Archive | Uranium and Nuclear Power Industry

‘Hell To Pay’ Sheds New Light On A-Bomb Decision (NPR.org – January 16, 2020)

August 11, 2020 in International Media Resource Articles, Uranium and Nuclear Power Industry

https://www.npr.org/

The atomic bombs that ended World War II killed — by some estimates — more than 200,000 people. In the decades since 1945, there has been a revisionist debate over the decision to drop the bombs.

Did the U.S. decide to bomb in order to avoid a land invasion that might have killed millions of Americans and Japanese? Or did it drop the bomb to avoid the Soviet army coming in and sharing the spoils of conquering Japan? Were the prospects of a land invasion even more destructive than the opening of the nuclear age?

D.M. Giangreco, formerly an editor for Military Review, has taken advantage of declassified materials in both the U.S. and Japan to try to answer those questions. He talks with NPR’s Scott Simon about his new book, Hell to Pay: Operation DOWNFALL and the Invasion of Japan, 1945-1947. Continue Reading →

Why the US dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima – by Ryan Browne and Scottie Andrew (CNN.com – August 6, 2019)

August 11, 2020 in International Media Resource Articles, Uranium and Nuclear Power Industry

https://www.cnn.com/

(CNN)On this date 74 years ago, the US dropped the first of two atomic bombs on the Japanese city of Hiroshima, killing more than 70,000 people instantly. A second bomb followed three days later over Nagasaki and killed 40,000 more.

The US remains the only country to ever use an atomic bomb in war.
The nuclear warfare ushered in the end of World War II and a devastating chapter in world history. Here’s what you need to know about the attacks and how Hiroshima honors those who died.

Where is Hiroshima?

The city is the capital of Hiroshima Prefecture located in southwestern Japan on the island of Honshu. Continue Reading →

NUCLEAR: The forgotten mine that built the atomic bomb – by Frank Swain (BBC.com – August 3, 2020)

August 11, 2020 in Africa Mining, International Media Resource Articles, Uranium and Nuclear Power Industry

https://www.bbc.com/

The Congo’s role in creating the bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki was kept secret for decades, but the legacy of its involvement is still being felt today.

“The word Shinkolobwe fills me with grief and sorrow,” says Susan Williams, a historian at the UK Institute of Commonwealth Studies. “It’s not a happy word, it’s one I associate with terrible grief and suffering.”

Few people know what, or even where, Shinkolobwe is. But this small mine in the southern province of Katanga, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), played a part in one of the most violent and devastating events in history. Continue Reading →

Legacy of Canada’s role in atomic bomb is felt by northern Indigenous community – by Geoffrey Bird (The Conversation – August 9, 2020)

August 10, 2020 in Aboriginal and Inuit Mining and Oil/Gas, Canada Mining – North of 60, International Media Resource Articles, Mining Environmental Accidents, Pollution, Tailing Dams and Abandoned Mines, Uranium and Nuclear Power Industry

https://theconversation.com/

Geoffrey Bird is Professor of heritage, culture, and tourism at Royal Roads University.

As the world marks the 75th anniversary of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, a little known part of the legacy is the impact on the Délı̨nę First Nation of the Northwest Territories. I explore their stories in the film A Moral Awakening, which is available online.

This heritage connects Indigenous people, Canadians and people all over the world who are concerned with peace, reconciliation and social justice. The film contributes to understanding of the global impact of nuclear weapons and its contested history.

But the main goal of A Moral Awakening is to acknowledge the service and sacrifice of the people of Délı̨nę, a story long silenced. Continue Reading →

Life in Kyrgyzstan’s once-booming uranium mining town, where the past poisons the future – by Liza Premiyak (The Calvert Journal – August 10, 2020)

August 10, 2020 in Asia Mining, International Media Resource Articles, Mining Environmental Accidents, Pollution, Tailing Dams and Abandoned Mines, Uranium and Nuclear Power Industry

https://www.calvertjournal.com/

Mailuu-Suu is a small town in southern Kyrgyzstan, secretly built by the Soviets in the 1950s. The uranium extracted there from the surrounding mountains between 1946 and 1968 was reportedly used to create the first atomic bomb for the Soviet nuclear programme.

But improperly managed, the mines also heralded environmental catastrophe. In 1958, a dam failure caused nuclear waste to collapse into the area’s water system.

Even when operations were running smoothly, nuclear waste was often hastily disposed of close to the town. Much of it remains. Today, earthquakes and landslides pose an ever present threat to the town’s uranium dumps. Continue Reading →

Opinion: Canada needs to go nuclear to reach our emissions targets – by Kim Rudd and Sean Willy (Financial Post – August 7, 2020)

August 7, 2020 in Canadian Media Resource Articles, Climate Change, Carbon Taxes and ENGOs, Uranium and Nuclear Power Industry

https://financialpost.com/

Kim Rudd, an entrepreneur, was parliamentary secretary to the minister of natural resources from 2015-2018. Sean Willy is CEO of Des Nedhe Development in Saskatchewan.

To fight climate change, Canada needs clean energy from a source that delivers carbon-free, reliable power 24/7. If we are to reach our greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reduction targets, nuclear power simply must be in the energy mix.

Nuclear power already displaces over 80 million tons of greenhouse gas emissions annually in Canada. That’s equivalent to taking 15 million cars off the road each and every year.

Though Canada has a world-class nuclear industry, we’ve only scratched the surface of its potential. Continue Reading →

Spectre of atomic bomb still looms over N.W.T. community 75 years after Hiroshima – by Katie Toth (CBC News North – August 5, 2020)

August 5, 2020 in Aboriginal and Inuit Mining and Oil/Gas, Canada Mining – North of 60, Canadian Media Resource Articles, Canadian Mining History, Uranium and Nuclear Power Industry

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/

Please note that the Germans and Japanese were also working to develop an Atomic bomb. https://lat.ms/39XwV1P and https://bit.ly/3fv8Oc6 – RepublicOfMining.com

Délı̨nę is haunted by its connection to the Manhattan Project and creation of the nuclear bomb

Seventy-five years after two nuclear bombs were dropped in Japan — killing hundreds of thousands of people in the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki — one small community in the Northwest Territories is still haunted by its connection to the blasts.

Across Great Bear Lake from the 533-person hamlet of Délı̨nę sits the historic mining site of Port Radium.

Workers originally mined radium for medical use. But at the height of the Second World War, the Canadian government quietly called for uranium production as part of the country’s involvement in the Manhattan Project. Continue Reading →

OPINION: Canada must acknowledge our key role in developing the deadly atomic bomb – by Setsuko Thurlow (Globe and Mail – August 1, 2020)

August 5, 2020 in Aboriginal and Inuit Mining and Oil/Gas, Canada Mining – North of 60, Canadian Media Resource Articles, Canadian Mining History, Uranium and Nuclear Power Industry

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Please note that the Germans and Japanese were also working to develop an Atomic bomb. https://lat.ms/39XwV1P and https://bit.ly/3fv8Oc6 – RepublicOfMining.com

Setsuko Thurlow is a Canadian nuclear disarmament campaigner who survived the bombing of Hiroshima.

On Aug. 6 and Aug. 9, the largest bell in the Peace Tower at the Parliament Buildings in Ottawa will ring 75 times to mark the dropping of the two atom bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

The arrangement was made by the Green Party’s Elizabeth May and Canada’s Speaker of the House, Liberal MP Anthony Rota. The bell ringing by the Dominion carillonneur Andrea McCrady will be livestreamed by the Peace Tower Carillon website so that it may be heard across Canada and around the world.

As someone who witnessed and experienced the consequences of nuclear war, I very often have brutal images in my mind of the atomic bombing. Continue Reading →

Rössing Uranium: helping power Namibia’s future – by Dan Brightmore (Mining Global – July 30, 2020)

July 31, 2020 in Africa Mining, International Media Resource Articles, Uranium and Nuclear Power Industry

https://www.miningglobal.com/

Uranium was first discovered in the Namib Desert in 1928, but it was only following intensive exploration in the late 1950s that the mining industry’s interest was piqued. Rio Tinto originally secured the rights to the low-grade Rössing deposit in 1966.

A decade later in 1976, Rössing Uranium, Namibia’s first commercial uranium mine, started production. Today, Namibia has two significant uranium mines (Rössing Uranium and Swakop Uranium) which together provide 11% of the world’s uranium oxide output in 2019; in 2019 Rössing Uranium produced 3.9% of that total.

The mine has a capacity of 4,500 tonnes of uranium oxide per year and, by the end of 2019, had supplied a total of 137,537 tonnes of uranium oxide to the world. Continue Reading →

Cameco’s uranium production on hold but hopeful for steadying market – by Nykole King (Saskatoon StarPhoenix – July 26, 2020)

July 28, 2020 in Canadian Media Resource Articles, Saskatchewan Mining, Uranium and Nuclear Power Industry

https://thestarphoenix.com/

Reduced uranium production worldwide has sparked optimism that the market may be steadying.

Mining projects in Saskatchewan will operate to regular capacity this summer, except for Cameco Corp.’s uranium mine.

Cameco’s Cigar Lake uranium mine and SSR Mining Inc.’s Seabee gold operation opted to go into care and maintenance mode in March. A spokesperson for Cameco said the decision was made to protect workers and northern communities against the spread of COVID-19.

“Above all, we would need to have a sufficient degree of comfort that we could restart the mine, maintain production and bring more personnel back to site while still protecting the safety of our workplace, workforce and surrounding communities,” Jeff Hryhoriw said in an email. Continue Reading →

Uranium: A bull market is under way (Mining Review Africa – July 6, 2020)

July 7, 2020 in International Media Resource Articles, Uranium and Nuclear Power Industry

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The growing uranium supply deficit, currently being accelerated by COVID-19 pandemic related production cuts, has seen the price for uranium skyrocket – making it the world’s best-performing major commodity right now.

With the suspension of operations at four notable uranium mines in March and April, the spot price has surged to US$33/lb in May from $24/lb at the start of the year on the back of this tightening global supply.

This situation is unlikely to change in the near future, which could drive the price higher as long-term demand is set to continue, says Toronto-based Red Cloud Securities. CHANTELLE KOTZE reports. Continue Reading →

OPINION: The Big Debate: Should nuclear energy be part of a Green New Deal? – by Jatin Nathwani (Yes) and M.V. Ramana/Schyler Edmundson (No) (Toronto Star – June 30, 2020)

June 30, 2020 in Canada Mining, Canadian Media Resource Articles, Uranium and Nuclear Power Industry

https://www.thestar.com/

YES: “Truth is the daughter of time,” Francis Bacon noted four centuries ago. Perhaps the time has come to acknowledge the near existential threat posed by climate change to our collective well being and recognize the importance of one compelling solution — nuclear energy — in solving this problem.

The primary culprit is well-known: emissions from fossil fuels must be eliminated. The problem has been in the making for over five generations and we do not have the luxury of time to mitigate the risk of destabilizing the climate system that can deliver misery on a very large scale: floods, fires, famines, tsunamis, and extreme weather events that test the boundaries of human habitation.

What is needed, with urgency, is a fundamental reboot of the global energy system. In 1990, the share of global primary energy stood at 85 per cent fossil fuels and all other sources (hydro, nuclear, geothermal, wind, solar, bioenergy) at 15 per cent. Continue Reading →

Only mill in the US able to process uranium-rare earth ores open for business – by Valentina Ruiz Leotaud (Mining.com – June 28, 2020)

June 29, 2020 in Canadian Media Resource Articles, Cobalt, Critical, Strategic and Rare Earth Minerals and Metals, United States Mining, Uranium and Nuclear Power Industry

https://www.mining.com/

As the US pushes to dilute China’s monopoly and develop a domestic rare earth supply, Colorado-based Energy Fuels (TSX: EFR) is working towards being at the forefront in the race.

Energy Fuels is the owner of the White Mesa Mill in Utah, the only fully-licensed and operating conventional uranium mill in the United States. The facility is normally used to process radioactive ore and produce yellowcake but now some areas are likely to be transformed to allow for the processing of uranium-rare earth ores.

“Our rare earth elements program intends to make the mill available for miners to process their uranium-rare earth ores in the US. Such a facility does not currently exist,” Mark Chalmers, president and CEO of Energy Fuels, told MINING.COM. Continue Reading →

Why Climate Activists Will Go Nuclear—Or Go Extinct – by Michael Shellenberger (Quillette.com – June 25, 2020)

June 25, 2020 in Climate Change, Carbon Taxes and ENGOs, International Media Resource Articles, Uranium and Nuclear Power Industry

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“I have been a climate activist for 20 years and an energy expert for 10 of them. I was adamantly against nuclear energy until about a decade ago when it became clear renewables couldn’t replace fossil fuels. After educating myself about the facts, I came to support the technology.”

In October 2019, the British climate activist group Extinction Rebellion carried out two weeks of civil disobedience in London and other cities around the world. Six thousand activists blocked the five main bridges that cross the River Thames, which flows through London, preventing people from getting to work or home.

An Extinction Rebellion spokesperson went on national television and made a series of alarming claims. “Billions of people are going to die.” “Life on Earth is dying.” And, “Governments aren’t addressing it.”

Some journalists pushed back. The BBC’s Andrew Neil interviewed a visibly uncomfortable Extinction Rebellion spokesperson in her mid-30s named Zion Lights. “One of your founders, Roger Hallam, said in April, ‘Our children are going to die in the next 10 to 20 years,’” said Neil. “What’s the scientific basis for these claims?” Continue Reading →

Saskatchewan sets up nuclear secretariat to plan for reactors – by Michael Bramadat-Willcock (National Observer – June 24, 2020)

June 25, 2020 in Canadian Media Resource Articles, Saskatchewan Mining, Uranium and Nuclear Power Industry

https://www.nationalobserver.com/

La Ronge, Saskatchewan – The provincial government unveiled its plans Wednesday to establish an office to co-ordinate nuclear policy and program work within the Climate Change and Adaptation Division of the Ministry of Environment.

The new nuclear secretariat is mandated to develop and execute a strategic plan for the deployment of “clean-energy small modular reactors” in the province. No timeframe commitments were made in the announcement, which also did not provide sites in Saskatchewan where new reactors will be installed.

“The deployment of small modular reactors in Saskatchewan will require collaboration with several partners to fully encompass the benefits Saskatchewan could see in way of jobs, enhanced value chains for Saskatchewan’s uranium, and our made-in-Saskatchewan climate policy,” Environment Minister Dustin Duncan said. Continue Reading →