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LONDON, Sept 4 (Reuters) - Uranium enrichment companies in the United States and Europe have seen an increase in customer interest after the recent conflict involving Russia and Georgia, industry sources said on Thursday.
Nuclear reactors are dependent on reliable supplies of fuel, made from uranium ore that has been converted into a gas which in turn is enriched into nuclear fuel. (more…)
A little before dawn on a recent summer morning, a convoy of three large blue lorries, a handful of police cars and a bus rumbled along the dual carriageway heading north out of the Bulgarian capital, Sofia. Even if it had not been so early, the motorcade would probably not have drawn much attention. The lorries were unmarked, the bus carrying a few sleepy policemen was old and scruffy, while the lumbering shipment was big and slow enough to explain the escort and its flashing blue lights. (more…)
WASHINGTON - The chaos in Georgia has forced the United States to halt a high-priority program that was helping the former Soviet republic to identify possible smugglers of nuclear bomb components across its borders, long considered a transit point for terrorists seeking to obtain weapons of mass destruction, according to US officials.
A team from the US Nuclear Security Administration was providing Georgian authorities with radiation equipment and training at key border crossings and the Batumi airport on the country’s Black Sea coast when Russia invaded two weeks ago. The advisers were forced to flee the country within days, according to a spokesman from the Department of Energy. (more…)
The United States and Armenia have agreed to cooperate against the smuggling of nuclear and radioactive materials.
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian signed the agreement in what is called a “joint action plan” that makes the cooperation activities official. (more…)
Belarussian President Alexander Lukashenko says his country needs to build a nuclear power station. The creation of a domestic nuclear energy source was essential to guarantee “national security”, Interfax news quoted Mr Lukashenko as saying.
Work on the reactor would start in 2008, he said. It is expected to be ready in four to eight years. (more…)
Two Soviet-era nuclear generators which sparked a huge international hunt in Georgia may not exist, authorities admitted on Monday.
The Strontium 90 generators were believed to be hangovers from the Soviet military presence in Georgia.
Dozens of experts took part in a two-week search of 550 square kilometres (200 square miles) of land in the west of the country, some of it so remote that they had to travel on foot or on horseback. (more…)
