On Thursday, Orano’s board approved a 30% production capacity increase for its Tricastin factory, in Southern France – Europe’s largest nuclear technology site. The project and its consequent financing will allow France to move away from its reliance on Russia.
“In the current geopolitical context, the purpose of this increase in enrichment capacities is to strengthen Western energy sovereignty in France,” said Claude Imauven, Orano’s board of directors chairman, in a statement.
(Bloomberg) — Canada’s NexGen Energy Ltd. is looking to Australia’s equity market as it sets up financing for its first-ever uranium mine back home, a project with a $1 billion price tag.
That’s partly because its co-founder heralds from Down Under and the market has a depth of experience with mining stocks. But more important is Australia’s $2.2 trillion pensions industry, creating what NexGen’s Chief Commercial Officer Travis McPherson termed “unrelenting” demand for assets.
PARIS, Oct 12 (Reuters) – France signed a deal with Mongolia to search for lithium on Thursday and moved a step closer to mine uranium in the Asian country, as Paris steps up its hunt for critical metals needed for its clean energy shift.
The deals are one of the highlights of Mongolian President Ukhnaagiin Khurelsukh’s visit to Paris, which comes less than six months after President Emmanuel Macron stopped off in Ulaanbaatar on his way back from a G7 summit in Japan.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/
Costs of expanding nuclear power plants could ultimately run into the hundreds of billions of dollars
Demand for electricity across Canada is forecast to double in the next 25 years, and all the signs from Ontario Premier Doug Ford’s government indicate that nuclear energy will supply the biggest portion of the province’s additional power needs.
Key factors driving that demand include the auto sector’s looming transition to electric vehicles and the push for industries to reduce their carbon emissions.
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/
Ian Leslie Edwards believes the drive to net-zero emissions will trigger a nuclear revival, with old reactors everywhere being rebuilt and new ones planned
Ian Leslie Edwards shares a few numbers to reveal how the touted revival of the nuclear industry could turn the Canadian engineering company he leads, Montreal’s AtkinsRéalis ATRL-T, the former SNC-Lavalin Group Inc. and owner of Candu nuclear technology, into a global energy force.
“In the 70s and 80s, about 600 nuclear reactors were built around the world, of which 33 were Candu, say 5 per cent,” he says. “Most of these 600 reactors are near the end of their lives and need replacing. But the world needs double the amount of baseload electricity. So there is probably a market for 1,200 reactors. That’s a multitrillion-dollar market. If Candu does 5 per cent again, that’s 50 to 60 reactors.”
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/
With its one-time pariah commodity back in vogue, one of Canada’s biggest mining companies is reaching valuations not seen in more than 15 years.
Cameco Corp.is benefiting from a resurgence in uranium, as nuclear power is increasingly embraced by countries looking for ways to cut carbon emissions and supply concerns arise. On Monday, the company’s shares closed at $54.54 on the Toronto Stock Exchange, about $5 below their all-time high in 2007.
Uranium is officially in a bull market with a 20% rise in price so far in 2023, vastly outperforming other metals markets. Uranium scaled $60 per pound on Friday for the first time since 2011. The breakthrough for the nuclear fuel after a decade in the doldrums coincided with the last day of the World Nuclear Symposium in London.
The World Nuclear Association’s biennial report provides long and medium term projections and insights into the more obscure corners of the global supply chain.
Former mayor and businessman led an internationally lauded revival from down-and-out mining town to successful retirement community
George Farkouh, the former mayor of the City of Elliot Lake who helped shepherd the northeastern Ontario community from mining town to a wildly successful retirement community, died at his home on Aug. 29. He was 76. Farkouh was mayor from 1989 to 2006.
Born in Acre, Palestine in 1947, he moved with his family to Beirut, Lebanon and from there to Canada in the 1950s, reuniting with a sibling and eventually settling in the newly created uranium mining town of Elliot Lake. His wife of 50 years, Louise, was a neighbour.
Will the lights go out in Europe if Niger were to prevent France from mining more of its uranium? DW asked experts in Niger and Europe about the energy supply chain in the wake of the coup.
Niger’s greatest treasure lies underground: Uranium is the most important commodity in the Sahel state. But coup plotters have been in charge for just over a month, fueling fears that the uranium supply to global markets is in jeopardy.
France, the former colonial power in Niger, is in a particularly tight spot. Around two-thirds of its electricity comes from nuclear power plants powered by uranium sourced in Niger. It also exports electricity to other countries in Europe that have no nuclear plants of their own.
Miners in the Democratic Republic of Congo face few protections in the global rush for metals for the energy transition—as well as a toxic legacy from a previous rush to mine for nuclear weapons.
Serge Langunu is a graduate student in botany at the University of Lubumbashi in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. In May, he and I were sitting on a bench in the parking lot of a hospital just outside Lubumbashi’s downtown, looking at photos of plants on his laptop.
I met Langunu at the hospital to see an experimental plot of metal-loving plants cultivated by the university’s agronomy department. This understated garden was growing in the shadow of a massive chimney, looming across the street in the mostly abandoned grounds of the old copper smelter named after the state mining corporation, Gécamines.
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/
Michael Sabia had barely started his new job at Hydro-Québec when the provincially owned utility best known for its massive hydroelectric dams said it is taking a renewed look at nuclear power, as it seeks to dramatically increase its energy supply by mid-century.
Mr. Sabia, who took over as Hydro-Québec’s chief executive on Aug. 1, has a mandate from Premier François Legault to add thousands of megawatts to the Quebec’s electricity grid to help the province achieve its net-zero carbon goal by 2050.
(Bloomberg) — In a remote, dusty corner of New Mexico, so near to the Texas border that if you wander too close your smartphone changes time zones, sits a pristine factory that is the best chance for the US to wean itself off an addiction that few knew it had: uranium enriched in Russia.
Outside the $5 billion Urenco plant in Eunice, cacti and lizards bask in the fierce sunlight, watched by heavily armed guards. Inside, the facility is spotless, with bright, polished machinery that looks brand new even though some of the equipment has been in service for years.
Sweden’s Climate Minister, Romina Pourmokhtari, has unveiled plans to lift the nation’s ban on uranium mining, thereby paving the way for an expanded nuclear energy capacity. Pourmokhtari told The Times that a majority within the t supports the ban’s removal.
The government has outlined the construction of a minimum of ten large reactors within the next two decades. In January, Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson shared with reporters that the government is in the process of “altering the legislation,” which will encourage heightened nuclear investment within the country.
‘The Arizona Strip is historically, religiously, culturally more Utah than Arizona,’ one Utah mayor said
America’s newest national monument may be in Arizona, but critics argue the Biden administration was out of line and out of touch to create it without first consulting with the Utahns who will be impacted the most.
During his visit to the Historic Red Butte Airfield Aug. 8, a few miles south of the Grand Canyon, President Joe Biden designated over 917,000 acres of federal forest and rangelands in northern Arizona as the Baaj Nwaavjo I’tah Kukveni — Ancestral Footprints of the Grand Canyon National Monument.
Since a military coup d’état took place in Niamey on July 23rd, there have been many commentaries on its strategic significance for the former colonial overlord. France sources a significant portion of its much-needed uranium from Niger, and also has a military presence in the Sahelian country. The political troubles in Niamey are undoubtedly of interest in Paris.
Soon after the military takeover, a rumor spread that Niger had banned uranium exports to France, although this has been proven false — the idea, however, may have been floated around. This allegation would also entail that Niger would have denied France its most-prized source of uranium ore. For a brief moment, let’s consider just how important is the resource for the government in the Élysée, and more broadly for the energy needs of the French.
