The Long-Term Safety of Uranium Mine and Mill Tailing Legacies in an Enlarged EU

The political changes from the late 1980s onwards have led Europe-wide to programmes for dealing with the uranium mining and milling legacies. A report drafted on behalf of the European Commission described the situation as it had developed by the end of 2005. With the EU having been enlarged since then, it appeared necessary to review the findings and conclusions of this report. The earlier report also did not provide conclusive thoughts on the long-term management of uranium mine and mill tailings. The present report - reviews the current situation in Romania and Portugal, singled out in the earlier report as needing further attention. It is concluded that Portugal has made good progress, while the situation in Romania continues to be unclear; - reviews the bearing that international regulations, such as the EC Environmental Impact Directive, and conventions, such as the Aarhus and Espoo conventions, might have on the management of uranium mine and mill tailings sites; - also develops thoughts on the long-term management of uranium mining and milling sites that are not fit for free release. These thoughts are based on the current international discussion of the subject.JRC.F.7-Energy systems evaluatio

Towards a Sustainable Front-End of Nuclear Energy Systems

This report discusses some fundamental sustainability aspects of nuclear energy systems. Sustainability is used here in a broad sense, encompassing economic as well as environmental aspects. As all raw materials, uranium as resource is available in limited quantities only, although it is by no means scarce in terms of abundance in the earth¿s crust. What can be called a resource is determined by the energy investment that is required to recover it. On one hand this is a simple economic consideration, but on the other hand any energy expenditure has environmental impacts associated with it, including the emission of greenhouse gases. An additional aspect is the relationship between energy investment and net energy gain that may become unfavourable as deeper resources and more refractive uranium mineralisation will have to be exploited. The report outlines the data needs for a more quantitative and long-term strategic assessment of the availability of uranium as fuel in nuclear energy systems.JRC.F.7-Energy systems evaluatio

Uranium Migration in Crystalline Rocks

The mechanisms controlling the migration of uranium in crystalline rocks such as granites or granodiorites are insufficiently well understood to arrive at a quantitatively defensible safety case for deep disposal of radioactive waste. To help further our knowledge of the relevant processes, a controlled column experiment was undertaken using a disc of metallic (depleted) uranium as a source and granodiorite samples from a former candidate disposal site for spent uranium fuel, Sievi in Finland, as the host medium. The experiment ran for approximately 500 days. This report summarises efforts made to simulate the uranium migration observed during the experiment. The model was developed from blind predictions to an inverse model that attempted to reproduce the measured effluent data. In the absence of independently derived kinetic data for uranium precipitation and dissolution it is difficult to arrive at a truly unique solution. Nevertheless, the exercise has been instructive in highlighting the principal areas of uncertainty and the pit falls that await those seeking to represent far more complex hydrogeochemical systems than that investigated here.JRC.F.7-Energy systems evaluatio

Does state aid for broadband deployment in rural areas close the digital and economic divide?

We evaluate the impact of a major European state aid program for broadband deployment applied to rural areas in the German State of Bavaria in the years 2010 and 2011. Using difference-in-differences estimation strategies, we find that aided municipalities have – depending on broadband quality – a between 16.8 and 23.2 percent higher broadband coverage than non-aided municipalities. This increase in broadband coverage – closing the digital divide – results in an increase of on average seven employed individuals living in the respective aid-receiving municipalities while leaving the number of employed or selfemployed individuals or wages unaffected. We therefore conclude that an increase in broadband coverage through state aid prevents rural areas from depopulation, but does not contribute to a further closing of the economic divide in the form of creating new jobs

The Forest Observation System, building a global reference dataset for remote sensing of forest biomass

International audienceForest biomass is an essential indicator for monitoring the Earth's ecosystems and climate. It is a critical input to greenhouse gas accounting, estimation of carbon losses and forest degradation, assessment of renewable energy potential, and for developing climate change mitigation policies such as REDD+, among others. Wall-to-wall mapping of aboveground biomass (aGB) is now possible with satellite remote sensing (RS). However, RS methods require extant, up-to-date, reliable, representative and comparable in situ data for calibration and validation. Here, we present the Forest Observation System (FOS) initiative, an international cooperation to establish and maintain a global in situ forest biomass database. aGB and canopy height estimates with their associated uncertainties are derived at a 0.25 ha scale from field measurements made in permanent research plots across the world's forests. all plot estimates are geolocated and have a size that allows for direct comparison with many RS measurements. The FOS offers the potential to improve the accuracy of RS-based biomass products while developing new synergies between the RS and ground-based ecosystem research communities

Anastrozole versus tamoxifen for the prevention of locoregional and contralateral breast cancer in postmenopausal women with locally excised ductal carcinoma in situ (IBIS-II DCIS): a double-blind, randomised controlled trial

Background Third-generation aromatase inhibitors are more effective than tamoxifen for preventing recurrence in postmenopausal women with hormone-receptor-positive invasive breast cancer. However, it is not known whether anastrozole is more effective than tamoxifen for women with hormone-receptor-positive ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS). Here, we compare the efficacy of anastrozole with that of tamoxifen in postmenopausal women with hormone-receptor-positive DCIS. Methods In a double-blind, multicentre, randomised placebo-controlled trial, we recruited women who had been diagnosed with locally excised, hormone-receptor-positive DCIS. Eligible women were randomly assigned in a 1:1 ratio by central computer allocation to receive 1 mg oral anastrozole or 20 mg oral tamoxifen every day for 5 years. Randomisation was stratified by major centre or hub and was done in blocks (six, eight, or ten). All trial personnel, participants, and clinicians were masked to treatment allocation and only the trial statistician had access to treatment allocation. The primary endpoint was all recurrence, including recurrent DCIS and new contralateral tumours. All analyses were done on a modified intention-to-treat basis (in all women who were randomised and did not revoke consent for their data to be included) and proportional hazard models were used to compute hazard ratios and corresponding confidence intervals. This trial is registered at the ISRCTN registry, number ISRCTN37546358. Results Between March 3, 2003, and Feb 8, 2012, we enrolled 2980 postmenopausal women from 236 centres in 14 countries and randomly assigned them to receive anastrozole (1449 analysed) or tamoxifen (1489 analysed). Median follow-up was 7·2 years (IQR 5·6–8·9), and 144 breast cancer recurrences were recorded. We noted no statistically significant difference in overall recurrence (67 recurrences for anastrozole vs 77 for tamoxifen; HR 0·89 [95% CI 0·64–1·23]). The non-inferiority of anastrozole was established (upper 95% CI <1·25), but its superiority to tamoxifen was not (p=0·49). A total of 69 deaths were recorded (33 for anastrozole vs 36 for tamoxifen; HR 0·93 [95% CI 0·58–1·50], p=0·78), and no specific cause was more common in one group than the other. The number of women reporting any adverse event was similar between anastrozole (1323 women, 91%) and tamoxifen (1379 women, 93%); the side-effect profiles of the two drugs differed, with more fractures, musculoskeletal events, hypercholesterolaemia, and strokes with anastrozole and more muscle spasm, gynaecological cancers and symptoms, vasomotor symptoms, and deep vein thromboses with tamoxifen. Conclusions No clear efficacy differences were seen between the two treatments. Anastrozole offers another treatment option for postmenopausal women with hormone-receptor-positive DCIS, which may be be more appropriate for some women with contraindications for tamoxifen. Longer follow-up will be necessary to fully evaluate treatment differences