After disaster shakes Japan's Fukushima reactors, we're looking at the options. Cleaner, cheaper and plentiful, India is currently constructing the world's first thorium-fed nuclear reactor promoted as a safe alternative to our current uranium powered plants. Meanwhile French scientists go underwater submerging nuclear stations deep beneath the sea. Finally, what happens when it all goes wrong meet the liquidators those who risk their lives trying to avert disaster.
This week, we're visiting one of France's 58 nuclear reactors. One that has borne natures brunt before, damaged by a storm back in 1999. Then, the worst was avoided and extra safety mesures have been put in place since. But with 20% of the worlds working reactors lying on fault lines, how safe can nuclear ever be?
Ivory Coast's cocoa conflict: the tug-of-war for the presidency continues.
Gabon gets ideas from Ivory Coast. An attempt to claim the leadership of the country is quashed.
French firm Areva wants to start mining uranium again in Gabon, despite the fact it's been accused in the past of exposing its workers to dangerous radioactive materials.
The kidnapping of seven foreign nuclear employees in Niger comes at a time when French nuclear giant Areva has been striving to improve its image in a region threatened by robbery, radical Islamism, and the local population's widespread resentment.
Seven people, including two employees of French nuclear firm Areva, were kidnapped early Thursday in Niger, according to an Areva spokesperson. The five others were employees of an Areva subcontractor based near the northern town of Arlit.
Nearly two kilos radioactive uranium-238 were seized from a garage in Moldova's capital by police, who have arrested several people, officials said Tuesday.
Fears are growing about the safety of nuclear technology destined for a reactor in France. At Flamanville, a new third generation reactor is supposed to be activated in 2012, but tests have been deemed unsatisfactory by France's nuclear safety authority. This has fuelled debate on the future of nuclear energy, as France hopes to sell third generation reactors around the world.
The pressure group, Greenpeace, has accused France’s Areva of
contaminating the environment near its two uranium mines in Niger, putting lives in danger. Half of Areva's uranium comes from Niger, one of Africa's poorest countries.
French nuclear giant Areva secured exclusive uranium mining rights in Jordan in exchange for developing the energy-poor country's nuclear facilities. French Premier François Fillon and his Jordanian counterpart attended the signing in Amman.
Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki (pictured) has said a deal that would see some of Iran's uranium exchanged for reactor fuel could happen "in the not very distant future", in a move to reassure world powers over Tehran's nuclear ambitions.
