Joint U.S., Soviet Recycling Program of Weapons-grade Uranium

USEC Inc., a global energy company and provider of enriched uranium fuel and nuclear industry-related services for commercial nuclear power plants, announced it has completed by 90 per cent the conversion of weapons-grade uranium from dismantled former Soviet Union nuclear warheads into low enriched uranium fuel under the program called Megatons to Megawatts(TM).

Megatons to Megawatts(TM) is a 20-year, commercially financed government-industry partnership in which 500 metric tonnes of Russian weapons-grade uranium is transformed to low enriched uranium for use as commercial reactor fuel. USEC, as executive agent for the U.S. government, and JSC "Techsnabexport" (TENEX), for the Russian government, implement the programme.

Its main focus was to convert the equivalent of 20,000 nuclear warheads into nuclear fuel by end 2013. So far, the fuel generated from the conversion equals more than 193 billion gallons of gasoline, corresponding to more than 17 months of U.S. consumption

In past years, this type of fuel has helped generate 10 per cent of the United States' electricity needs.

"For nearly two decades, the Megatons to Megawatts(TM) program has provided a reliable source of fuel for commercial nuclear power plants while reducing the quantities of weapons-grade uranium remaining in the world," John K. Welch, USEC president and CEO, said in a statement.

"As we near the end of this historic nonproliferation program, USEC is preparing to transition to our new contract with TENEX, which will continue to provide a reliable supply of LEU for the company while we work to deploy the American Centrifuge technology."

NKorea built plant to make gas for uranium enrichment

North Korea may have constructed a plant to manufacture a gas needed for uranium enrichment in a development that would indicate that Pyongyang had opened a second way to build nuclear weapons as early as the 1990s, The Washington Post reported late Sunday.

Citing a previously unpublicized account by Abdul Qadeer Khan, the father of Pakistan's atomic bomb program, the newspaper said North Korea may have been enriching uranium on a small scale by 2002, with maybe 3,000 or even more centrifuges.

Pakistan helped North Korea with vital machinery, drawings and technical advice for at least six years, the report said.

The Post said Khan's account could not be independently corroborated. But one US intelligence official and a US diplomat said his information adds to their suspicions that North Korea has long pursued the enrichment of uranium in addition to making plutonium for bombs.

It also may help explain Pyongyang's assertion in September that it is in the final stages of such enrichment, the paper noted.

Khan described his dealings with the country in official documents and in correspondence with a former British journalist, Simon Henderson, who said he thinks an accurate understanding of Pakistan's nuclear history is relevant for US policymaking, the report pointed out.

The Post independently verified that the documents were produced by Khan.

Khan's account of the pilot plant depicts relations between the two countries' scientists as exceptionally close for nearly a decade, the paper said.

Khan says, for example, that during a visit to North Korea in 1999, he toured a mountain tunnel, according to the report. There his hosts showed him boxes containing components of three finished nuclear warheads, which he was told could be assembled for use atop missiles within an hour.

His visit occurred seven years before the country's first detonation, prompting some current and former US officials to say that Khan's account, if correct, suggests North Korea's achievements were more advanced than previously known, and that the country may have more sophisticated weapons, or a larger number, than earlier estimated, The Post said.

But Siegfried Hecker, a former Los Alamos National Laboratory director who was allowed to see some North Korean plutonium during a visit to its nuclear facilities in January 2004, said after hearing Khan's description of the trip he remains unconvinced that the country in 1999 had enough fissile material on hand to make such weapons.

The Post quotes Hecker as saying that Khan may have tried to get himself "off the hook" by implying that his own illicit technical assistance to Pyongyang was irrelevant because "these guys already had nuclear weapons."

Israel says Iran nuclear plant immune to conventional strike

Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak said on Monday that Iran's recently diclosed second uranium enrichment plant is "immune" to conventional bombing.

"The new site near Qom is meant for enrichment. What was revealed by the Iranians had been built over years and is located in bunkers that cannot be destroyed through a conventional attack," Barak told parliament's foreign affairs and defence committee.

Iran notified the UN nuclear watchdog in September that it was building a second enrichment plant near the central shrine city of Qom, after Washington accused it of covertly evading its notification responsibilities under the Non-Proliferation Treaty.

Confirmation of the construction work drew criticism not only from Western governments but also from the United Nations.

Enriched uranium can make the fuel for nuclear power plants but in highly extended form can also produce the fissile core of an atomic bomb.

Along with Western governments, Israel suspects Iran of seeking to develop a weapons capability under the guise of a civil nuclear programme, an accusation Tehran denies.

Along with its US ally, Israel, the region's sole if undeclared nuclear power, has refused to rule out a resort to military action to prevent Iran developing a bomb.

Barak said he feared Iran could develop a weapon by 2011.

"I believe that by early 2010 Iran will hold threshold technology (for building a bomb). That means that if it wanted, it could develop nuclear weapons within a year from obtaining threshold technology," a senior official quoted him as telling the parliamentary committee.

Iran Agrees to Nuclear Fuel Swap - NYTimes.com

Iran Agrees to Nuclear Fuel Swap - NYTimes.com

Iran is ready to exchange the bulk of its stockpile of enriched uranium for nuclear fuel rods -- as proposed by the U.N. -- but according to its own mechanisms and timetable, the foreign minister said Saturday.

The minister's remarks come just days before an expected meeting between the U.S. and allies to discuss new sanctions against Iran over its nuclear program. The offer, however, falls far short of the conditions set by the international community.

Speaking to reporters at a regional security conference in Bahrain, Manochehr Mottaki said Iran agreed with a U.N. deal proposed in October in which up to 2,600 pounds (1,200 kilograms) of its uranium would be exchanged for fuel rods to power its research reactor.

''We accepted the proposal in principle,'' he said through a translator. ''We suggested in the first phase we give you 400 kilograms of 3.5 percent enriched uranium and you give us the equivalent in 20 percent uranium.''

Iran has about 3,300 pounds (1,500 kilograms) of low-enriched uranium and needs to refine to 20 percent to operate a research reactor that produces medical isotopes.

Uranium enriched at low levels can be used as fuel for nuclear energy, but when enriched to 90 percent and above, it can be used as material for a weapon. The United States and five other world powers have been trying to win Iran's acceptance of a deal under which Tehran would ship most of its low-enriched uranium stockpile abroad to be processed into fuel rods, which can't be enriched further.

The deal would leave Iran -- at least temporarily -- without enough enriched uranium to produce a bomb. However, after signaling in October that it would accept the proposal, Iran has since balked, giving mixed signals over the deal, including several statements from lawmakers rejecting it outright.

Mottaki maintained, however, that a clear proposal had been given involving the simultaneous exchange of uranium for fuel rods in stages.

''We gave a clear answer and we responded and our answer was we accepted in principle but there were differences in the mechanism,'' he said, suggesting the exchange take place on Iran's Kish island, in the Persian Gulf.

It is not clear, however, if the low-enriched uranium would then remain on the island or could be shipped out of the country -- a necessary condition to any deal from the standpoint of the international community.

The world powers are also unlikely to accept a long drawn out exchange in stages, as it would allow Iran to maintain enough enriched uranium inside the country to possibly build a weapon.

Iran, meanwhile, wants to receive the fuel rods immediately in exchange for its uranium for fear that France or Russia could renege deal.

Last month, the 35-nation board of the International Atomic Energy Agency endorsed a resolution from the six powers -- the U.S., Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany -- criticizing Iran for defying a U.N. Security Council ban on uranium enrichment and continuing to expand its operations.

It also censured Iran for secretly building a second facility and demanded that it immediately suspend further construction.

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said last month that the U.N. offer has been ''comprehensively rejected'' by Iran. A diplomat from one of the six powers said Wednesday that America's Western allies were waiting for Washington to formally declare the wait for an Iranian response over, probably by the end of this month.

The six countries are expected to meet next week to discuss what action to take over Iran.

EU leaders said they would support further U.N. sanctions unless Tehran starts cooperating over its nuclear program.

Russia's ARMZ wants two-thirds of Canadian Uranium mining rival

Russian state-owned mining firm ARMZ Uranium Holding Company wants to acquire at least two-thirds of Canadian rival Khan Resources Incorporated, Russian news agencies reported on Monday.

"Two-thirds of shares would suit us," ARMZ director general Vadim Jivov was quoted as saying by Ria Novosti on Monday, adding that his company would not buy at "just any price."

Khan Resources had announced on Friday that it was the target of a hostile takeover bid from ARMZ at 65 Canadian cents per share. ARMZ is a subsidiary of Rosatom, Russia's nuclear energy corporation.

"After the announcement of our intention to buy the shares, we have the right to receive the list of all of the company's shareholders and communicate to each one of them," Jivov said. "We intend to do this soon."

Khan Resources owns 58 percent of the exploitation license for a uranium mine in Dornod, Mongolia. ARMZ owns 21 percent of the license while Mongolia has the remaining 21 percent.

But Mongolia and Russia signed an agreement in August to jointly exploit the Dornod uranium deposit and create a joint company with equal stakes by the end of the year.

Radon causes Cancer: Direct Link established

A direct link has been confirmed for the first time between lung cancer and the odourless radioactive gas radon that is found in thousands of homes across Scotland.

Experts are now revising recommendations on maximum levels of radon in homes and workplaces in light of the new report from the United Nations.

Read the Full Report here

Twenty new studies involving tens of thousands of lung cancer patients across the world have led scientists at the UN Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation (UNSCEAR) to believe that there is a small risk of contracting the disease if exposed to the radiation in the home.

Radon is the second biggest cause of lung cancer after smoking, causing as many as 2000 deaths in the UK annually, compared to about 30,000 deaths from cigarettes.

The publication of the research comes three months after Scotland's own radon map was produced, which highlights four areas with concentrations above the government's action level.

Wolfgang Weiss, UNSCEAR's vice chairman, said in Vienna: "Up to now radon has been a typical health risk no-one wants to accept or take note of."

He said the report was significant because previous estimates of radon risks were extrapolated from studies of uranium miners exposed to high levels of the gas.

"In the meantime we've done 20 studies in homes where concentrations are very low, and there we can see a risk, it is small, but it is certainly there," he said.

"You can avoid smoking by just taking personal decisions," he said. "But radon is everywhere. So you need to develop strategies to avoid the influx of radon into houses ... It's very simple to seal basements, for example with plastic foil."

Radon is a hard-to-detect radioactive gas that comes from natural decay of uranium. Some 84% of radon occurs naturally, in all rocks and most soils, and while quickly diluted when it escapes into the air, it can get trapped inside cellars and buildings.

Scotland's radon map highlighted an area south west of Aberdeen - between Ballater, Banchory and Auchenblae - and land in the Borders, near Langholm and Jedburgh, as having concentrations of radon above normal levels.

A small area on the coast north of Dornoch in the Highlands was also highlighted, as was the town of Invergarry and its surrounds.

Around 62,000 homes are located in radon-affected areas in total, although it is estimated that only between 1000 and 3000 of these will have radon concentrations above the level requiring action.

Dirty old nuclear Rorsat leaking in orbit

Spinning around the Earth for more than two decades, an old Soviet satellite, with a dirty nuclear reactor, is leaking in orbit.

Launched by the former Soviet Union in February 1987, Cosmos 1818 was the first of two vehicles designed to evaluate an advanced nuclear power supply in low Earth orbit.

Apart from being a debris hazard, ground-watching surveillance has picked up dozens of small particles spewing into space from the 21-year-old satellite. What is this debris cloud? It's still an unexplained and worrying debris generation event.

Information on the event, first spotted in July 2008, has been highlighted in the January issue of the Orbital Debris Quarterly News - produced by the NASA Orbital Debris Program Office at the space agency's Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas.

Interesting history
The newsletter notes that Cosmos 1818 and its sister spacecraft, Cosmos 1867 both carried into orbit a thermionic nuclear power supply. That nuclear power gear was more advanced than earlier thermoelectric nuclear devices that energized the well-known Radar Ocean Reconnaissance Satellites (RORSATs) during the 1970s and 1980s.

The most infamous RORSAT was Cosmos 954. It made an out-of-control nose dive in 1978, raining dangerous radioactive debris over Canada. Traces of this radiation now cover the whole planet.

Unlike their RORSAT cousins that operated in very low orbits, Cosmos 1818 and Cosmos 1867 were directly inserted into much higher orbits, thereby eliminating any threat of premature reentry, the Orbital Debris Quarterly News notes.

Russian space authorities have said in the past that the nuclear reactors onboard Cosmos 1818 and Cosmos 1867 functioned for roughly five and 11 months, respectively. For the next two decades, the two inactive spacecraft orbited the Earth with their dirty cargo but without significant incident.

Special observations
But on or about July 4, 2008, the dormant Cosmos 1818 satellite seemed to be breaking up, possibly following a collision with other orbiting debris. The U.S. Space Surveillance Network spotted debris of various sizes being shed from the spacecraft.

Closer observation of a few of the debris pieces revealed characteristics generally indicative of metallic spheres – perhaps bubbles of sodium potassium reactor coolant, according to the space debris newsletter.

Another idea being put forward is that a coolant tube on Cosmos 1818 became thermally stressed and breached after coasting between sunlight and dark temperatures over the two decades.

Alternatively, the hyper-velocity impact of a small particle might have generated sufficient heat to melt some of the NaK, which then would have formed spheres with metallic properties," the newsletter explained.

Trail of droplets
This is not the first case of former Soviet satellites casting off a trail of droplets in Earth orbit – dendrites of a dangerous kind to other spacecraft.

Back in March of 2004 I reported on the case of the leaking RORSATs – and whether or not the drips of NaK were, a hazard or still radioactive.

Meanwhile, according to the space debris newsletter, more analysis of the Cosmos 1818 debris is underway in hopes of pinning down the nature of the debris and the possible cause of their origin. "To date, no similar debris generation by Cosmos 1867 has been observed," the newsletter advised.

Collision space
"I can only guess for now what may be going on with RORSATs," said Don Kessler, a former NASA expert on orbital debris and now an orbital debris and meteoroid consultant in Asheville, North Carolina.

These RORSATs were placed at an altitude above 500 miles (800 kilometers), he added, in the hope that their orbit would not decay until after their radioactivity had decayed hundreds of years from now. However, this also placed the RORSATs in a region of space that has the highest collision probability with other debris.

"Most of the small debris in this region is NaK droplets, released from the RORSATs prior to 1990. Consequently, as a result of collisions with other debris, RORSATs are not likely to remain intact before they re-enter," Kessler told SPACE.com. The most frequent type of collision would be with the older NaK droplets, impacting with very high velocities, he said.

"These smaller impacts would penetrate the RORSAT radiators, and release some of the remaining NaK. Impacts with larger debris would cause the entire RORSAT satellite to fragment," Kessler advised.

As for the wandering droplets of reactor coolant being radioactive, Kessler said. "I have never resolved the issue of whether these droplets are radioactive or not....they were certainly exposed to the RORSAT radiation. A specialist in radioactive material would best answer the question, how long NaK would remain radioactive."