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<title>News About Civil Nuclear Energy</title>
<link>http://www.nuclearpowerdaily.com/index.html</link>
<description>News About Civil Nuclear Energy</description>
<pubDate>Tue, 21 FEB 2012 08:49:03 AEST</pubDate>
<lastBuildDate>Tue, 21 FEB 2012 08:49:03 AEST</lastBuildDate>
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<title><![CDATA[South Korea to boost nuclear power?]]></title>
<link><![CDATA[http://www.nuclearpowerdaily.com/reports/South_Korea_to_boost_nuclear_power_999.html]]></link>
<description><![CDATA[<img src="http://www.spxdaily.com/images-bg/south-korea-yonggwang-nuclear-reactor-bg.jpg" hspace=5 vspace=2 align=left border=1 width=100 height=80>
Seoul (UPI) Feb 20, 2012 -

South Korea's plans to boost nuclear power face increasing resistance from civic and environmental groups, post Fukushima, the Japanese reactor site hit by an earthquake and tsunami last year.<p>

South Korea relies on nuclear energy for about 30 percent of its electricity needs, supplied by 21 active nuclear reactors. The government aims to increase that share to 40 percent by 2040.<p>

Even after Japan's magnitude-9 earthquake and tsunami last March 11 led to a meltdown at the Fukushima nuclear power plant, a South Korean government official was quoted by The Korea Herald newspaper as saying "the (nuclear) plan has not changed."<p>

And the South Korean government has been trying to recruit top nuclear experts from Tokyo Electric Power Company, operator of the Fukushima plant, to work in South Korea's nuclear power sector, reports Japan's Mainichi Shimbun newspaper.<p>

Meanwhile in Gyeongju, 230 miles southeast of Seoul, the No. 1 reactor at the Wolseong nuclear power plant was shut down last month after a temperature sensor on one of its four reactor coolant pumps malfunctioned.<p>

That incident came six months after the reactor was restarted following more than two years of maintenance.<p>

The Wolseong plant, which features four pressurized heavy water reactors, generates about 5 percent of South Korea's electricity.<p>

Korea Hydro and Nuclear Power Co. Ltd., operator of the plant, and the Ministry of Knowledge Economy maintain that no radiation leaked from the No. 1 reactor.<p>

"The temperature did not actually rise; it was simply a component abnormality," a ministry official said, Japanese newspaper The Hankyoreh reports.<p>

The Wolseong No. 1 reactor, which began commercial operation in 1983, is the second oldest in Korea. Its 30-year design life comes to a close in 2013 but the Nuclear Safety and Security Commission is assessing the possibility of an extension.<p>

"They give 10-year extensions in other countries, too, after conducting safety inspections according to set procedures," a ministry official said.<p>

However, local residents and environmental groups are concerned about the reactor's safety, given its track record. Not including last month's shutdown, the reactor has had 51 malfunctions since it went online, "due to flaws in machinery and components, including radiation leaks, coolant leaks and reactor shutdowns," says the Korea Federation of Environmental Movements.<p>

"Because the Wolseong No. 1 reactor has reached the end of its 30-year design life and is worn out, it is expected to keep malfunctioning from now on. There is a high possibility that a small accident could quickly turn into a large-scale one," warned Lee Sang-hong, director of a Gyeongju alliance for nuclear safety, Hankyoreh reports.<p>
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<title><![CDATA[Japan shuts down nuclear reactor]]></title>
<link><![CDATA[http://www.nuclearpowerdaily.com/reports/Japan_shuts_down_nuclear_reactor_999.html]]></link>
<description><![CDATA[<img src="http://www.spxdaily.com/images-bg/nuclear-civil-spix-bg.jpg" hspace=5 vspace=2 align=left border=1 width=100 height=80>
Tokyo (AFP) Feb 20, 2012 -

 Japan on Monday began a process that will see another one of the country's nuclear reactors go offline, leaving just two of 54 in operation.<p>

Kansai Electric Power Co (KEPCO), the largest utility firm after Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO), began lowering power generation in unit three at the Takahama nuclear plant in Fukui prefecture, a KEPCO spokeswoman said.<p>

The reactor is expected to be shut down completely by midnight, leaving all 11 reactors around the country owned by KEPCO idle, she said.<p>

The move comes on the day that Japan announced a record trade deficit in January as fuel imports soared for the resource-poor nation following the nuclear disaster at the Fukushima Daiichi plant in March.<p>

Before the accident, which was caused by a deadly earthquake and tsunami, Japan had relied for one third of its power supply on nuclear energy.<p>

But power companies including KEPCO, which provides electricity to the major western cities of Osaka, Kyoto and Kobe, have not been able to resume reactors after inspection due to the safety concerns of local residents.<p>

Once the Takahama reactor goes offline it will leave one unit operational at TEPCO's Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant in central Japan and one at the Tomari plant in northern Hokkaido.<p>

Those two units are expected to be closed down for inspection by late April.<p>
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<title><![CDATA[Britain and France sign nuclear power deals at summit]]></title>
<link><![CDATA[http://www.nuclearpowerdaily.com/reports/Britain_and_France_sign_nuclear_power_deals_at_summit_999.html]]></link>
<description><![CDATA[<img src="http://www.spxdaily.com/images-bg/nuclear-civil-spix-bg.jpg" hspace=5 vspace=2 align=left border=1 width=100 height=80>
Paris (AFP) Feb 17, 2012 -
 French President Nicolas Sarkozy and Britain's Prime Minister David Cameron put recent disputes behind them Friday to unveil a nuclear power deal and renew their own sometimes shaky political alliance.<p>

The pair took a strong position on the Syrian regime's violence at their summit in Paris, and Cameron took the opportunity of a joint news conference to wish his "friend" Sarkozy well in France's upcoming presidential election.<p>

Celebrating a multi-million pound (euro) nuclear power deal and ever closer defence ties, the Paris summit was a far cry from recent encounters between the pair at European summits in Brussels, where they have clashed bitterly.<p>

"When you look across the foreign policy and defence policy issues we discussed today, I don't think that there has been closer French-British cooperation than at any time since the Second World War," Cameron said. <p>

Cameron and Sarkozy first bonded over the Libyan intervention last year, where British and French jets spearheaded what later became a NATO-led air campaign that eventually led to the overthrow of Moamer Kadhafi's regime.<p>

They have since worked towards closer defence and military industrial ties and have jointly pushed for tougher UN action against Syria's Bashar al-Assad, who is engaged in a bloody crackdown on a pro-democracy revolt.<p>

Both men expressed support for an upcoming conference of an international coalition dubbed the Friends of Syria, which meets next week in Tunis, but called on the Syrian opposition to organise itself better as well.<p>

"We cannot accept that a dictator massacres his own people, but the revolution will not be brought from outside, it will rise from inside Syria, as it has done elsewhere," Sarkozy told the pair's joint news conference.<p>

Both men said the conditions are not ripe in Syria for another Western military intervention like the one that tipped the balance in Libya, but said that they would bring maximum diplomatic pressure to bear.<p>

"In Libya we had a UN Security Council that authorised force, we had an Arab League that wanted action to be taken, we had a clear opposition in Libya that was working on behalf of the whole of the country," Cameron said.<p>

"With Syria we don't have all those circumstances in place but that doesn't mean we should stand back and just say there is nothing that can be done. We need to ... put the maximum pressure on Assad to stop the butchering."<p>

Cameron also gave his backing to Sarkozy's re-election campaign, which promises to be an uphill struggle against opposition Socialist challenger Francois Hollande, who has a clear opinion poll lead with 10 weeks to go.<p>

"We'll be following your fortunes in the weeks to come on the campaign trail and, as I said, I wish you luck," Cameron told Sarkozy, calling the summit "a chance to wish my friend well in the battle he has ahead."<p>

The pair also hailed the civil nuclear deal, in a joint appearance that was noticeably more friendly than other recent encounters.<p>

Cameron said the British engineering firm Rolls-Royce will secure a 400 million pounds (481 million euro, $632 million) share in the work to build Britain's first French-pioneered EPR reactor at Hinkley Point in southern England.<p>

Other British firms will sign deals worth a total of 115 million pounds with France's state-owned energy giant EDF as part of the Hinkley project.<p>

On defence ties, the two leaders announced a new "long-term strategic partnership" on military drones, including a project for France's Dassault and Britain's BAE Systems to develop air combat drones.<p>

They said a joint expeditionary force comprising British and French troops would be operational by 2016.<p>

Cameron and Sarkozy have clashed publicly over how to handle the eurozone sovereign debt crisis and about the French leader's plan for a financial transaction tax, which the British premier recently branded "madness".<p>

"We do sometimes have disagreements on European issues," Cameron admitted, but insisted that they have "a relationship that is easily strong enough to survive the odd bump or bounce when we sometimes have a disagreement."<p>
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<title><![CDATA[Britain and France to sign nuclear power deal at summit]]></title>
<link><![CDATA[http://www.nuclearpowerdaily.com/reports/Britain_and_France_to_sign_nuclear_power_deal_at_summit_999.html]]></link>
<description><![CDATA[<img src="http://www.spxdaily.com/images-bg/nuclear-civil-spix-bg.jpg" hspace=5 vspace=2 align=left border=1 width=100 height=80>
Paris (AFP) Feb 17, 2012 -
 French President Nicolas Sarkozy held talks with Britain's Prime Minister David Cameron on Friday at a summit in Paris where they were expected to sign a nuclear pact and reinforce defence ties.<p>

The diplomatic stand-offs with Syria and Iran, in which London and Paris are working together on the UN Security Council, were also on the agenda at the Elysee, where Cameron and his deputy Nick Clegg arrived just before lunch<p>

France and Britain have clashed in recent months over economic policy in the eurozone, an area in which Paris is much closer to Berlin, but they are close partners in defence and now plan to share nuclear expertise.<p>

Germany has decided to phase out nuclear power, but France still uses it to generate around three-quarters of its power and is keen to seize the market for the world's next generation of more powerful reactor technology.<p>

"At our last summit, we signed a historic partnership on defence. Today, we will match that ambition on nuclear energy," Cameron said, in remarks released by Downing Street before he left London for Friday's talks in Paris.<p>

"As two great civil nuclear nations, we will combine our expertise to strengthen industrial partnership, improve nuclear safety and create jobs at home. The deals signed today will create more than 1,500 jobs in the UK."<p>

French nuclear giant Areva is pioneering development of the modern EPR reactor, but Cameron said that thanks to the agreement, British firms would make "the vast majority of the content of our new nuclear plants".<p>

Downing Street said the British engineering firm Rolls-Royce will secure a 400 million pounds (481 million euro, $632 million) share in the work to build Britain's first EPR at Hinkley Point in southern England.<p>

Other British firms will sign deals worth a total of 115 million pounds with France's state-owned energy giant EDF as part of the Hinkley project.<p>

Renewed safety fears in the wake of last year's Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan contributed to German Chancellor Angela Merkel's decision that the EU's biggest economy would begin to phase out nuclear power by 2022.<p>

But France remains committed to the technology, and Sarkozy has attacked an opposition plan to gradually reduce the role of nuclear power.<p>

Both Downing Street and the Elysee Palace said Friday's summit would also tackle the crisis in Syria and the broader question of Franco-British defence cooperation following their close collaboration in the Libyan campaign.<p>

"One year on from the Libya uprising, we are working together to stand up to the murderous Syrian regime and to stop a nuclear weapon in the hands of Iran," Cameron said, in the same pre-summit statement.<p>

On the diplomatic front, France and Britain will press for a stronger UN Security Council position on Bashar al-Assad's vicious crackdown on a popular revolt, despite Russian and Chinese opposition to outside intervention.<p>

The UN General Assembly demanded in a resolution Thursday that Syria halt its crackdown, which human rights groups say has claimed more than 6,000 lives over the past 11 months.<p>

But the largely symbolic text, put forward by Arab states with Western support, was opposed by Russia and China, which just days earlier had vetoed what would have been a tougher resolution by the Security Council.<p>

On the question of practical military cooperation, NATO partners France and Britain plan to review progress on a year-old defence agreement that will see them pooling more resources and technology, especially in naval forces.<p>

According to reports in France, the partners are due to take another step towards building a European armed drone -- an unmanned bomber and spy plane that would be a joint project between France's Dassault and Britain's BAE.<p>

The two leaders were to hold talks and a joint news conference at the Elysee, followed by a working lunch. French and British ministers were to hold parallel bilateral talks on defence, foreign affairs and industry.<p>
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<title><![CDATA[Australia's most populated state lifts uranium ban]]></title>
<link><![CDATA[http://www.nuclearpowerdaily.com/reports/Australias_most_populated_state_lifts_uranium_ban_999.html]]></link>
<description><![CDATA[<img src="http://www.spxdaily.com/images-bg/enriched-uranium-orange-bg.jpg" hspace=5 vspace=2 align=left border=1 width=100 height=80>
Sydney (AFP) Feb 15, 2012 -

 Australia's most populous state will reverse a decades-long ban on uranium exploration, with the regional government saying Wednesday it would be foolish not to tap into the lucrative sector.<p>

Barry O'Farrell, premier of New South Wales, said the quarter-century ban would end so officials can "get the facts" about the extent of any uranium reserves in the state, home to Australia's biggest city Sydney.<p>

Uranium is a key input for nuclear power.<p>

"We'd be mugs (fools) in the current climate, given the revenue being generated in other states, given the jobs being generated in other states, not to do this step, which is to see what uranium resources exist across New South Wales," O'Farrell told reporters.<p>

"Clearly we're a government that needs revenue in order to build the hospitals, the roads, the railways, the other infrastructure New South Wales needs.<p>

"It would be stupid to turn a blind eye to the existence of resources in New South Wales," he added.<p>

There are uranium mines in South Australia state and the Northern Territory but while uranium exploration is allowed in resource-rich Queensland, mining is banned there. <p>

Western Australia, which has massive mineral wealth, currently has no uranium mines but a decision on a new project is expected this year.<p>

Victoria will now be the only Australian state with a total ban on uranium.<p>

O'Farrell's decision, criticised by opposition lawmakers and environmental groups, follows Canberra's lifting in December of a long-standing national ban on exporting uranium to India, opening up a huge new market.<p>

Australia does not use nuclear power but it is the world's third-ranking uranium producer behind Kazakhstan and Canada, exporting 9,600 tonnes of oxide concentrate worth more than Aus$1.1 billion (US$1.2 billion) a year.<p>

It also has the world's largest uranium reserves, holding 23 percent of the global total, according to the World Nuclear Association.<p>

Japan, the United States and European Union account for the majority of Canberra's exports of the nuclear fuel, with smaller shipments to South Korea, China, Canada and Taiwan.<p>

National Resources Minister Martin Ferguson last year described uranium as a "key industry" for Australia, estimating that total output would double within four years and quadruple within two decades.<p>
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<title><![CDATA[
Kazakhstan keen to expand civil nuke ties with India
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<link><![CDATA[http://www.nuclearpowerdaily.com/reports/Kazakhstan_keen_to_expand_civil_nuke_ties_with_India_999.html]]></link>
<description><![CDATA[<img src="http://www.spxdaily.com/images-bg/aktau-nuclear-power-npp-plant-kazakhstan-bg.jpg" hspace=5 vspace=2 align=left border=1 width=100 height=80>
New Delhi (IANS) Feb 15, 2012 -
 Kazakhstan is keen to expand civil nuclear ties with India, its envoy here said Wednesday.
<p>
Ambassador Doulat Kuanyshev said the two strategic partners should look beyond and enhance ties in the nuclear sector, and let Kazakhstan's atomic power company Kazakhprom and Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited expand cooperation.<p>
&quot;We should look beyond. Kazakhstan is (among) main exporters of natural uranium in the world and India has the potential to increase its nuclear power capacity,&quot; Kuanyshev told reporters.<p>
&quot;Agreement between Kazakhprom and NPCIL is on and it is going quite successfully,&quot; he said.<p>
He said the next scheduled delivery of fuel for India's nuclear power plants was next year and the process &quot;I think will be till 2014&quot;.<p>
Asked if Kazakhstan was ready to meet India's oil needs, if it reduces its fuel dependency on Iran in the wake of US and EU sanction, the envoy said there were &quot;no specific discussions of these matters&quot;.
<p>
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<title><![CDATA[Secrecy Over $8 Billion Vogtle Nuclear Reactor Deal Challenged in Court]]></title>
<link><![CDATA[http://www.nuclearpowerdaily.com/reports/Secrecy_Over_8_Billion_Vogtle_Nuclear_Reactor_Deal_Challenged_in_Court_999.html]]></link>
<description><![CDATA[<img src="http://www.spxdaily.com/images-bg/vogtle-nuclear-plant-construction-site-npp-bg.jpg" hspace=5 vspace=2 align=left border=1 width=100 height=80>
Atlanta GA (SPX) Feb 16, 2012 -

With the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) believed to be within days of announcing the final federal approval of the controversial Vogtle nuclear project, the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy (SACE) has asked a court to stop more than two years of stonewalling by Southern Co. and the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), which are resisting any meaningful public disclosure to taxpayers of the risks to which they are exposed in the massive commitment of $8.33 billion in conditional federal loan guarantees to Southern Company and their utility partners for two proposed new nuclear reactors at Plant Vogtle in Georgia.<p>

Of particular concern in the SACE Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) proceeding is the fact that the amount of taxpayer-backed obligations for the proposed Vogtle reactors is more than a dozen times greater than the failed Solyndra loan guarantee.<p>

To date, DOE has produced heavily censored documents that have provided little or no information in an effort to frustrate any analysis that would be useful to taxpayers. Based on the limited information produced to date, it appears that the power companies had to put almost no "skin in the game," only promising to pay a token credit subsidy fee of what could be as little as 0.5 or 1.5 percent of the total loan principal.<p>

Private lenders have declined to finance new reactors because of the enormously high cost of new nuclear power and the substantial risk that any such investment will fail. In 2003, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimated that the chance of a loan for new nuclear reactor construction resulting in default would be "very high - well over 50 percent."<p>

The Obama administration's proposed loan guarantee for Vogtle transfers the risk onto American taxpayers, who would pay up to $8.33 billion if Southern Company and its partners run into the same kind of trouble that is routine in the nuclear power industry-cost overruns, delays and project cancellations.<p>

And Vogtle does have a history that should trouble taxpayers worried about assuming responsibility for the massive loan guarantee: the original two reactors at the Georgia site took almost 15 years to build, came in 1,200 percent over budget and resulted in the largest rate hike at the time in Georgia.<p>

Stephen A. Smith, executive director, Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, said: "Given some of the lessons learned and political games developing from the Solyndra loan guarantee case, it's unacceptable and inconsistent that the much larger Vogtle loan isn't getting more intense scrutiny when the potential risk to taxpayers is much greater. The DOE needs to operate with more transparency now - not less."<p>

Mindy Goldstein, acting director, Turner Environmental Law Clinic at Emory University School of Law, is representing SACE in its FOIA litigation.<p>

She said: "DOE claims that the loan guarantee terms and credit subsidy fee estimates are confidential and may only be viewed by Georgia Power and its utility partners. Let's hope DOE is wrong. For such information to be withheld as confidential, it must have been obtained from the utilities themselves. If the power companies are literally writing their own guarantees and credit subsidy fee estimates, the Loan Guarantee Program is more flawed than anyone could have imagined."<p>

SACE filed its FOIA request on March 25, 2010. Under FOIA, DOE was obliged to respond in full to the SACE request by April 22, 2010. On August 10, 2010, when SACE had still not received a complete response, it filed suit in the D.C. District Court.<p>

DOE recently made its final document production on December 8, 2011, nearly 20 months after the response deadline. Most of the documents produced by DOE were heavily redacted, and the loan guarantee terms and credit subsidy fee estimates were withheld as confidential information belonging to the power companies.<p>

In October 2011, Taxpayers for Common Sense announced its support for the SACE FOIA request, urging DOE to provide the details of the agreement for the proposed Vogtle reactors-especially because taxpayers are on the hook for such an enormous amount of money. President Ryan Alexander commented, "With more than $8 billion on the line it's time DOE start shedding some light on this program. Solyndra was the canary in the coal mine for this deeply flawed program, these defaults will continue if things don't change."<p>

SACE's March 2010 FOIA request covered such items as: the Southern Company loan guarantee; related correspondence between DOE and Southern Nuclear Operating Company, Georgia Power Company, Oglethorpe Power Corporation, Municipal Authority of Georgia (MEAG), and the City of Dalton, Georgia; environmental review records related to the loan guarantee request; any credit analysis conducted by DOE in relation to the loan guarantee; all records related to the general terms and conditions of the loan guarantee; and all records related to issuance of the loan guarantee.<p>

SACE has posted the thousands of pages of documents on a website that is open for the concerned public to access. Accompanying the documents are highlighted examples of the egregiously and they believe, illegally, redacted materials. View the Vogtle FOIA documents SACE received, document summaries, a timeline of their FOIA activities, and SACE court filings <a href="http://blog.cleanenergy.org/2012/02/02/vogtle-loan-guarantee-update/">here</a>.<p>

The continued foot dragging and improper handling by DOE of the SACE FOIA request provide the latest proof of the validity of the criticisms set out in the July 12, 2010 U.S. Government Accountability Office report, <a href="http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-10-627">"Further Actions Are Needed to Improve DOE's Ability to Evaluate and Implement the Loan Guarantee Program."</a><p>

The GAO found that the program is inadequately planned and executed, lacks objective performance goals, and provides preferential treatment to nuclear loan guarantee applications over other types of applications.<p>
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<title><![CDATA[New Integrated Building Model to Improve Success of Fish Farming Operations]]></title>
<link><![CDATA[http://www.nuclearpowerdaily.com/reports/New_Integrated_Building_Model_to_Improve_Success_of_Fish_Farming_Operations_999.html]]></link>
<description><![CDATA[<img src="http://www.spxdaily.com/images-bg/building-integrated-aquaculture-biaq-indoor-fish-farm-production-bg.jpg" hspace=5 vspace=2 align=left border=1 width=100 height=80>
Amherst, MA (SPX) Feb 14, 2012 -

Today's "locavore" movement with its emphasis on eating more locally-produced food is a natural fit for fruits and vegetables in nearly every region, but few entrepreneurs have dared to apply the concept to fish farming. Those who have ventured to turn a vacant barn or garage into an aquaculture business have too often been defeated by high energy and feed costs, building-related woes and serious environmental problems, says aquaculture researcher Andy Danylchuk at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.<p>

Now he and colleagues are melding building design, fish ecology and aquaculture engineering techniques into a first-of-its-kind "building-integrated aquaculture" (BIAq) model to offer an affordable, more holistic and sustainable approach to indoor fish production located close to markets and able to succeed even in cold climates. Their ideas are outlined in the current issue of ASHRAE Journal, published by the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers.<p>

As Danylchuk explains, typically when a small-scale entrepreneur starts up an aquaculture operation, he or she installs tanks and plumbing in an old chicken barn, for example. "But that's like building a house with no regard for the occupants' comfort or their utility budget," he says. In fact, studies show over 75 percent of total energy demands in the United States are due to building operations.<p>

"Our team began looking at renewable energy systems to make power more affordable, and how fish farm waste streams can become plant food rather than an environmental headache. If you start by taking the building into consideration, these operations might actually become economically feasible," the fish ecologist adds.<p>

The need for local aquaculture is clear, he and fellow UMass Amherst Building-Integrated Aquaculture Working Group members James Webb and green building expert Simi Hoque point out. Due to declining wild fish stocks and environmental degradation, fish farms now account for nearly 40 percent of the world's total fisheries production and it's growing.<p>

Further, "while per capita seafood consumption has already reached record levels in the United States, recent USDA recommendations suggest more than twice this amount for a healthy lifestyle. Achieving this goal represents a significant challenge considering approximately 85 percent of U.S. seafood is imported and nearly half of this comes from overseas aquaculture production." These imports are tainted by food security and quality issues as well as considerable environmental drawbacks and financial costs of global transportation.<p>

The BIAq team therefore set out to design a practical model for small businesses to help them produce good quality, local seafood with a modest investment of cash, low energy use, low greenhouse gas emissions, low waste/environmental damage and at prices consumers can afford. Their model dovetails systems to maximize energy efficiency and aquaculture operations by simultaneously addressing humidity, condensation, airflow, water flow, waste stream recovery, passive and renewable energy and worker health and safety.<p>

For example, the BIAq model calls for recirculating fish tank wastewater through a step-wise filter system to remove waste and food residue and re-use the dissolved carbon, nitrogen and phosphorous nutrients as fertilizer in a hydroponic garden. In this way, wastewater is cleaned and recirculated back to the fish, while supporting a cash-crop such as herbs or garden greens attractive to consumers, and diverting wastewater from the environment.<p>

Using a solar water-heating system can dramatically cut energy costs, as well. Another synergistic benefit can be gained by using heat pumps and exchangers, package refrigeration and condensation units to complement each other in controlling humidity and warming the atmosphere in an operation that is water-vapor intensive. Even small changes such as locating supply air ducts to the ceiling to allow air to move over interior walls helps to prevent moisture accumulation and mitigate high humidity, the authors point out.<p>

"We identify areas where a BIAq approach might increase efficiency and reduce operating costs. Our focus is on processes and design decisions that have the greatest potential for energy conservation in the heavily populated temperate regions of the world." They add, "Climate control is a major challenge for indoor recirculating aquaculture systems, and continuing to ignore the design of the building envelope will result in inefficiencies and higher costs."<p>

The authors hope that framing the development of recirculating aquaponics facilities as a holistic and synergistic systems-based endeavor will enable a robust analysis of the environmental, social and economic benefits that will make fish production more sustainable.<p>
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<title><![CDATA[Taiwan to forge ahead with nuclear power?]]></title>
<link><![CDATA[http://www.nuclearpowerdaily.com/reports/Taiwan_to_forge_ahead_with_nuclear_power_999.html]]></link>
<description><![CDATA[<img src="http://www.spxdaily.com/images-bg/taiwan-chinshan-nuclear-plant-bg.jpg" hspace=5 vspace=2 align=left border=1 width=100 height=80>
Taipei, Taiwan (UPI) Feb 14, 2012 -

Taiwan plans to go forward with its fourth nuclear power plant amid safety concerns.<p>

Taiwanese President Ma Ying-jeou, winning a second term in office last month, said he is committed to having the No. 4 Longmen nuclear facility, known as the NPP-4, online by 2016, as long as it meets safety requirements.<p>

But the plant had been bitterly opposed by local residents and environmentalists even before Japan's magnitude-9 earthquake and tsunami last March 11 led to a meltdown at the Fukushima nuclear power plant.<p>

In her campaign leading up to the presidential elections, the opposition Democratic Progressive party candidate had promised that, if elected, she would halt commissioning of the NPP-4.<p>

Taiwan Today has reported that in pre-operation tests over the past year, the NPP-4, which will feature two 1,350-megawatt advanced boiling water reactor units, has experienced fires, blackouts and other irregularities.<p>

While the country's first three nuclear plants were turnkey projects subcontracted to General Electric and Westinghouse, NPP-4, under construction in New Taipei City, is the first one to be supervised by the Taiwan Power Co. utility, known as Taipower, under the Ministry of Economic Affairs.<p>

"Taipower had no previous experience of nuclear power stations before taking charge of the NPP-4," the French newspaper Le Monde quoted Aiya Hsu, of environmental group Green Citizens' Action Alliance, as saying.<p>

The project, which had been scheduled to be online by December, has faced numerous delays for technical and political reasons.<p>

Taipower says construction on the plant is more than 90 percent complete.<p>

"The longer the project went on, the more it cost and the more cost-cutting there was," an unnamed Taipower employee told Le Monde.<p>

In 2000, Tien Chiu-chin, a member of the opposition party, estimated the facility would cost $2.6 billion.<p>

"Now it will end up costing four times as much. It has not even been commissioned yet (and) it is already rated as one of the world's most dangerous plants by the World Nuclear Association," she said.<p>

Of particular concern, Le Monde reports, is the haphazard handling of radioactive waste for Taiwan's existing nuclear power facilities, with cooling ponds for the six reactors containing nearly four times the radioactive waste as had been anticipated.<p>

But Taiwan's nuclear safety regulator, the Atomic Energy Council, dismissed Le Monde's report, maintaining that spent reactor fuel from the reactors has always been under safe storage and strict management.<p>

About one-fifth of the country's electricity is derived from nuclear power.<p>
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<title><![CDATA[Poland sticking to 2020 target for first atomic plant]]></title>
<link><![CDATA[http://www.nuclearpowerdaily.com/reports/Poland_sticking_to_2020_target_for_first_atomic_plant_999.html]]></link>
<description><![CDATA[<img src="http://www.spxdaily.com/images-bg/unfinished-foundation-zarnowiec-npp-poland-nuclear-bg.jpg" hspace=5 vspace=2 align=left border=1 width=100 height=80>
Warsaw (AFP) Feb 13, 2012 -

 Polish energy group PGE on Monday denied reports that it had pushed back from 2020 to 2025 the planned opening of the country's first nuclear power plant.<p>

PGE spokesman Lukasz Witkowski told AFP that the 2025 date highlighted in weekend media reports on the group's development strategy was simply the target for bringing the plant up to full capacity.<p>

"We plan for Poland's first nuclear power plant, with a total output of around 3,000 megawatts from two or three reactors, to be at full capacity by 2025," Witkowski said.<p>

"That implies that the first reactor would come online beforehand," he underlined.<p>

Confusion over the target date arose because PGE did not mention nuclear power in its 2020 energy portfolio, part of its strategic plan for 2012-2035.<p>

That sparked reports that it had had to rein in its drive to meet a government-set target for opening Poland's first atomic power station in 2020.<p>

State-owned PGE's strategy foresees a 36-percent share of nuclear power in its overall energy mix by 2030, when a second 3,000-megawatt plant is due to have come online.<p>

Poland, a nation of 38 million people, currently relies on its plentiful coal the generate 94 percent of its power.<p>

PGE had been due to launch a tender process for the construction of the nuclear plant before the end of last year, but the announcement was delayed because of the global financial crisis.<p>

Three international groups have expressed interest in the project: French duo EDF and Areva and two US-Japanese consortia, Westinghouse Electric Company LLC and GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy Americas.<p>
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<pubDate>Tue, 21 FEB 2012 08:49:03 AEST</pubDate>
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