|
|
|
|
Welcome Back!
Happy 2016 and thank you for joining us for a new year of Nuclear Newswire. Don't miss the latest in nuclear developments and be sure to tell your friends about us.
Everything nuclear that you need to know is right here!
|
Domestic Nuclear Detection Office Summer Internship Program
Application deadline: January 27, 2016. US citizenship is required.
The US Department of Homeland Security Domestic Nuclear Detection Office (DNDO) Summer Internship Program provides opportunities for undergraduate and graduate students to participate in projects focused on helping DNDO meet its mission of "implementing domestic nuclear detection efforts for a managed and coordinated response to radiological and nuclear threats, as well as integration of federal nuclear forensics programs."
Internships will primarily focus on projects related to Advanced Technology Demonstration programs, or are otherwise in the areas of: Materials Research and Supporting Technology, Advanced Analytics, Nuclear Forensics, Program Management, Radiation Detection, and Shielded Special Nuclear Material (SNM) Detection. Areas of research include engineering, earth and geosciences, computer science, mathematics, physics, chemistry, biological / life sciences, environmental science, and more.
Undergraduate students receive a stipend of $600 per week for ten weeks plus travel expenses. Graduate students receive a stipend of $700 per week for ten weeks plus travel expenses.
|
Department of Energy (DOE) Integrated University Program
Application deadline: February 10, 2016
The Office of Nuclear Energy is seeking applicants for undergraduate scholarships and graduate-level fellowships in nuclear energy-related fields. Scholarships are $7,500 for one year. The maximum award for a fellowship is $50,000 per year for three years, with an additional one-time $5,000 allotment to fund a minimum 10-week internship at DOE, a DOE national laboratory, or other designated facility.
|
International Nuclear Safeguards Policy Safeguards Course
Application deadline: March 4, 2016
The Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), in support of the Department of Energy National Nuclear Security Administration's Next Generation Safeguards Initiative, are pleased to announce a one-week, tuition-free, intensive course on international nuclear safeguards policy.
The course will be held June 6-10, 2016 in Monterey, California. Open to graduate students and young professionals. Space is limited.
Paid summer internships at LLNL in Livermore, California, are also available. Applicants must be US citizens.
|
Peter Kenyon, National Public Radio
January 1, 2016
Iran is eager to have punitive financial measures removed and has been working to scale back its nuclear program much faster than many predicted, according to those monitoring the process.
|
Iran Calls the New US Visa Law Breach of the Nuclear Deal
December 23, 2015
Congress passed a measure that will prevent visa-free travel to the United States for people who have visited Iran or hold Iranian nationality. Iran reacts.
|
Iran Nuclear Deal: Implementation Nears, but the Sparring Continues
Scott Peterson, Christian Science Monitor
December 18, 2015
Just over five months since Iran and six world powers reached a landmark nuclear deal that was heralded as a historic choice of diplomacy over war, the tough rhetoric and frequent posturing that marked years of bitter negotiations persist.
|
|
Can Washington, Beijing, and Seoul Work Together on North Korea?
Scott Snyder, the National Interest
January 6, 2016
Regardless of whether or not the North's claims to have conducted a test of a "hydrogen bomb" are true, the test occurs in defiance of UN Security Council resolutions sanctioning North Korea for conducting three previous tests and despite repeated warnings by the leaders of the United States, South Korea, and China not to do so.
|
North Korea Has Secured 88 Pounds of Plutonium, Seoul Says
December 25, 2015
A government official in Seoul who spoke to South Korea press on the condition of anonymity said North Korea has secured 88 pounds of plutonium, and capable of producing one weapon of mass destruction, South Korean outlet Newsis reported Friday, local time.
|
The Real Threat from North Korea Is the Nuclear Arsenal Built Over the Last Decade
Siegfried S. Hecker, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists
January 7, 2015, reposted January 2016
Former Los Alamos National Laboratory director Siegfried S. Hecker traces the US role in allowing Pyongyang to build up its current arsenal of nuclear weapons. As 2015 draws to a close, tensions are building anew between the two Koreas, making this history as vital as ever. The piece originally ran in 2015.
|
|
DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY LABS
|
Up for Bid, Nuke Lab Contract Could Affect Tax Revenues
Susan Montoya Bryan, Associated Press
Tax revenues for New Mexico and some local governments could take a hit depending on who is tapped to manage Los Alamos National Laboratory after 2017.
|
AUDIT REPORT: Issues Management at the Los Alamos Field Office
Department of Energy
December 7, 2015
The Department of Energy is committed to operating its nuclear facilities and conducting work activities to ensure environment, safety, and health concerns are considered and addressed in the performance of its mission. Therefore, the Department has policies requiring contractors and field offices to establish an issues management program. See this audit of the Los Alamos Field Office's issues management programs.
|
Accidents Contribute to Loss of Contract for LANL Operator
Mark Oswald, Albuqerque Journal North
December 21, 2015
Several accidents have contributed to Los Alamos National Laboratory's private operator losing out on a contract extension. The National Nuclear Safety Administration recently informed Congress that it would not be extending the contract with Los Alamos National Security LLC to run the lab beyond the contract term that ends at the conclusion of the 2016-2017 budget year, after the lab failed to get a high enough ranking in its latest NNSA annual evaluation. That means the $2.2 billion contract will go out for bids.
|
|
PG&E Plays Coy on the Future of Diablo Canyon Nuclear Plant
Michael Hiltzik, Los Angeles Times
January 1, 2016
The plant's generating capacity of 2,160 megawatts affects the development of the state's renewable electric resources. Although PG&E has asserted that the plant's continued operation would save its customers as much as $16 billion during the additional 20 years, the cost of bringing Diablo Canyon into compliance with environmental and seismic mandates may in fact not be worth the effort.
|
How Do You Clean Up Nuclear Waste? Simple, Use a Subatomic Sieve
Steve Connor, the Independent (UK)
December 31, 2015
Graphene, the thinnest and strongest substance known to science, could be used to help detoxify nuclear waste. Experiments show that it can act as a "super sieve" able to separate different atomic isotopes of hydrogen and create the expensive "heavy water" needed by the nuclear industry, researchers said.
|
|
The Rocky Road to Nuclear Fusion Power
Fabian Schmidt, Deutsche Welle
December 18, 2015
Innovative designs using modern superconductors are supposed to bring us nuclear fusion power plants soon--some optimists say. Fusion experts predict, however, that a practical application will take many more decades.
|
|
Nuclear's Fate Still Uncertain After Paris Talks
William Tucker, Real Clear Energy
December 18, 2015
You would think after convening in Paris for a week that the world's leaders could have reached some sort of consensus about whether nuclear would be part of the climate future. But the issue now seems as murky as ever.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Comments? We'd like to hear from you.
|
|
|
|
|
|
