Twitter

Uranium and Nuclear Power Industry

[Saskatchewan] Cameco seeks to re-licence mines in the North – by Dan Jones (MBC Radio – June 7, 2023)

https://www.mbcradio.com/

The Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC) is recommending that Cameco be issued licences for it’s Key Lake McArthur River and Rabbit Lake operations in northern Saskatchewan. The Commission is conducting public hearings in Saskatoon Wednesday and Thursday.

The Commission suggests a 20-year licence for Key Lake and McArthur River and a 15-year licence for Rabbit Lake. Technicians within the Commission said that there is operational uncertainty with Rabbit Lake as it is currently under care and maintenance, since 2016 and is expected to stay within that status for the near future.

Read more

Time running out for Ontario to formally request Pickering nuclear power station extension – by Colin D’Mello and Isaac Callan (Global News – May 30, 2023)

https://globalnews.ca/

Ontario’s electricity generator has yet to file an official application to extend the life of the Pickering nuclear power plant, more than eight months after the Ford government announced it planned to give the plant a longer life.

As the province faces an electricity capacity crunch in 2025 and beyond, the Ford government scrambled to prolong the Pickering power plant until September 2026, in order to guarantee a steady supply of power as the province experiences a rise in demand and shutdowns at other nuclear power plants.

Read more

West Africa: Macron’s Visit to Mongolia Was Focused On Ensuring France’s Uranium Supply – by Jan Van Der Made (Radio France International/All Africa.com – May 23, 2023)

https://allafrica.com/

Access to rare earth minerals and Russia’s war against Ukraine topped the agenda on French President Emmanuel Macron’s historic visit to Mongolia. But the joint declaration signed during the meeting also underlines France’s attempts to find an alternative uranium source for its nuclear reactors.

As it stands, France depends to a large extent on uranium sourced in West Africa. That supply chain, however, is under threat because of social and political unrest in the region. The 18-article joint declaration, which trumpets “strengthening political, economic, commercial and defence cooperation”, also notes that both countries will also cooperate in the energy sector.

Read more

Proposed protections for Grand Canyon spark fight over uranium mining – by Maxine Joselow (Washington Post – May 24, 2023)

https://www.washingtonpost.com/

To mine or not to mine? That’s the question near the Grand Canyon.

On Saturday, Interior Secretary Deb Haaland visited land near the Grand Canyon that tribal leaders and environmentalists want to permanently protect as a national monument. The visit immediately reignited a decades-old debate over the costs and benefits of uranium mining in this iconic landscape.

Tribes and conservation groups argue that new mining threatens to pollute aquifers and contaminate water supplies. The mining industry disagrees and counters that America must reduce its reliance on Russia for uranium, which fuels the nuclear reactors that provide about half of the nation’s carbon-free electricity.

Read more

Scientists purify uranium-laden water using magnetic bacteria – by Staff (Mining.com – May 18, 2023)

https://www.mining.com/

A research team at the Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR) has managed to purify water containing uranium using a special kind of bacteria known as magnetotactic bacteria.

In a paper published in the Journal of Hazardous Materials, the scientists explain that the name of the bacteria derives from their ability to react to magnetic fields. They can accumulate dissolved heavy metals in their cell walls. These research findings also shed new light on the interaction between uranium and bioligands.

Read more

Book tour contributes debate around uranium mining – by Clint Fleury (NWO News Watch – May 17, 2023)

https://www.nwonewswatch.com/

Dr. Warren Bernauer will be touring three locations in northwestern Ontario to promote his new book I Will Live for Both of Us: A History of Colonialism, Uranium Mining, and Inuit Resistance.

WINNIPEG – For those living in Dryden, Ignace and Thunder Bay, Dr. Warren Bernauer will be touring Northwestern Ontario to speak about a book he co-authored with Joan Scottie and Jack Hicks, called I Will Live for Both of Us: A History of Colonialism, Uranium Mining, and Inuit Resistance.

Bernauer, who currently working as a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Manitoba in the Department of Environment and Geography and the Natural Resources Institute, still calls Northwestern Ontario his home.

Read more

Saskatchewan’s rich resource revenue ride may be ending – by Phil Tank (Saskatoon StarPhoenix – May 17, 2023)

https://thestarphoenix.com/

With the price of oil and potash dropping, the boom that fuelled Saskatchewan’s budget surplus after Russia invaded Ukraine could be ending.

The party might be ending. The surge in resource prices that bestowed a windfall of so much unexpected resource revenue money on our province that even the Saskatchewan Party managed to balance the budget shows signs of declining.

The price of potash, the main driver of the sudden Saskatchewan surplus, has been dropping since November. Last week, the CEO of Saskatoon-based Nutrien Ltd., Ken Seitz, indicated the company is reconsidering its plans to ramp up potash production after disappointing first-quarter results due to dropping prices and reduced sales.

Read more

Sahel: French uranium miner evacuates expatriate staff from Niger as security threats grow (The North Africa Journal – May 16, 2023)

https://north-africa.com/

French uranium miner Orano said on Friday it had evacuated expatriate staff from northern Niger after being warned of a threat in the jihadist-troubled region. The company late Thursday was advised of a “security event” in a village located halfway between the Malian border and the mining town of Arlit, it said in a statement. “Measures were immediately set in place to protect (Orano) sites,” it said.

Orano’s expatriate personnel and other foreign workers on temporary assignment living in a compound at Akokan near Arlit “were evacuated under escort and flown to Niamey,” Niger’s capital, it said. “The return of all the evacuated staff should take place in the next few days as soon as there is confirmation that any risk can be ruled out,” Orano said.

Read more

US support for nuclear power soars to highest level in a decade – by Akielly Hu (Grist/Salon.com – May 10, 2023)

https://www.salon.com/

As the country looks to decarbonize, nuclear’s popularity continues to climb

AGallup survey released in late April found that 55 percent of U.S. adults support the use of nuclear power. That’s up four percentage points from last year and reflects the highest level of public support for nuclear energy use in electricity since 2012.

The survey found that Republicans are more likely to favor nuclear energy than Democrats, consistent with previous Gallup polls. Experts say that partisan divide is particularly visible at the state level, with more pro-nuclear policies adopted in Republican-controlled states than left-leaning ones.

Read more

RELEASE: Nuclear Renaissance Short Film Shines Light on the Future of the Uranium Market (Oregon Group – May 10, 2023)

TORONTO, May 10, 2023 /PRNewswire/ – The adoption of nuclear energy is accelerating and the uranium market is approaching a crucial inflection point, according to a new short film produced by The Oregon Group. Featuring commentary from uranium producers, developers, and one of North America’s foremost nuclear utility experts, the short film entitled “The Nuclear Renaissance” examines the expansion of nuclear energy and delves into the uranium market’s unique fundamentals.

Despite the global reactor build that is gaining pace, uranium supply remains ill-equipped for the expected rise in demand. Purchasing from nuclear utilities and investors over the last two years has led to price rises, but insiders have made it clear that dramatically higher prices are needed to incentivize new production.

Read more

OPINION: Russia’s dominance of nuclear-energy supply chain is cause for concern – by Konrad Yakabuski (Globe and Mail – April 26, 2023)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Ending Europe’s dependence on Russian oil and gas may be the easy part. It could prove much harder for the continent to replace Russian nuclear fuel and technology after decades of underinvestment in the West’s nuclear-energy industry. Russia supplies almost half of the world’s enriched uranium and dominates the global market for new reactors. And most of Europe’s more than 100 reactors rely on Russian fuel.

This explains why Russian state-owned nuclear energy powerhouse Rosatom has not faced Western sanctions since the country’s invasion of Ukraine. It is also why last week Canada joined the United States, Britain, France and Japan in a bid to end Russia’s dominance in the field.

Read more

Germany Retires Last Nuclear Plants in Hopes of Greener Pastures – by Carolynn Look, Petra Sorge and Josefine Fokuhl (Bloomberg News – April 15, 2023)

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/

(Bloomberg) — At 10 p.m. on Saturday, the Isar-2 nuclear plant near Munich will begin winding down its power generation in steps of 10 megawatts per minute. After about 45 minutes, it will drop to 30% capacity and automatically sever from the national electricity grid.

The other two plants still in operation, Neckarwestheim-2 and Emsland, will by then be in the midst of a similar process. By midnight, all three will be offline, ending Germany’s tumultuous six-decade reliance on nuclear energy.

Read more

[Elliot Lake] Local historian recalls city since his family’s arrival in 1957 – by Kris Svela (Elliot Lake Today – April 14, 2023)

https://www.elliotlaketoday.com/

According to him there were at least two major shopping spots, Kressge and Hudson Bay, where he would eventually have one of his first jobs

Elliot Lake’s Historical Society hosted its monthly meeting Wednesday with special guest speaker and local historian Bill Gareau talking about his memories of the community since his family moved here in 1957.

Gareau is well known on Facebook as he regularly posts historical pictures of mining works in Elliot Lake from 1955 to the mid- 1990s when uranium mining operations closed here. His parents settled during in Elliot Lake with the mining rush is 1957 and Gareau and his own family have lived her ever since.

Read more

Tribes want US protection for areas next to the Grand Canyon – by Anita Snow (Associated Press – April 11, 2023)

https://apnews.com/

PHOENIX (AP) — Tribal leaders in Arizona said Tuesday they hope to build on the momentum of President Joe Biden’s recent designation of a national monument in neighboring Nevada to persuade the administration to create similar protections for areas adjacent to the Grand Canyon, which they consider sacred.

“This designation is of the highest priority to the Hopi people,” said Timothy Nuvangyaoma, chairman of the tribe in northern Arizona. “We have to protect the beauty and grandeur of this place many tribes call home.”

Read more

Will Washington Halt the Global Renaissance of Nuclear Power? by Ted Nordhaus and Adam Stein (Foreign Policy – April 8, 2023)

Home

Hopes to slash emissions using nuclear energy are being dashed by U.S. regulators.

For anyone hoping to reboot the nuclear power sector as a source of zero-carbon energy in the age of climate change, the news has not been good. On Feb. 28, the staff of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) forwarded a proposed licensing framework for next-generation reactors to the agency’s five politically appointed commissioners. That proposal came little more than a year after the NRC summarily rejected Oklo Power’s license application for its Aurora reactor. The application was the first attempt to obtain a license to operate an advanced nuclear reactor in the United States.

The new rules, mandated by the U.S. Congress, were supposed to provide a modern, streamlined licensing process for the new small reactors in advanced stages of development by multiple U.S. and international companies. Instead, the NRC staff simply cut and pasted the existing rules for large conventional reactors into a mammoth 1,200-page regulation for new reactor types.

Read more