Nuclear News Roundup Dec 23, 2016

Japan has scrapped plans to generate electricity at a multi-billion dollar experimental nuclear reactor, the government said today, giving up on the decades-old project due to spiraling costs. Once touted as a “dream reactor,” the Monju facility was designed to generate more fuel than it consumes via nuclear chain reaction, an attractive alternative in a country with few natural resources. indianexpress.com

The Northwest's only nuclear power plant shut down unexpectedly shortly before noon on Sunday. The shutdown was caused by an equipment malfunction at the Bonneville Power Administration's substation near the Columbia Generating Station, which is operated by Energy Northwest. dailyprogress.com

 A proposed federal effort to assess whether nuclear waste can be stored in 3-mile-deep holes is raising the ire of some Haakon County residents in western South Dakota. capjournal.com

Kazakhstan, producer of more than 20,000 tonnes of natural uranium per year, has welcomed security guidance recently developed by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). The Vienna-based agency said yesterday that Kazakhstan - which established a "comprehensive system for the control and physical protection of natural uranium" in 2010 - had contributed to an IAEA publication entitled Nuclear Security in the Uranium Extraction Industry and issued in February this year. world-nuclear-news.org