Since the end of the cold war, the United Nations has logged more than 800 incidents in which radioactive material has gone missing, often from poorly guarded sites. Who is taking it - and should we be worried? Julian Borger investigates.
Sweden
The time bomb
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
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Greenpeace activists 'risk their lives'
Monday, August 18, 2008GREENPEACE ACTIVISTS protesting against a shipment of nuclear waste on its way to Sellafield are putting themselves at risk of death or injury, the UK nuclear security chief has warned.
Roger Brunt, the director of the government's Office for Civil Nuclear Security (OCNS), has accused the international anti-nuclear group of "recklessness" during attempts to board a boat carrying plutonium-contaminated waste from Sweden.
Bulgaria sends uranium fuel to Russia
Monday, July 21, 2008WASHINGTON -- Bulgaria has sent its remaining highly enriched uranium to Russia for safeguarding from terrorist or other potential misuse.
Nearly 14 pounds of the spent fuel were received Thursday at a Russian nuclear facility, the U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration announced. A first shipment of 37.3 pounds of fresh uranium fuel was sent to Russia in December 2003.
Fire at Swedish nuclear plant, reactor safe
Friday, July 11, 2008STOCKHOLM, July 11 (Reuters) - A fire broke out on Friday on the roof of a turbine facility at Sweden's Ringhals nuclear power plant but was brought under control, rescue services said.
A spokesman for the plant said there was no risk to the reactor.
"It's ... a fire on the roof of one of the turbine facilities at Ringhals 2," said Fredrik Akesson, of the fire brigade in Varberg. "I would say it's under control."
Reactor at Swedish nuclear plant offline
Friday, June 13, 2008Stockholm - A reactor at the Swedish nuclear plant Ringhals has been offline for a month after problems with auxiliary coolant pumps were detected during annual maintenance work, the plant said Friday. Two of the three auxiliary pumps had "insufficient capacity," Ringhals spokesman Gosta Larsen told local media.
The maintenance work began early May and the problems were detected during the overhaul.
Nuclear issue clouds rosy Swedish energy review
Friday, May 30, 2008The latest review of Sweden's energy policy by the International energy agency (IEA) congratulates the government for "continued outstanding progress during the last four years" but regrets that "the outlook for nuclear energy remains a major energy policy question, almost three decades after the 1980 popular vote to phase it out".
Man held after Swedish nuclear plant gets bomb threat
Wednesday, May 21, 2008STOCKHOLM, May 21 (Reuters) - Swedish state energy firm Vattenfall said the country's Oskarshamn nuclear plant had received a bomb threat on Wednesday, and a source at the site said a building was sealed off after an employee was found carrying explosives.
Police said they were questioning a suspect at the Oskarshamn plant, south of Stockholm on the Baltic coast, but could not immediately confirm he was an employee of the facility.
Lower confidence in Swedish nuclear power industry, survey says
Thursday, April 3, 2008Stockholm - Confidence in the Swedish nuclear power industry has dropped to its lowest level in 20 years in the wake of a reactor shutdown in 2006, a report said Wednesday. The autumn 2007 survey by Gothenburg University researchers suggested 39 per cent had "very great or rather great" confidence in information about energy and nuclear power issues issued by the nuclear power industry, down 10 percentage points on 2006.
Germany's Glos calls for emission target exemption for nuclear phase-out -report
Wednesday, April 2, 2008FRANKFURT (Thomson Financial) - Germany's economy minister Michael Glos plans to call on the European Union to loosen the country's emission targets, taking account of its planned nuclear-power phase-out, Handelsblatt said, citing a document it obtained.
Deep under Sweden's soil could lie a solution to the UK's nuclear waste problem
Monday, March 10, 2008Robin Pagnamenta in Oskarshamn, Sweden
Inside the cavernous hall of a nuclear storage plant in southern Sweden, an 18-tonne steel canister, bristling with tiny fins to draw out excess heat, is being hauled slowly through a hatch by a crane.
Packed with highly radioactive spent nuclear fuel from a reactor north of Stockholm, the canister is being made ready for 30 years of storage in pools sunk into the bedrock. Once it cools sufficiently, it will be placed permanently in a final repository deep underground.
