FoKerr Pete Painful sent this to me…one of the greatest gifts ever.

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Sunday afternoon, so we need some Helios Creed. I once drove 3+ hours each way one night to see him.

At June’s “Atomcon”:http://www.totalwonkerr.net/1638/why-arent-you-at-atomcon-2008, Rosatom unveiled a website, intended to allow the Russian public to -control their iodine intake- check radiation background info on nuclear power facilities all over the country with a click and a zoom. I guess this was Rosatom’s way of dealing with hackers, whose attacks on NPP websites helped spread panic over a “non-existent radiation leak at a nuclear plant in St. Petersburg”:http://en.rian.ru/russia/20080523/108202288.html in May.

The website is basically a map of the country – “check it out”:http://www.russianatom.ru/ – and you can flip between map and google-powered satellite view. Sadly, I can’t zoom to see close-ups of my birthplace – the “beautiful Magadan”:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magadan.

Anyway, my senior colleague “Cristina Hansell”:http://cns.miis.edu/cns/staff/hansell_cristina.htm discovered today that the website also allows easy access to and close-up view of amazing things like the “Rybachiy Submarine Base”:http://www.nti.org/db/nisprofs/russia/naval/nucflt/pacflt/rybachiy.htm on the Kamchatka Peninsula, where the Russian Navy bases several SSBNs (see “Podvig”:http://russianforces.org/navy/ and “NTI”:http://www.nti.org/db/submarines/russia/). A sample pic is posted below and you can “download a larger version here”:http://www.totalwonkerr.net/file_download/14. Kinda funny, don’t you think?

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Big nuclear medicine news out of Canada today… Radiopharmaceutical giant MDS Nordion “filed a lawsuit”:http://www.world-nuclear-news.org/C-AECL_sued_over_reactor_cancellation-1007087.html against the Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd (AECL) for halting the “MAPLE project”:http://www.aecl.ca/Commercial/DIF/MAPLE/DIF-MAPLE.htm.

Just to back up… As you may or may not know, Nordion, which produces critical medical isotopes using _highly enriched uranium_ – for explanation of proliferation risks see “*NTI’s Civilian Uses of HEU: HEU Use for Radioisotope Production*”:http://www.nti.org/db/heu/civilian.html – currently holds a monopoly on the U.S. radioisotope market (see “AECL video on nuclear medicine”:http://www.videos.aecl.ca/NuclearMed3.wmv). The MAPLEs were supposed to put an end to Canada’s reliance on the five-decade-old National Research Universal (NRU) reactor for isotope production. The NRU, a “poster child for unsafe operating practices”:http://www.thestar.com/comment/article/308320, is also “dependent on U.S. exports of HEU”:http://cns.miis.edu/pubs/week/050804.htm.

In May, “without consulting Nordion”:http://www.mds.nordion.com/documents/news-releases/2008/MDS_Response_to_AECL_Government.pdf, AECL decided to discontinue the MAPLEs due to “costs of further development, as well as the time frame and risks involved”:http://www.aecl.ca/NewsRoom/News/Press-2008/080516.htm. AECL maintained that the “NRU”:http://www.nrureactor.ca/ would continue isotope production until its license expired in 2011, and, in the meantime, AECL would work with Nordion to figure out what to do to maintain isotope supply post-NRU.

Today, Nordion said that it is “disappointed that AECL and the Government decided to abandon the MAPLE project without establishing a clear plan for the long-term [radioisotope] supply”:http://www.mds.nordion.com/documents/news-releases/2008/AECL_Arbitration_FINAL.pdf. News of the lawsuit appear to mean that Nordion is no closer to figuring out what it will do after 2011 in order to supply the U.S. with critical medical isotopes than it was in May.

To make sense of what this means for elimination of HEU use in the civilian sphere, you should *come to _The Nonproliferation Review_ luncheon briefing*, which will take place “July 21st in DC”:http://cns.miis.edu/cns/activity/080721_nprbriefing/index.htm. Yes, the “notorious -402-page-long- July issue of the NPR”:http://www.armscontrolwonk.com/1923/hibbs-reviews-books-on-pak-bomb has a special section on civil HEU elimination. “Check it out!”:http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/title~content=g794017031~db=all

*UPDATE*: _My short attention span is getting me into trouble (sorry, Stephen and Cat!). The issue of the Review is a mere 287 pages long. I just glanced at the last page of the issue. My bad._

Behold….”ACA”:http://www.armscontrol.org/pdf/20080709_India_safeguards.pdf and “ISIS”:http://www.isis-online.org/publications/southasia/India_IAEA_safeguards.pdf both have it. _ACW_ has a “post”:http://www.armscontrolwonk.com/1947/india-safeguards-agreement-stinks up about it.

Yesterday, the Department of State and the Russian MID released a statement titled “*One Year of _Progress_ Following the Joint Declaration on Nuclear Energy and Nonproliferation*.” (“MID text”:http://www.mid.ru/brp_4.nsf/e78a48070f128a7b43256999005bcbb3/8bcdc2f2210a1b74c325747c00325247?OpenDocument)
See link to the 2007 joint declaration in an “earlier post”:http://www.totalwonkerr.net/1614/usg-sochi-non-paper.

Progress indeed. Timing to release the statement before the long holiday weekend seems to speak volumes. (Ok, I know, it’s G8 time.) But this is still nice:

bq. “U.S. Special Envoy for Nuclear Nonproliferation, Ambassador “Jackie Wolcott”:http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/biog/27684.htm, and Russian Ambassador Grigory Berdennikov are working in tandem, and in partnership with others, to advance the objectives of the Joint Declaration.”

Oh yeah, I should also note that the “State version”:http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2008/07/106502.htm has the phrase *”peaceful uses”* underlined in this sentence:

bq. “…U.S. and Russia are prepared to cooperate, together with others, in making the benefits of *peaceful uses* of nuclear energy available to a wide range of interested states, and developing countries in particular.”

_I wonder what “interested states” they have in mind._

Just in time for the long weekend, here is the “*2007 Euratom Supply Agency Annual Report*”:http://ec.europa.eu/euratom/ar/last.pdf. I won’t pretend that I am very knowledgeable about the EU, but here are some points that caught my eye:

1. For the first time in many years, *Canada’s leading position in 2007 as a supplier of natural uranium to EU utilities was overtaken by Russia*, according to the declarations received from utilities.

2. *Natural uranium of Russian origin amounted to almost 5 144 tU*. Like explained in the previous reports, this last figure can be unreliable and would need more detailed analysis, as it would represent much more than Russia’s total production of natural uranium (3 381 tU according to the “Red Book”:http://www.totalwonkerr.net/1631/geek-check-part-deux).

3. *In the market for VVER fuel, the Russian supplier TVEL has now re-established a dominant position, which means in fact nearly 100 % market share.* (_The report later notes that “there is concern about the possible lack of alternative suppliers for VVER reactors in the future.”_)

4. *Deliveries of Russian separative work to EU utilities under purchasing contracts amounted to some 4528 tSWU which means a significant increase of some 1 500 tSWU (50% over 2006) and represents thus almost 31 % of the total enrichment services* supplied to EU utilities.

5. *Direct purchases from Kazakhstan have remained relatively low considering the production level and future potential of this country*. It is however expected that the amount of uranium from Kazakhstan will increase in coming years with the operation of various joint ventures.

According to a neat pie chart on pg. 22, *Russia supplied 24.65 % of U to EU utilities in 2007* (followed by Canada, Niger, and Australia). There is a nifty table in Annex 1 of the report that details Russian/CIS U supplies to the EU too.

If you want a quick fix of the report, check out this “WNN writeup”:http://www.world-nuclear-news.org/ENF-European_utilities_building_up_uranium_inventories-0307088.html.

“This ISNA headline”:http://www.isna.ir/ISNA/NewsView.aspx?ID=News-1155535&Lang=E makes the joke for me…

bq. Iran to Declare View on Package After Precise Examination: Aghazadeh

You got excited by IAEA DG ElBaradei’s “announcement earlier this month”:http://www.iaea.org/NewsCenter/Statements/2008/ebsp2008n005.html that he will be issuing another report about Libya. Or you blogged about it.

ElBaradei told the IAEA BoG that

bq. Libya has recently provided additional information about the timeline of some of its past undeclared activities, which has helped the Agency gain a full picture of Libya´s past and present nuclear programme and will enable the Agency to resume verification in Libya on a routine basis.

Should be interesting. I wonder if it’s more Khan network stuff or what.

I wrote “these two”:http://www.armscontrol.org/act/2004_07-08/IAEAandLibya.asp “articles”:http://www.armscontrol.org/act/2004_10/Libya.asp back in the day about ElBaradei’s previous reports. The reports themselves can be found “here.”:http://www.armscontrol.org/country/libya/#key

ElBaradei’s full statement is below:

Following Libya´s disclosure of its undeclared nuclear activities in December 2003, the Agency has continued its efforts to verify the correctness and completeness of Libya´s declarations about its nuclear programme, including past undeclared activities.

Since my last report on 30 August 2004, Libya has continued to be transparent and to provide the Agency unrestricted access, beyond what is required under its comprehensive safeguards agreement and the Additional Protocol, to those locations, information and individuals deemed necessary by the Agency. Libya has recently provided additional information about the timeline of some of its past undeclared activities, which has helped the Agency gain a full picture of Libya´s past and present nuclear programme and will enable the Agency to resume verification in Libya on a routine basis. A detailed report on safeguards implementation in Libya will be submitted to the Board.

_Thanks to FoKerr JP_.

This is totally unrelated to things nuclear (unless you’re into “Lynn Eden”:http://books.google.com/books?id=yDk5hfkyISUC), but I just wanted to note that the “1,345 NorCal fires”:http://www.montereyherald.com/local/ci_9742015 are no fun. If you’ve ever been to Monterey Bay, you know that the area is usually quite foggy. It’s somewhat disturbing, however, to not be able to tell whether the thing in the distance is fog or smoke.