APRIL 2007

Slovakia seeks to break taboo on nuclear power

07.03.2007 - 17:27 CET | By Renata Goldirova
EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS – Slovakia has called for an EU-wide debate about the future prospects for nuclear energy in the bloc, with the Slovak prime minister sending a letter to European Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso suggesting to create a Nuclear Power Forum, serving as a channel for dialogue on the somewhat taboo issue.

"I am convinced that establishing and having a Nuclear Power Forum can turn into an effective practical policy tool in this field," Robert Fico wrote in a letter, seen by EUobserver.

According to Mr Fico "this forum would be an appropriate complement to similar platforms such as the Gas Forum in Madrid, Electrical Power Forum in Florence, Fossil Fuel Forum in Berlin and Renewable Resources Forum in Amsterdam."

The new body would primarily focus on dialogue between all the key players, including the European Commission, EU governments and stakeholders, in order to exchange best practice in the nuclear sector and shape its future development.

The Slovak move comes shortly before 27 EU leaders gather for a two-day EU summit beginning on Thursday (8 March), focused mainly on the future direction of the bloc's energy policy and Brussels' push for renewable energy to yield 20 percent of EU consumption by 2020.

However, nuclear energy is also to be high on the agenda, as approximately 12 countries have lined up behind the barricades to resist the 20 percent renewable commitment, with some of them demanding an explicit recognition of nuclear energy as a strong instrument for reducing CO2 emissions.

France, Slovakia and the Czech Republic have already signalled they are willing to have binding targets on low-carbon energy only if they include both renewable energy and nuclear energy. But strong resistance is expected to emerge from anti-nuclear power states such as Austria, Denmark and Ireland, arguing that nuclear waste and uranium processing poses too much risk.

Currently, 15 member states have nuclear power stations, which for some are a main source of electricity. Altogether, around one third of electricity and 15 percent of the EU bloc's overall energy is of nuclear origin.

Slovakia - itself forced to shut down part of a Soviet-era nuclear power plant as part of its EU accession commitment – has already announced the plan to build a new nuclear power plant.

In the same letter to Brussels, the Slovak centre-left prime minister Robert Fico launched Bratislava's bid to host the Nuclear Power Forum, arguing that Slovakia has "over 30 years of experience in generating more than half of the country's energy requirements."

In addition, the Bratislava-based body would be near the International Atomic Energy Agency located in Austria's capital, Vienna, he argued.

A European Commission spokesperson said it was an "interesting idea" adding that the
Czech Republic has sent a similar request to Brussels.

But setting up such a forum is not something to be decided immediately, the spokespeson added, underlining that the idea needs to be in line with the core message of the EU energy package - that it is for each member state to decide whether or not to rely on nuclear energy.

Safety upgrades at Swedish nuclear plant insufficient: report

STOCKHOLM, March 7 (AFP) Mar 07, 2007
Sweden's Nuclear Power Inspectorate (SKI) on Wednesday criticised planned improvements to safety procedures at a nuclear power plant hit by a series of incidents and shutdowns.

"SKI wants to see more personnel better instructed about security procedures and at an earlier date than planned by (the) Forsmark (plant)," SKI spokesman Anders Goerle told AFP, summing up the contents of a report sent to the plant.

SKI also wants the facility to improve its safety culture.

The inspectorate had asked Forsmark's operators to detail their planned improvements after a slew of incidents at the plant, located north of Stockholm on Sweden's east coast.

In the most serious incident, an electricity failure at the facility on July 25, 2006, led to the immediate shutdown of the Forsmark 1 reactor after two of four backup generators, which supply power to the reactor's cooling system, malfunctioned for about 20 minutes.

Some experts have suggested that a catastrophic reactor meltdown was narrowly avoided.

The incident prompted authorities to temporarily shut down five of Sweden's 10 reactors for security checks and maintenance. Some of the reactors remained shut down for several months.

In January, a damning internal report into safety standards at Forsmark was made public.

Sweden in February said it would ask the International Atomic Energy Agency to inspect the Forsmark plant.

Forsmark 1 has been out of service since February 3, after a sample taken from one of three rubber panels in the reactor's outer housing was found to have lost its required elasticity.

Nuclear power accounts for nearly half of Sweden's electricity production.

The country has shut two of its 12 nuclear reactors since 1999 as part of a plan to phase out nuclear power over the next 30 or so years, or when the reactors' lifespan expires.

All rights reserved. © 2005 Agence France-Presse.

Subsurface Bacteria Release Phosphate To Neutralise Uranium Contamination

by Staff Writers
Oak Ridge TN (SPX) Mar 31, 2006
In research that could help control contamination from the radioactive element uranium, scientists have discovered that some bacteria found in the soil and subsurface can release phosphate that converts uranium contamination into an insoluble and immobile form.

Based on laboratory studies, Georgia Institute of Technology researchers report promising results using bacterial species from three genera isolated from subsurface soils collected at a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Field Research Center site in Oak Ridge, Tenn. Researchers conducted preliminary screenings of many bacterial isolates and found several candidate strains that released inorganic phosphate after hydrolyzing an organo-phosphate source the researchers provided.

The bioremediation research project, funded for three years by DOE's Environmental Remediation Sciences Division, is in its early stages. Research team member Melanie Beazley, a Ph.D. student in the Georgia Tech School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, will present preliminary findings on March 30 at the 231st American Chemical Society National Meeting in Atlanta.

"These organisms release phosphate into the medium, but the precipitation (of uranium phosphate) occurs chemically," explained Assistant Professor of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences Martial Taillefert, co-director of the study. "That is the biomineralization of uranium and the novelty of this approach."

The process begins when the bacteria – from the genera Rhanella, Bacillus and possibly Arthrobacter– degrade an organo-phosphate compound such as glycerol-3-phosphate (G3P) or phytic acid (IP6), which can be present in subsurface soils.

"During their growth, the organisms liberate phosphate they derive from the organo-phosphate compound," said project co-director Patricia Sobecky, an associate professor of biology. "The free phosphate is released to the surrounding media, which is a solution in the lab. Then we conduct assays to see how much uranium is mineralized by the phosphate released by the bacteria." The bacteria's role is crucial in this process because uranium cannot dissociate the organo-phosphate compound chemically, Taillefert explained. So uranium in the presence of organo-phosphate alone does not result in significant uranium precipitation.

Sobecky and her Ph.D. student Robert Martinez are conducting the microbiological and physiological component of the research, while Taillefert and Beazley study the uranium chemistry and analyze distribution of different forms of uranium during incubation in the lab.

"The devil's in the details with the chemistry of uranium: There are numerous forms of uranium in the environment, which are all influenced by the natural properties of soils and groundwater," Taillefert said.

Sobecky added, "What we're doing now is optimizing the assay conditions and the techniques to analyze the distribution of uranium species in the lab." (NO UPDATE FOUND,JB editor)