Change at NNSA
Tom D'Agostino stepped down as head of the US National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) on 18 January. In his place as acting administrator will be Neile Miller. The NNSA manages the US nuclear weapons complex and enacts civil policies concerning the return of high-enriched uranium from research reactors and manufacture of former weapons plutonium into mixed-oxide (MOX) reactor fuel for power generation. A plant to do this is under construction at Savannah River.
Progress on Belgian restarts
The Belgian nuclear safety regulator, FANC, has said no information has yet arisen to prevent it authorising the restart of Doel 3 and Tihange 2, which have been offline for checks since August 2012 when minute cracks were discovered in their reactor pressure vessels. A final decision will be made after owner of the plants Electrabel has satisfied a new request for information and FANC has heard input from an independent expert panel.
Malaysian nuclear study delayed
A feasibility study for the construction of Malaysia's first nuclear power plant has been delayed by six months as authorities have been unable to visit proposed sites amid fears of sparking protests, according to Malaysia Nuclear Power Corp CEO Mohamad ZamZam Jaafar. Speaking at the Nuclear Power Asia conference in Kuala Lumpur, he said that the study may not be completed until late-2014 and that construction of the plant "may be later than 2021," as planned by the government.
