Analyzing the Nuclear Power Industry in the US

DUBLIN--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Research and Markets (http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/ca0ac4/analyzing_the_nucl) has announced the addition of the "Analyzing the Nuclear Power Industry in the US" company profile to their offering.

    “Analyzing the Nuclear Power Industry in the US”

The United States is the world's largest supplier of commercial nuclear power.

In recent years, there has been a renewed interest in nuclear power in the US. This has been facilitated in part by the federal government with the Nuclear Power 2010 Program, which coordinates efforts for building new nuclear power plants, and the Energy Policy Act which makes provisions for nuclear and oil industries.

As of 2005, no nuclear plant had been ordered without subsequent cancellation for over twenty years. However, on September 22, 2005 it was announced that two sites had been selected to receive new power reactors (exclusive of the new power reactor scheduled for INL) and two other utilities have plans for new reactors. There has also been an application for an early site permit at Exelon's Clinton Nuclear in Clinton, Illinois to install another reactor as well as a reactor restart at the Tennessee Valley Authority Browns Ferry nuclear station.

On September 25, 2007 South Texas Project filed the application for a Combined Construction and Operating License (COL). Two new GE-Hitachi ABWRs will be built adjacent to the existing PWRs. This is the first application for a new nuclear plant in the US for nearly 30 years. This was followed in October, 2007 by TVA and NuStart filing for a COL for two Westinghouse AP1000s to be built at Bellefonte in Hollywood, Alabama.

In 2007, the Nuclear Energy Institute even started an advertising campaign to increase public support of nuclear power.

As of December 2007, the U.S. power industry has announced intentions to submit approximately 30 applications to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission for new nuclear plant licenses.

The report - Analyzing the Nuclear Power Industry in the US - by Aruvian Research, explores the importance of nuclear power in today's world, with Section One being dedicated to Understanding the Basics of Nuclear Power. The report looks at the basics of the nuclear industry that is, how a plant works, analyzing and understanding the fuel cycle, the various components which are involved in the working of a nuclear power plant, and much more. Economics, issues and barriers, and other such factors are also explored in-depth in this report.

Aruvian's offering includes a complete analysis of the US Nuclear Power Industry, including an analysis of the nuclear power stations in the US, the major US players in nuclear power, and much more. Industry profile, industry developments, technological developments, non-proliferation developments, Uranium fuel cycle developments, and lots more information is included in this research report. This research offering from Aruvian is a comprehensive A to Z guide on the US' nuclear power industry.

Key Topics Covered:

A. Executive Summary

B. Basics of the Nuclear Industry B.1 History of Nuclear Power B.2 Types of Nuclear Reactors B.3 Fission Reactor B.4 Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator B.5 New & Upcoming Nuclear Technologies B.6 Components & Parts of a Nuclear Power Plant B.7 Analyzing the Fuel Cycle B.8 Managing the Radioactive Waste

C. Profiling the Global Nuclear Power Industry C.1 Industry Overview C.2 Uranium Market C.3 Market Features C.4 Price Trends C.5 Managing the Risk in Nuclear Power C.6 Industry Trends C.7 Economic Trends C.8 Nuclear Hedging C.9 Future Outlook

D. Analyzing the Economics of Nuclear Power D.1 Capital Costs D.2 Fuel Costs D.3 Plant Operating Costs D.4 Electricity Generation & Nuclear Power D.5 Cost Competitiveness D.6 Issues in Cost Efficiency

E. Global Climate Change & Nuclear Power

F. Challenges & Barriers to Nuclear Power F.1 Air Pollution F.2 Health Effects F.3 Financial Challenges F.4 Nuclear Safety F.5 Nuclear Proliferation F.6 Leadership Challenges F.7 Regulatory Barriers F.8 Water Pollution F.9 Other Challenges

G. Analyzing Nuclear Power in the US G.1 Introduction G.2 History of Nuclear Power in the US G.3 The Recent Resurgence of Nuclear Power in the US G.4 Capacity of US Nuclear Power Plants G.5 Increased Utilization of US Nuclear Power Plants G.6 Ownership Consolidation G.7 Other Rationalization G.8 Outlook for Consolidation in the Industry G.9 License Renewal and Regulation G.10 US Reactor Technologies G.11 Market Overview G.12 Energy Policy Act 2005 & the Nuclear Power Industry G.13 DOE Nuclear Power 2010 Program G.14 Revelations of the U.S. ORC Survey G.15 Major Issues Affecting the Nuclear Power Industry in the U.S. Economy G.16 Global Nuclear Energy Partnership G.17 Fuel Cycle G.18 Decommissioning Reactors G.19 Government R&D G.20 Next Generation Nuclear Plant G.21 Public Support for Nuclear Power G.22 Non Proliferation Issues

H. Regulatory Framework H.1 Advanced Fuel Cycle Initiative H.2 Generation IV Nuclear Energy Systems Initiative H.3 International Nuclear Energy Research Initiative H.4 Nuclear Power 2010 H.5 Nuclear Hydrogen Initiative H.6 U.S. Clean Air Act H.7 National Energy Policy of the US

I. Nuclear Power Plants in the US

J. Leading Industry Players J.1 Ameren UE J.2 American Electric Power J.3 Constellation Energy J.4 Dominion Nuclear J.5 Duke Power J.6 Entergy Nuclear J.7 Exelon J.8 First Energy J.9 FPL Nuclear J.10 Progress Energy J.11 Scana Corporation

For more information visit http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/ca0ac4/analyzing_the_nucl
Contacts

Research and Markets
Laura Wood, Senior Manager,
press@researchandmarkets.com
U.S. Fax: 646-607-1907
Fax (outside U.S.): +353-1-481-1716

Source: http://www.businesswire.com/

Radiation "hotspots" hinder Japan response to nuclear crisis

By Kevin Krolicki and Kiyoshi Takenaka

KANAGAWA, Japan | Wed Jun 15, 2011 1:01pm BST

(Reuters) - Hisao Nakamura still can't accept that his crisply cut field of deep green tea bushes south of Tokyo has been turned into a radioactive hazard by a crisis far beyond the horizon.

"I was more than shocked," said Nakamura, 74, who, like other tea farmers in Kanagawa has been forced to throw away an early harvest because of radiation being released by the Fukushima Daiichi plant 300 kilometers (180 miles) away.

"Throwing way what you've grown with great care is like killing your own children."

More than three months after the Fukushima nuclear plant was hit by a quake and tsunami that triggered the world's worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl, Japanese officials are still struggling to understand where and how radiation released in the accident created far-flung "hotspots" of contamination.

The uncertainty itself is proving a strain.

"Stress has serious health effects. The Japanese people no longer trust the nuclear industry and the government. People do not know whether their food and their land is safe," said Kim Kearfott, an expert on radiation health risks at the University of Michigan, who toured Japan in May.

Fukushima is estimated to have released just 15 percent of the radiation at Chernobyl, but a complicated software modeling system created by the government to predict where the radiation would drift proved useless.

Under pressure to provide a more accurate picture of the contamination, the Ministry of Education has promised to complete a detailed survey of the evacuated area by October.

Since last week, local governments have been enlisted to provide daily reports of radiation.

More than 1,000 public schools in Fukushima were equipped with dosimeters in late May and teachers were asked to record hourly radiation readings to help create a contamination map.

But some experts say even these added steps are far from enough. "We need a new and more comprehensive system for monitoring radiation," said Takumi Gotoh, a Nagoya-based cancer specialist. "The system that exists now is not sufficient."

Data so far shows the most heavily contaminated area is to the northwest of Fukushima, where experts believe radioactive debris was carried by winds in March and then deposited as snow and rain.

In the city of Date, for example, some 50 km (30 miles) to the northwest of Fukushima, ground radiation was near 24 millisieverts per year as of early June. That is above the international standard for annual exposure by nuclear workers.

There is little data on how badly contaminated the now-abandoned area of forced evacuation is in the 20-kilometer (12-mile) zone around the Fukushima plant. Critics also say the monitoring of ground and seawater also needs to be stepped up.

'I WANT TO DIG A HOLE'

The incomplete data has complicated Japan's response to the disaster and planning for an environmental clean-up expected to take years and cost tens of billions of dollars.

It has also created a mood of quiet despair in already devastated communities. "I never believe anything I hear any more on radiation," said Shukuko Kuzumi, 63, who lives in Iwaki, about 50 km to the south of Fukushima.

"I want to dig a hole in the ground and scream."

More than 24,000 people were killed by the quake and tsunami. Tens of thousands more remain evacuated because of the radiation threat.

One of the high-profile casualties from the hotspot phenomenon has been the tea crop in Kanagawa and neighboring Shizuoka, where cesium was found at a level that exceeded the government's legal limit by as much as 35 percent.

"We never thought that that the nuclear accident would affect our products," said Susumu Yamaguchi, 58, who heads a farmers' cooperative in the village of Kiyokawa.

Yamaguchi has lost a crop worth over $20,000. Another farmer he knows has simply given up his field.

Others want answers: How did radioactive cesium from the reactors at Fukushima end up here?

Tetsuo Iguchi, a specialist on radiation monitoring at Nagoya University, says experts don't know.

Iguchi is working as a consultant with a government group that is urging thousands of tonnes of contaminated soil to be cleared off and then sent to storage, possibly inside the Fukushima complex. That project will last into 2012 at least.

"Even that is optimistic," he said. "Nothing like this has ever been done before."

More radiation could spill from Fukushima into the sea if efforts to start a French-built water treatment facility hit a snag. The equipment is needed to decontaminate the water that has accumulated in underground structures on the site after being pumped in to cool the melted cores on three reactors.

"Unfortunately, there is still a real possibility of further significant releases of radioactivity," experts from the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace said in a statement.

(Editing by Linda Sieg and Nick Macfie)

Source: REUTERS

Nuclear retreat to add 30 percent to CO2 growth: IEA

LONDON | Wed Jun 15, 2011 6:20pm BST

(Reuters) - A halving of a global nuclear power expansion after Japan's Fukushima disaster would increase global growth in carbon dioxide emissions by 30 percent through 2035, the IEA said on Wednesday.

The International Energy Agency warned last month that a political goal to limit climate change to safer levels was barely achievable after global emissions rose by near 6 percent in 2010.

Governments agreed last year to limit warming to less than 2 degrees above pre-industrial levels, but the world was poised to surpass that level of carbon emissions, said the energy adviser to 28 industrialized economies.

A halving of nuclear power growth would make the task even more difficult, said IEA chief economist Fatih Birol.

"We believe this huge emissions increase plus the rather bleaker perspective for nuclear power put together make the 2 degrees target very, very difficult to achieve."

"(Growth in) CO2 emissions from electricity generation between now and 2035 would be about 30 percent higher than it would otherwise be." That was equivalent to almost an extra 500 million tonnes of CO2 emissions annually by 2035, he added.

CO2 emissions rose above 30 billion tonnes last year, a new record and just short of the amount that Birol estimated was consistent with the world's new warming target.

Birol was referring to a scenario where the world added another 180 gigwatts (GW) of nuclear power between now and 2035, instead of its previous forecast of 360 gigawatts.

Such a nuclear retreat would cut the sector's share of power generation, he added. "We think this is bad news in terms of having less diversification in the global energy mix, a less secure picture," he told Reuters Energy and Climate Summit.

Coal and gas demand would increase by about 5 percent in 2035 compared with what the IEA expected before Fukushima, and renewables by 6 percent, implying upward pressure on fuel and power prices.

Governments around the world have ordered nuclear safety reviews after a March 11 quake and tsunami in Japan triggered a meltdown and radioactive release at the country's Fukushima nuclear plant.

Germany last month announced plans to shut all its nuclear reactors by 2022. Italians voted to ban nuclear energy for decades on Monday in a referendum strongly influenced by the Fukushima disaster but also a strong political vote against Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.

Source: REUTERS

Italians celebrate Berlusconi referendum defeat

China pushes Iran to return to talks

BEIJING, June 14 | Tue Jun 14, 2011 10:24am EDT

(Reuters) - China's President Hu Jintao told his Iranian counterpart on Tuesday that six-nation talks were the best way to guarantee Iran's right of peaceful use of nuclear energy on the eve of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization meeting in Kazakhstan.

Hu told President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, both in the central Asian country's capital Astana ahead of the summit, that Iran should "take substantial steps" to establish trust and "promote the process of dialogue," state news agency Xinhua said.

"This is not only in the interest of the Iranian side, but also conducive to the general situation of peace and stability in the Middle East region," Hu said.

Last week China joined Western powers in telling Iran its "consistent failure" to comply with United Nations resolutions "deepened concerns" about possible military dimensions to its nuclear programme.

The United States, Germany, France, the United Kingdom, Russia and China issued the statement a day after Iran said it would triple production of high-grade uranium and shift it to an underground bunker which would be protected from possible U.S. or Israeli air strikes.

During his talk with Hu, Ahmadinejad said his country was willing to return to dialogue with the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council and Germany.

But Ahmadinejad last week said no inducement could persuade Iran to give up enrichment, despite trade incentives offered to Tehran by world powers. U.S. President Barack Obama said further sanctions were likely.

China is a big purchaser of oil from Iran, shunned by Western powers which say Tehran is seeking to develop the means to make nuclear weapons and has spurned requests from the International Atomic Energy Agency, the United Nations' nuclear watchdog. Iran says its nuclear programme is peaceful.

China has voted in favour of the four past rounds of sanctions the UN Security Council has imposed on Tehran for refusing to freeze its uranium enrichment programme.

But Beijing has also used its veto power as a permanent member of the Security Council to blunt demands for more expansive sanctions that would cover oil and other major economic ties with Iran.

China has also placed more onus on Western powers to expand negotiations with Tehran.

Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak, in Beijing on Tuesday for meetings with his Chinese counterpart Defence Minister Liang Guanglie, told reporters at a press conference that stricter sanctions on Iran were necessary.     "There is a need to tighten urgently the sanctions on Iran and make sure that they are working and they put the leadership under dilemma, either to face the whole world's sanctions or to comply with the demands of the IAEA in Vienna ... and stop their nuclear military efforts," he said. (Reporting by Michael Martina; Editing by Daniel Magnowski) 

Source: Reuters

U.K. includes nuclear energy in green mix

LONDON, June 14 (UPI) -- London is close to finishing its list of new nuclear power stations and remains committed to renewable energy goals for 2020, the British energy minister said.

British Energy Minister Charles Hendry told delegates at the CBI Energy conference in London that his government was committed to including nuclear energy in a low-carbon energy mix.

"I can confirm today that we are close to finalizing the NPS (nuclear power stations) and will publish them very shortly, so that they can be put to MPs for approval before the parliamentary recess," he was quoted by the Platts news service as saying.

Nuclear energy is becoming controversial in the European community in the wake of the Japanese nuclear disaster spawned by a magnitude-9 earthquake in March. Germany made moves to curtail nuclear energy and Italian voters passed a similar measure Monday.

Hendry added that London was committed to getting 15 percent of its energy from renewable resources by 2020.

"We are committed to meeting this and in doing so bring a massive boost to the U.K.'s manufacturing industries. But we are not just about setting and following targets for the sake of it," he was quoted as saying. "We need a vision to get us there that provides certainty and clarity for potential investors."

Read more: 

http://www.upi.com/Business_News/Energy-Resources/2011/06/14/UK-includes-nuclear-energy-in-green-mix/UPI-21951308057083/#ixzz1PGp8SYqW

Source: UPI

Nuclear energy has to be part of the US energy mix

Interview with Mr. Doug Walters, Vice President of Regulatory Affairs at the Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI).

Obviously, in the minds of many people, when we talk about nuclear plant safety is what happened in Fukushima in Japan, regarding the earthquake that struck there and the damage that was done. How do our plants in this country differ from the Fukushima situation?

First of all, as to the events in Fukushima, – it was an earthquake followed by a tsunami, – they experienced very powerful natural phenomena that perhaps exceeded what was expected. We’ve taken a look at those events – we don’t think the earthquake was much of the problem, though we are still waiting for the lessons learnt to come out on that. And certainly the tsunami they experienced was fairly significant. We’ve looked at those events, we’ve looked at what was designed and then we looked at what we’ve got in place. That might help us, should we have an event or events like they had. For example, clearly the issue was the fact that they lost all offsite power and then subsequently lost their diesel-provided power. We’ve looked at what we have in place here. We will see if we need to make some improvements in terms of how long we can cope in terms of safety standpoint, should we lose all power. We’ve already carried out an analysis that showed we can cope for minimum of four hours, should we lose all power. So, these are still early stages but we’re certainly looking at the things that happened there and what capabilities we might have in place for dealing with some types of them.

But in America, when they designed power plants, they designed them with the knowledge that there’s a possibility that an earthquake may occur and they were built to withstand it, right?

That’s correct. And then you had some margin, in terms of additional things you might do. So, all that is going to be looked at. We and the NRC have looked at some of the things we’ve done post 9/11. Following those catastrophic events, we did analyses of aircraft impacts on our plants, and then the subsequent fire that might evolve from that. And we’ve put in place procedures to assist in mitigating something that might occur at that kind of magnitude. Recently we’ve had evaluated our implementation of those measures and we did well. We have some things that we need to focus on in terms of procedures. But in terms of the capability the things we did post 9/11 we think would certainly be beneficial in dealing with the type of event they had in Japan.

As we both know, President Obama issued an order to inspect all nuclear facilities after the Fukushima disaster. How did we fare in that review?

We fared well. The part of that review that was mentioned was what the NRC did. We’ve also had done our own review through our Institute of Nuclear Power Operations. They issued some requirements, as we call them, to look at how they are implementing certain things like station blackout, which presumes that you’ve lost all offsite power and all on site power, and making sure that the procedures, which we have to deal with in that situation, are adequate and that they are being trained on, and that they are ready to go in the event if we would experience something like Japan. The NRC is continuing to do their review of the situation. Obviously, the lessons learnt, coming out of Fukushima, are going to take some time to assemble. We’ll see if those lessons learnt would be responded to appropriately.

Given the fact that it takes so long to build a plant and technologies moving so rapidly, do you foresee that types of nuclear plants to be built in the future and being built now will be much more secure against earth quakes and natural disasters and much better built than they were 10-15 years ago?

There’s no question that the new designs are safer than, or have more safety components built into their design than the existing ones. The technology is already there. We’ll take the lessons learnt from Fukushima and for the designs that are currently under certification to the extent that we’ll incorporate additional measures to make them even safer – we will do that for a normal process for certification of designs that are yet to be submitted for certification. I’m sure those standards will be looked at with those lessons learnt and they’ll see what they can do in the design process to incorporate those technologies that would make them even more safe. So yes, I think that’s the direction we’re going in.

What are the most common mistakes that your institute and the NRC find in the maintenance an operation of nuclear plants? Maybe operator errors or operator not following their logs properly?

 I think any time that the NRC does the inspection there are things that they find that were not arranged in terms of the issues. In some cases we find that it was indeed an operator error. In other cases it maybe a weakness or an improvement needed in a maintenance procedure. Those things happen, and I can’t say there are specific things that continuingly come up. We evaluate those IMA trends – that’s one of the strength of our industry, which is that we continuingly feed back into what we call our operating experience programme. We try to avoid the things we’ve done in the past, and with the operating experience programme we’re able to do that. We know that there was a problem with some procedure around maintenance done on a particular valve – we feed that back and other sites will look at that, evaluate their own procedures and make adjustments if they think it’s appropriate. Really, one of the strengths of our industry is getting that feedback and feeding it into the operating experience programme.

Briefly, how do you see our nuclear power in our future, given the fact of climate change, greenhouse gases? How much of a bigger role do you see for a nuclear power plant?

It clearly plays a role and it has to be part of the energy mix of the country. I think that these large energy generating facilities that are being built now are going to provide very affordable clean energy for the customers. I think we are going to see that trend continue now. The overall economic condition of the country has contributed I believe to perhaps some of the companies who have expressed interest in their nuclear slowing down. But we have around 18 applications under review. Again, they may not be proceeding at the same rate envisioned when they were submitted. Nonetheless, they are being reviewed, companies are being working on them towards getting the license. We have designed certifications in for review. All that says that nuclear energy has got to be part of the energy mix, because it provides affordable non-emitting energy.

Source:  The Voice the Russia

Italians Vote to Abandon Nuclear Energy

ROME—Italians voted to abandon nuclear power for the foreseeable future, turning out in droves to cast ballots in a packet of referenda whose outcome is a sign of growing popular discontent toward Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's conservative government.

Mr. Berlusconi's administration had in past weeks urged people not to vote in the four referenda, which were organized by center-left opposition parties and which asked voters whether they wanted to overturn government laws on reviving nuclear energy, privatizing Italy's water supply and giving top government officials partial immunity from prosecution.

Instead, 57% of Italians went to the polls—a number well above the 50% of the voting population needed to make a referendum valid, a threshold last reached in 1995. More than 95% of those who cast their ballots voted "yes" in each referendum, overturning the four laws in question.

"This was a vote against nuclear energy. But by urging people not to go to the polls, Berlusconi turned this into a vote against himself," said Giovanni Sartori, professor emeritus of political science at the University of Florence.

Mr. Berlusconi had made restarting nuclear energy in Italy one of his government's priorities. The immunity law also had been one of the government's key planks. The law allows the prime minister and other top officials not to show up in court for criminal trials, if busy governing schedules are cited. Critics, however, have long characterized the law as a tailor-made measure aimed at shielding Mr. Berlusconi from the four criminal trials he is currently facing.

On Monday, the prime minister acknowledged the defeat.

"On each theme, Italians have made their position clear. The government and Parliament will now have to take into account this result," Mr. Berlusconi's office said in a statement.

Monday's outcome is notable not just for the lopsided vote but also because it comes just weeks after Mr. Berlusconi's conservative coalition was badly defeated in local elections. Though the premier still has the majority in Parliament he needs to govern, his popularity has been falling in recent months.

Italy's center-left opposition parties, which had widely campaigned for people to vote, were jubilant. Opposition leader Pierluigi Bersani hailed the result as a crucial sign of the need for political change and called for Mr. Berlusconi's government to resign.

"This referendum marks a divorce between the Italians and the government. At this point, the government has to leave and lead to new elections," Mr. Bersani told a news conference.

Conservative government officials tried to play down the political meaning of the vote. "The fact that the referenda reached the quorum doesn't change anything for the government," said Ignazio La Russa, Italy's Defense Minister and a strong Berlusconi supporter.

Italy's chronically feeble economy, however, is weighing heavily on young people in particular, and many here are fed up with the premier's legal woes, including most recently his trial on charges of paying for sex with an underage woman and abusing his power to cover it up—charges the premier denies.

The Northern League, Mr. Berlusconi's party's most important ally in Parliament, also is getting fed up. "Two weeks ago, we got a first slap in the face in local elections. Now the referendum has dealt us a second slap in the face," said Roberto Calderoli, Italy's minister for legislative simplification and a key Northern League official.

Italy abandoned nuclear energy in 1987—shortly after the Chernobyl nuclear accident—by voting against it in a referendum similar to Monday's. In the current vote, the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear crisis in Japan drew people to the polls. As in other European countries, Italy earlier this year imposed a moratorium on its nuclear plans, but Mr. Berlusconi's government was hoping to resurrect them longer term by building several plants across the country. Early on Monday, as the results were coming in, Mr. Berlusconi said that without the possibility of nuclear plants, Italy would have to "strongly commit" to renewable energy.

Many others pushed for a nuclear revival in the country. "Italy will spend a lot of money for energy needs" without nuclear energy, said Chicco Testa, head of Italy's Nuclear Forum and former chairman of Italian utility Enel SpA. Mr. Testa was one of the main backers of the 1987 referendum against nuclear power, but has since changed his stance: "There is plenty of gas out there and coal, but I don't know what the prices will be in 10 years' time as they are tied to oil. Based on past experience, I see higher oil prices."

The two water-related referenda asked Italians to vote on whether to overturn the government's plans to privatize water utilities. The government has argued that handing over water management to private entities would make it more efficient. Critics argued successfully that it would lead to higher prices.

Write to Giada Zampano at giada.zampano@dowjones.com 

Source:WSJ

Iran nuclear chief refutes IAEA claims

Head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran Fereydoun Abbasi

The Iranian nuclear chief has refuted the International Atomic Energy Agency's report about Tehran's program having military aspects as “lies.” 

 

 

The Iranian nuclear chief has refuted the International Atomic Energy Agency's report about Tehran's program having military aspects as “lies.”

“Other [countries] in the world commit crimes and seek to make nuclear weapons, but the Islamic Republic of Iran which has always called for peace is accused of pursuing a covert program for producing atomic bomb,” Head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran Fereydoun Abbasi said on Monday.

On June 6, IAEA Director General Yukiya Amano claimed that the UN nuclear body had received new unspecific information indicating that Iran may not be only developing nuclear energy for civilian purposes.

Abbasi said Iran does not need non-peaceful nuclear activities and they are not economically beneficial for the country.

“They want to hamper Iran's scientific and technological progress… through psychological war and false reports,” Abbasi added.

The United States, Israel and their allies accuse Iran of pursuing military objectives in its nuclear program.

As a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and a member of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Iran maintains that it has the right to develop and acquire nuclear technology meant for peaceful purposes. 

Italian referendum likely to dash Berlusconi's nuclear energy plans

Prime minister dealt second political blow in less than two weeks as opponents succeed in getting turnout above 50%

Silvio Berlusconi's plans for a big nuclear construction programme and water privatisation look set to be dashed in four nationwide ballots. Photograph: Andrew Medichini/AP

Silvio Berlusconi was heading on Mondayfor a second defeat in less than two weeks as his government admitted its opponents had succeeded in getting more than 50% of the electorate to vote in popular referendums including one on nuclear power.

The outcome of the four ballots, which will be known later on Monday, looked certain to dash the plans of Italy's embattled rightwing government for a big nuclear construction programme and water privatisation.

Berlusconi said: "We shall have to say good-bye to nuclear [energy]." He told a press conference in Rome that his government would now throw all its energy into developing renewable sources.
The expected outcome would be a huge success for the anti-nuclear movement in the world's first nationwide vote on the issue since Japan's Fukushima disaster. But the ballot was also the latest - and most persuasive - evidence that a majority of Italians has turned against their flamboyant prime minister.
Under Italian law, referendums require more than half the electorate to vote to be binding. The government did all it could to keep turnout low and appealed to the courts for the vote to be declared illegal. Italian television, largely under Berlusconi's sway, almost ignored the approaching ballots until the final days of a poorly funded, low-profile campaign.

Yet the interior minister, Roberto Maroni, said his department's projections indicated the opposition would reach its 50% target, regardless of the turnout among more than three million Italians overseas who are entitled to vote.

Berlusconi's government, which yokes his Freedom People movement to the regionalist and Islamophobic Northern League, first ran into serious trouble on 30 May when his candidate for mayor of Milan lost in a local election runoff. Milan is Berlusconi's home city and has traditionally been a weather-vane, accurately pointing to Italy's future political direction.

Since then, many rank-and-file league supporters have been urging their leader, Umberto Bossi, to cut himself free of Berlusconi. The party leadership has so far remained wedded to the coalition while pressing for a radical change in economic policy that would deliver tax cuts to its lower middle-class electoral base.

Italy abandoned its nuclear programme following a similar referendum in 1987. But the moratorium it introduced only remained in force for five years. Berlusconi had planned to generate a quarter of Italy's electricity with French-built nuclear plants.

Bulgaria signs nuclear energy accord with Westinghouse

By Associated Press, Updated: Monday, June 13, 2:26 PM

SOFIA, Bulgaria — Bulgaria has come to an agreement with U.S.-based Westinghouse Electric Co. on future nuclear energy projects.

Under Monday’s agreement, Westinghouse will cooperate in the planned modernization of the two 1,000-megawatt reactors at Bulgaria’s only nuclear plant in Kozlodui. The licenses at the Russian-built reactors expire in 2017 and in 2019.


The document also envisages the use, storage, and recycling of nuclear fuel, and new nuclear facilities in Bulgaria.

Bulgaria has an established nuclear program dating back 35 years. Nuclear energy accounts for a third of the nation’s electricity generation.