To read this issue of the Nuclear Monitor, use the article links below (in orange), or to download the full issue as a PDF use the link above.
Please subscribe to Nuclear Monitor.
Thanks to Peer de Rijk for 20 years with WISE: Peer has moved on as director of WISE International and WISE Netherlands. Thanks from all of us at WISE and NIRS for 20 years of great work and we look forward to collaborating with Peer into the future.
Unfinished business: Spotlight grows on Rio Tinto's Kakadu uranium clean-up: Dave Sweeney from the Australian Conservation Foundation summarizes a new report questioning Rio Tinto's commitment to properly rehabilitate the Ranger uranium mining site in the World Heritage-listed Kakadu National Park.
Uranium mines harm Australia's Indigenous people – so why have we approved a new one?: Jessica Urwin discusses the Australian government's controversial approval of Cameco's proposed Yeelirrie uranium mine in Western Australia ‒ the latest example of the uranium industry's long tradition of ignoring the dignity and welfare of Aboriginal communities.
Russia's nuclear power export program: Rosatom claims to be building 36 new reactors around the world. But an analysis by Ecodefense finds that the true number is just seven – and few if any of those projects would be proceeding if not for funding from the Russian state.
Denmark: Parliament calls for EURATOM reform: All 10 parties represented in the Danish parliament have announced their support for reform of the Euratom Treaty. Their principal complaint concerns the EU's subsidization of nuclear energy under the treaty – even non-nuclear countries such as Denmark are forced to subsidize Euratom.
Whatever happened to the 'integral fast reactor'?: A decade ago, nuclear lobbyists were furiously promoting non-existent 'integral fast reactors' (IFRs). These days, they are furiously promoting other types of non-existent reactors. So, what progress has been made commercializing IFR technology? In short: not much.
Integral fast reactors rejected for plutonium disposition in the UK and the US: The UK Nuclear Decommissioning Authority has formally abandoned consideration of IFR technology for plutonium disposition, citing a low level of technical maturity with no guarantee of success. In the US, several reports have reached the same conclusion.
Integral fast reactors: fact and fiction: IFRs have been the subject of endless hype ‒ but it is underpinned by idealized studies on paper and not by facts derived from actual experience. For the most part, the claims of IFR advocates don't stand up to scrutiny.