Nuclear News Roundup Nov 01, 2017

Nuclear News Roundup Nov 01, 2017

Democratic U.S. senators introduced a bill on Tuesday they said would prevent U.S. President Donald Trump from launching a nuclear first strike on North Korea on his own, highlighting the issue days before the Republican’s first presidential trip to Asia. The-japan-news.com

About 20 miles from Armenia’s capital city of Yerevan sits the antiquated Metsamor nuclear power plant. The plant (located in a town also called Metsamor)  has long been a cause for concern for at least two reasons: It was built without containment vessels, and it sits in a seismic zone. In fact, it was closed in 1989 after a devastating earthquake hit nearby. In 2011, National Geographic even suggested that it might be the world’s most dangerous nuclear plant. Washingtonpost.com

Bangladesh has been planning to build nuclear plants since the 1960s but a lack of support and other factors have delayed the much-needed project in a country known for frequent power cuts. Two nuclear reactors, each with 1,100 megawatts of capacity are being built by Russia’s Rosatom, which is also funding 90 percent of the costs, Yeafesh Osman told Reuters on the sidelines of a nuclear conference in Abu Dhabi. Reuters.com

Excavation work has started at the site of unit 2 of the Bushehr nuclear power plant in southern Iran, Atomproekt, the reactor design subsidiary of Russian state nuclear corporation Rosatom, announced today. Construction and installation work formally started on the unit in March. World-nuclear-news.org