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In a new report, “What a waste: How fast-fission power can provide clean energy from nuclear waste”, environmental group RePlanet advocates recycling used nuclear fuel as fuel for advanced fast reactors. While Europe's nuclear power reactors "have a long history of safe use, and have provided prodigious quantities of clean electricity for decades", they use less than 1% of the energy potential in the natural uranium used to make their fuel, the report notes. Moreover, irradiated fuel assemblies removed from reactors are considered “nuclear waste”.

Source: NEI Magazine
Date: Friday, 07 April 2023
Original article: neimagazine.com/news/newsenvironmental-group-urges-use-of-fast-reactors-10738853

New report highlights current opportunities for progress in commercialisation of the technology The UK has shortlisted five sites as the potential future home of the country’s first prototype fusion energy plant. Courtesy UKAEA. Capital costs for the development of a new generation of nuclear fusion reactors are high at around £100/MWh, but a substantial programme of standard build could bring them down to a viable target of £60-£70/MWh, a report published by engineering group Assystem says.

According to the report, which examines the potential for fusion in the UK, the government has estimated the 2040 levelised costs of electricity (LCOE) for the UK for standalone offshore wind, onshore wind and large-scale solar of £40/MWh, £44/MWh and £33/MWh respectively.

The £60-£70/MWh cost for fusion “provides the first target for nuclear fusion to be economically competitive”, the report concludes. It says fusion is uncompetitive today with other low-carbon options available in the UK – including wind and light-water nuclear fission reactors. The reason for this is the combination of a relatively high construction cost (£5,887/kWe) and a low capacity factor (56%).

The International Energy Agency has put the LCOE for advanced nuclear at $63/MWh (about £45/MWh).

With an improved, large fusion design the construction cost decreases to £4,135/kWe and the capacity factor to 75%. These two effects improve the fusion economics, decreasing the LCOE into the range £60 to £97/MWh. For a small fusion design, the energy cost of 75 units is in the region of £69- £99/MWh – a range that is comparable to 10 units of large fusion reactors and also the energy cost of LWR fission reactors.

Source: Nucnet
Date: Saturday, 23 October 2021
Original article: nucnet.org/news/capital-costs-are-high-but-can-be-reduced-to-economically-competitive-level-10-4-2021

A group of more than 100 scientists and environmentalists have written to the European Commission calling for a "timely and just assessment" of nuclear energy in the EU Taxonomy. The letter was sent by Satu Helynen, acting president of the Sustainable Nuclear Energy Technology Platform (SNETP), and addressed to EU Energy Commissioner Kadri Simson and to two European Commission vice-presidents, Valdis Dombrovskis and Frans Timmermans.

Source: World Nuclear News
Date: Thursday, 30 April 2020
Original article: world-nuclear-news.org/Articles/NGOs-demand-place-for-nuclear-in-EU-Taxonomy

A shipment of samples of plutonium oxide is en route from the UK to a laboratory at Orano's Melox plant in southern France. The samples will be used to determine if the plutonium can be used in the production of mixed-oxide (MOX) fuel.

Source: World Nuclear News
Date: Friday, 29 November 2019
Original article: world-nuclear-news.org/Articles/British-plutonium-samples-shipped-to-France

A large increase in the use of nuclear power would help keep global warming to below 1.5 degrees, according to a United Nations report published today. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) special report - Global Warming of 1.5 degrees - was commissioned by governments at the Paris climate talks in 2015 and will inform the COP24 summit in Katowice, Poland this December.

Source: World Nuclear News
Date: Monday, 08 October 2018
Original article: world-nuclear-news.org/Articles/UN-report-shows-increased-need-for-nuclear

Experimental and theoretical research has shown 'spherical' tokamaks to be a "fast route to fusion" compared with more "conventional" tokamak devices such as Joint European Torus (JET), according to David Kingham, chief executive of Tokamak Energy.

Source: World Nuclear News
Date: Monday, 30 January 2017
Original article: world-nuclear-news.org/Articles/Spherical-tokamak-to-put-fusion-power-in-grid-by-2

The US is buying 32t of Iranian heavy water to help Iran meet the terms of last July's landmark nuclear deal under which Iran agreed to curb its nuclear programme in exchange for sanctions relief. The agreement was signed on 22 April in Vienna between Iran and officials from the six countries that negotiated the nuclear deal - E3/EU+3 (China, France, Germany, Russia, the UK and the USA plus the European Union). It calls for the US Department of Energy's (DOE's) Isotope Program to purchase the heavy water from a subsidiary of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) for about $8.6m, officials said. They said the heavy water will be stored at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) in Tennessee and then resold on the commercial market for research purposes.

Source: NEI Magazine
Date: Tuesday, 26 April 2016
Original article: neimagazine.com/news/newsiran-enters-the-global-market-for-nuclear-materials-4874899

Iranian officials and a visiting European Union (EU) delegation headed by European Union Foreign Policy Chief Federica Mogherini on 16 April signed various memoranda of understanding for cooperation on research. Iran's participation in the EU Horizon 2020 framework programme was also discussed, Iranian media reported. The European commission, and the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) issued a joint statement on cooperation in the peaceful uses of nuclear energy which would include establishment of a regular high-level dialogue meeting once a year (the Framework for Partnership on Nuclear Energy) to review topics of common interest in the nuclear field.

Source: NEI Magazine
Date: Tuesday, 19 April 2016
Original article: neimagazine.com/news/newsiran-to-co-operate-with-europe-on-nuclear-4868249

The UK Department of Energy & Climate Change has a problem with the world’s largest stocks of reactor-grade plutonium. The international association Environmentalists for Nuclear Energy view this as a one-time opportunity to benefit several advanced nuclear energy developments, none of which are acknowledged by DECC. By Brendan McNamara

Weak, short distance radiation makes it warm; so it is safe to hold but not to swallow. UK reactor grade plutonium is unsuitable for making weapons. And small-scale uses of UK plutonium could never go critical

Source: NEI Magazine
Date: Friday, 27 May 2011
Original article: neimagazine.com/news/newssmarter-uses-for-plutonium