Spencer Abraham this week named the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) project as the 'top priority' among 28 projects will form the 'cornerstone for the future of critical fields of (US) science' over the next 20 years.

In a briefing at the National Press Club in Washington, Mr Abraham outlined the Department of Energy's (DOE) 20-year roadmap for future scientific centres or facilities to support DOE's basic science and research missions, including fusion energy, nuclear science, materials science and advanced computing for energy applications.

Fusion, and the US commitment to once again joining the international ITER effort, topped the list because of the "prospect of a limitless source of clean energy, "Mr Abraham said, adding that it was a "presidential priority with enormous potential". If negotiations with the international partners are successful, "ITER will be our top facility" in the near-term.

This is a summary of an in-depth feature article written exclusively for NucNet subscribers. To read this article in full, and have access to NucNet's complete range of international nuclear news and information services, please e-mail - editors@worldnuclear.org - and ask for a FREE trial subscription.

Source: DOE

Full report: NucNet Features No.8, 13th November

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