NEI Nuclear Notes

Last week, President Obama hosted a Nuclear Security Summit here in D.C. and now that we’ve recovered from the traffic jams, it’s time to take a closer look. At the summit, government leaders from around the world agreed to “join President Obama’s call to secure all vulnerable nuclear material in four years.” At the end of the summit, representatives from 47 countries issued a communiqué detailing plans to reach this goal. A couple of things struck us about the communiqué, first, there’s the focus on highly-enriched uranium (HEU) and plutonium either of which could be used to make a nuclear weapon. [Low-enriched uranium (LEU), generally enriched to 3 or 5 percent , is used as fuel in commercial nuclear reactors and can’t be used to make a nuclear weapon. Only high-enriched uranium (HEU)— enriched to 90 percent U-235 —can be used to make a nuclear weapon.] The signatories agreed to:  “Recognize that highly enriched uranium and separated plutonium require special preca...

There are several posts up so far , but one post from UCS written by Mr. Lyman is the only one that’s a bit questionable. A comment section doesn’t exist yet on the blog but I’ve passed along an email suggesting they add it, we’ll see. Welcome to the blogosphere UCS, looking forward to the discussion!

We’ve sometimes said that even if government locks up in its efforts to combat climate change that industry will do so – it can see what is happening in other countries and knows that, while it may be on the trailing edge of government action, that will not always be the case. It has also proven to be good business, as customers respond well to green initiatives. What we hadn’t considered is that certain industries might not be able to do much in this direction, but will certainly suffer if weather patterns shift away from them. Mother Jones’ Clive Thompson looks at the issue from this angle: But any serious industrialist who's facing "climate exposure"—as it's now called by money managers—cannot afford to engage in that sort of self-delusion. Spend a couple of hours wandering through the websites of various industrial associations—aluminum manufacturers, real-estate agents, wineries, agribusinesses, take your pick—and you'll find straightforward statemen...

If you are in a lull at work or have time this afternoon, click here around 2 PM Eastern time to watch an oversight hearing titled “Nuclear Power’s Federal Loan Guarantees: The Next Multi-Billion Dollar Bailout?” The chair of the subcommittee that is holding the hearing is Mr. Kucinich from Ohio. NEI’s Leslie Kass will be testifying on the first panel along with former NRC commissioner Peter Bradford, IEER’s Arjun Makhijani, and Heritage Foundation’s Jack Spencer. Panel two includes a few familiar names as well: Mark Cooper and Richard Caperton among others. Pretty much everyone from all sides will be speaking at this hearing. The Q&A should be quite interesting, especially from the Chairman … Update 2:15: Well, it looks like we won't be able to watch the webcast after all. We were told that it's not working today and the committee will archive the video for viewing later this week. Update 4/21, 8:00 am: NEI's Donn Salvosa who was at the hearing said that it was l...

Three young ladies from McKinley Middle Charter School in Racine, Wisconsin took the grand prize this year for C-SPAN’s annual documentary competition . Over 1,000 students submitted a video on either a topic about one of the US’ greatest strengths or a challenge the country is facing. The challenge the three ladies chose was how the US should meet its future energy consumption. The solution that they came to, of course, was nuclear. For part of the documentary, they interviewed Greenpeace co-founder Patrick Moore, anti-nuclear activist Helen Caldicott, former NRC commissioner Dale Klein, and Tom Meston from Westinghouse. Plus, they added a few hilarious clips from The Simpsons and others to show the misperceptions about nuclear. Not only that, the excellent choice of music brought it all together. Congrats to a well done video and the rewards! (For the interview on the making of the video, click here .)

Around the world: France has made a deal with Kuwait: An agreement "to develop the peaceful use of nuclear energy" was signed in Paris by Kuwait's Prime Minister, Sheikh Nasser Mohammed al-Ahmad al-Sabah, and French government officials. "This agreement will permit the development of cooperation between France and Kuwait in several areas of nuclear energy" including electricity generation, a French government statement said. Of course, water desalination is a big issue in desert countries and requires impressive electricity resources. Beyond that, Kuwait already suffers brown-outs and black-outs once the air conditioners start running full force. Kuwait has a population of 3.4 million people – the article doesn’t say, but it seems they could become an electricity exporter to Saudi Arabia and its old enemy, Iraq. --- So if that’s what the French are up to, how about the Russians? Moscow aims to spend billions of dollars to help Argenti...

Where non-proliferation and nuclear energy meet, from China’s Xinhua news service: Nuclear energy is one of the most important energies for humans in the future. The world community can safely control the "double-edged sword" and contribute to the world's enduring peace and common prosperity as long as countries work closely based on the principles of protecting mankind's common interests and mutual benefits. Doesn’t get much simpler than that. --- After President Obama’s Nuclear Security Summit, NEI hosted a companion meeting with global leaders from the nuclear industry to take the first steps in an action plan that industry will develop with government. [nEI President and CEO Marvin] Fertel emphasized that the industry would work with governments to ensure security of nuclear materials. “This meeting is part of an ongoing engagement by U.S. industry—with our colleagues from around the world—to provide input to government policy, share lessons ...