Extremely high levels of radiation have been discovered in a playground in Tokyo, officials said on Friday, fanning fears for the health of children in the area. smh.com.au

Iran on Monday demanded that countries possessing nuclear weapons scrap any plans to modernize or extend the life of their atomic arsenals, while branding Israel a threat to the region due to its presumed nuclear stockpile. news.yahoo.com

Israel will take part as an observer in a major nuclear non-proliferation conference that opens at the United Nations on Monday, ending a 20-year absence in hope of fostering dialogue with Arab states, a senior Israeli official said. news.yahoo.com

Anak Malaysia Anti Nuklear (AMAN), fears that the 11th Malaysia Plan, to be tabled next month in Parliament, will include a nuclear option. freemalaysiatoday.com

 

 

       I find stories in many places for my blog posts. Nuclear power is deeply connected to local politics in debates over siting nuclear power plants, national politics with respect to national sources of power and international politics in treaties and trade. I generally get my stories from news sources that deal with nuclear matters although sometimes stories break into general news coverage.

      Uranium One started as a Canadian uranium mining company that was formed in 2005 with the merger of two existing companies. It has international holdings including a uranium mine in Utah. Also in 2005, the head of UrAsia Energy (UE), another Canadian mining company headquartered in Vancouver, B.C. and former U.S. President Bill Clinton traveled to Kazakhstan to meet with the leader of that uranium rich country. Following the visit, UE made substantial investments in Kazakhstan uranium resources with Kazatomprom. Also following the visit, the head of UE made major contributions to the Clinton foundation. In 2007, Uranium One obtained a controlling interest in UE.

     In mid-2009, ARMZ Uranium Holding Company, which is part of the Russian government controlled Rosatom company, acquired about seventeen percent of the shares of Uranium One in return for fifty percent ownership of the Karatau uranium mining project which was a joint venture with Kazatomprom. In 2010, Uranium one acquired fifty percent in another Kazakhstan mining project and forty nine percent of a mining project in two ARMZ mines. In return, ARMZ increased its share of Uranium One to fifty one percent.

      This deal required the approval of Kazakh regulators, Canadian investment regulators, the U.S. Committee on Foreign Investments, and the Toronto and Johannesburg stock exchanges. In early 2013, ARMZ assumed total control of Uranium One. This move also required the approval of the U.S. Committee on Foreign Investments. Finally in late 2013, Rosatom carried out a reorganization which removed the involvement of ARMS and Rosatom assumed direct control of Uranium One.

       This deal transferred the ownership of huge amounts of uranium resources from North American to Russia. This is part of Russian activities around the globe as they work to acquire control of as much of the world’s uranium resources as possible. Their intent is to be able to wield the kind of international political pressure that they now exert over many Europe countries with Russia gas and oil. The European Union recently approved a deal which would allow Russia to supply nuclear fuel to a Hungarian power reactor for the next ten years.

      The reason that this story broke into the international media is because of the fact the during the time these transactions were taking place, Hillary Clinton was the U.S. Secretary of State. Critics of Clinton as she runs for U.S. President have suggested that she exerted improper influences on the U.S. Committee on Foreign Investments which is part of the U.S. State Department. The critics say that she helped make the Russian takeover of Uranium One possible because of donations to the Clinton foundation. So far, this is all supposition. Clinton has said that all the Uranium One work was done by staffers at the U.S. State department and that she had no involvement at all. These are serious allegations but no proof has been offered by her critics. A review of State Department records with respect to the review of Uranium One deal by the U.S. Committee on Foreign Investments may shed some light on the validity of the allegations.

        In the meantime, it has been reported by people involved with Uranium One that some of the details in the big news story about this matter are incorrect including the claim that Bill Clinton was involved in the Kazakhstan deals in any way. Critics of the story say that there were eight other agencies beside State with representative on the U.S. Committee on Foreign Investments and that the independent Nuclear Regulatory Commission also approved the deal with the Russians.

 

The Economy, Trade and Industry ministry in Japan is setting a target of 20 percent to 22 percent of the country’s electricity generation to come from nuclear power plants by 2030, a draft of the government proposal says, according to media reports. nuclearstreet.com

South Africa has signed two further nuclear energy cooperation agreements with China as part of preparations towards the possible construction of new nuclear power units. world-nuclear-news.org

The Kintyre uranium project in Western Australia has received environmental approval from the country’s federal government. world-nuclear-news.org

Russia’s Rosatom has released details of an inter-governmental agreement to build Argentina’s sixth nuclear power reactor. world-nuclear-news.org

        Out of all the nations that have nuclear weapons, North Korea (also known as the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea) is the most secretive about its nuclear arsenal. The U.S. and N.K. entered into an agreement in the 1990s. The U.S. promised to provide N.K. with food and fuel in return for N.K. destroying the nuclear weapons technology that it had developed. Eventually the accord collapsed with both sides insisting that the other side had broken the agreement first. Following the ten year haitus, N.K. went back to working on nuclear weapons. There have several tests since then that indicate that N.K. now has the ability to build nuclear warheads.

         N.K. has repeatedly threatened South Korea and neighboring states such as Japan with nuclear war. They have launched test missiles to prove that they have a delivery capability although it was believed that they were not yet able to make their nuclear warheads small enough to fit on the top of the missiles that they possess. They are especially angry about S.K. allowing the U.S. to maintain troops there. Military planners have stationed U.S. troops near the N.K. border because that would give the U.S. an excuse to become involved in a war with N.K. if it tried to invade S.K.

         Nuclear experts in China now say that N.K. may have as many as twenty nuclear warheads. China also said that N.K. also may have the capability enrich enough uranium to create twenty more warheads in the next year. A top uranium enrichment from China presented this new estimate to U.S. nuclear experts.

        U.S. experts had estimated that N.K. has between ten and sixteen warheads. The U.S.-Korea Institute at Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies released a study which detailed three possible scenarios for the growth of N.K. nuclear arsenal that projected that N.K could have twenty, fifty or a hundred nuclear warheads within five years depending on which scenario was chosen.

        A U.S. nuclear expert was concerned about N.K. crossing a psychological threshold with respect to nuclear weapons. He said that if N.K. had a credible arsenal such as twenty warheads and the means to deliver they against other countries in the region, then this could make it much more difficult for other countries to convince N.K. to give up its nuclear weapons.

        Recently, the commander of the U.S. Northern Command and North American Aerospace Defense Command stated that the U.S. military is convinced that N.K. has the technical capability to miniaturize a nuclear warhead to the point where it can be mounted on a ballistic missile. As far as we know there have been no test launches of N.K. ballistic missiles with miniature nuclear warheads.

        There is speculation that since the death of Kim Jong-il, his son, Kim Jong -Ung has been struggling to maintain his control over the N.K. government. It is known that there are hardliners in his government that are prepared to start a war with S.K. The U.S, China, Russia, S.K., Japan have been negotiating with N.K. over its belligerent threats. In return for food and fuel, they want N.K. to give up its nuclear arsenal. Even if such negotiations result in N.K. giving up work on its nuclear arsenal for a only a decade, it would be well worth the effort.

Drone Containing Traces Of Radiation Lands On Roof Of Japanese Prime Minister’s Office. huffingtonpost.com

U.S. nuclear experts says that Fukushima site is so radioactive and unstable that it may never be contained. enenews.com

NEI Applauds House Appropriation Committee Commitment To Nuclear Energy. nuclearstreet.com

Miniature submarines are being used to recover cobalt cartridges dating back to the 1950s from storage ponds at the UK’s Sellafield site. The cartridges were used for producing isotopes for medical and industrial applications. world-nuclear-news.org

 

 

Ambient office = 113 nanosieverts per hour

              President Obama has just issued what is referred to as a “presidential determination” with respect to a proposal on cooperation with China on the peaceful use of nuclear power. A presidential determination is, “is a document issued by the White House stating a determination resulting in an official policy or position of the executive branch of the US government. Presidential determinations may involve any number of actions, including setting or changing foreign policy.”

        Obama said, “I have determined that the performance of the agreement will promote, and will not constitute an unreasonable risk to, the common defense and security.” “I hereby approve the proposed agreement and authorize the Secretary of State to arrange for its execution.”

       Obama addressed a statement to Congress on 4/21/15, the same day that the determination was published in the Federal Register. He stated that the proposed agreement was negotiated in accord with the Atomic Energy Act of 1954 and other relevant laws.  He said, “In my judgment, it meets all applicable statutory requirements and will advance the nonproliferation and other foreign policy interests of the United States.”

         The proposed agreement contains a comprehensive framework based on a mutual commitment to the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons. The proposal would allow the transfer of material, equipment, reactors, components, and information regarding nuclear research and the production of nuclear power. The proposal does not allow the transfer of restricted information. The proposal allows transfer of “sensitive” information about nuclear facilities and their critical components only if the proposal is amended in the future to include such transfers. If the proposed agreement is terminated for any reason, key conditions with regard to nuclear non-proliferation and the control of materials, equipment and components shared under the agreement will continue.

       The proposal would bind the U.S. and China in an agreement to work together to enhance their efforts to familiarize commercial entities in their respective countries about the requirements of the agreement as well as national export controls and policies applicable to exports and imports subject to the agreement. The proposal would cover a term of thirty years from the time the agreement went into effect. If either party wants to terminate the agreement, they must notify the other party a year before the date of termination.

      Obama pointed out that China has signed a number of nonproliferation agreements since the 1980s and is working to have its domestic export authority for nuclear technology meet international standards. China signed the Convention on the Physical Protection of Nuclear Materials in 2005. This Convention details international standards  for the physical protection for the use, storage and transportation of nuclear materials. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee and the House Foreign Affairs Committee will both begin consultations on the proposed agreement with the White House immediately.

 TEPCO to abandon second robot inside Fukushima reactor. enenews.com

The Japanese health ministry recommends raising the maximum radiation-exposure limit for nuclear plant workers during an emergency from the current 100 millisieverts to 250 millisieverts. ajw.asahi

The United States and South Korea have reached a bilateral agreement on nuclear power that extends the Asian nation’s ability to enrich uranium for nuclear power and to reprocess spent nuclear fuel. nuclearstreet.com

Fortum has completed construction of a unique new emergency air-cooling system at the twin-unit Loviisa nuclear power station in Finland, the company said today. nucnet.org