World news

This series of brief articles reports recent events that occurred in nuclear industry. In Sweden the Barsebaeck-1 reactor has been shut down for political reasons. In a seminar the president of the Swiss association of electricity firms has stated that the respect of Kyoto agreements implies the use of nuclear energy. For the Japanese MITI, nuclear energy remains competitive, the cost of KWh has been estimated at 5.9 yens for nuclear energy, 10.2 yens for petroleum, 6.5 yens for coal and 6.4 yens for natural gas, the structure of the nuclear energy cost is investment: 2.3 yens, fuel: 1.7 yens and operating cost: 1.9 yens. In France a new campaign has been launched in order to recover radium-containing objects. These objects are mainly radium-pins that were used in radiotherapy devices during the first half of this century. The American department of energy (DOE) plans to build 3 new facilities on the Savannah River site, these installations will turn military plutonium into MOX fuel for nuclear power plants. (A.C.)