China is still actively promoting a nuclear fuel reprocessing project with France’s Orano, formerly called Areva, the head of China’s nuclear safety watchdog said on Tuesday. France is one of the world’s few civil nuclear powers which reprocesses and reuses part of the spent fuel of its nuclear reactors, rather than treating it as waste. …
Tension has been increasing between the U.S. and Iran. Central to the conflict is uranium enrichment, with each country accusing the other of bad faith. During the turmoil, Iran announced that it had crossed an important threshold: They had enriched uranium past the 4.5% level. But what exactly does that mean? Uranium is the heaviest …
The Trump administration intends to invest $115 million over the next three years to reopen a uranium enrichment plant in southern Ohio. The decision by the U.S. Department of Energy is subject to final approval by federal regulators but could result in 60 new jobs initially, according to an announcement by Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio. …
A spent nuclear fuel reprocessing plant in Rokkasho, Aomori Prefecture, looks set to gain approval for full operation as the country’s regulator completed most of its safety review Friday. The Nuclear Regulation Authority checked remaining safety measures against the risks of earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, and its members made no objection. Operator Japan Nuclear Fuel …
Japan’s nuclear watchdog on Wednesday granted its first approval for a plan to reuse nuclear fuel taken out of decommissioned reactors in operational ones. The decision will allow Kansai Electric Power Co., the operator of the Oi nuclear power plant in central Japan, to load some nuclear fuel assemblies from its scrapped No. 1 and …
French reactor firm Framatome has entered a deal to design, manufacture and supply fuel assemblies made from enriched reprocessed uranium (ERU) to utility firm EDF between 2023 and 2032. Framatome has noted that the collaboration is subject to administrative and regulatory authorisations. The reactor firm is to fabricate the fuel assemblies at its facility in …
Japan’s nuclear regulator has resumed its review of an under-construction nuclear fuel reprocessing plant, following a suspension of 8 months because of a maintenance problem discovered last summer. The Nuclear Regulation Authority on Thursday resumed its review of the plant in Rokkasho Village in Aomori Prefecture. The resumption came after the plant’s operator, Japan Nuclear …
The Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site has begun dissolving uranium fuel cores from Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s High Flux Isotope Reactor for the first time since 1988. The spent fuel will help deliver electricity to residents in the Tennessee Valley. The High Flux Isotope Reactor is fueled by highly enriched uranium, which the Savannah …
It’s been an eventful past couple of weeks in the uranium subsector, even if the spot price for uranium oxide has shown little positive response. In the U.S., the Trump administration’s Department of Energy (DOE) has suspended sales from its uranium oxide stockpiles for the rest of the government’s fiscal year (until Sept. 30, 2018). …
China has completed a “large-scale demonstration project for a new generation of uranium enrichment centrifuges”, China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC) announced yesterday. The new centrifuges have now been put into production at the Hanzhun fuel facility in Shaanxi province. The project was independently researched and developed by CNNC and has its own independent intellectual property …