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Uranium and Nuclear Power Industry

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

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.

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

https://www.miningreview.com/

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.

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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)

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.

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

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.

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

https://quillette.com/

“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?”

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

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.

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Funding approved to install final statue in Elliot Lake’s Miner’s Memorial Park – by Colleen Romaniuk (Sudbury Star – June 19, 2020)

https://www.thesudburystar.com/

Almost 20 years after Laura Brown Breetvelt was commissioned by Elliot Lake to design and produce the Miner’s Monument, the city is gearing up to install the final statue in the installation.

In a special session held on June 15, City Council approved a payment of $27,000 to Beamish Construction to install the statue at the site located on Highway 108 beside Horne Lake.

The final piece in what the Merrickville, Ont.-based sculptor calls “a trilogy” is a full-sized metal statue of a uranium prospector that pays homage to Elliot Lake’s former role as Canada’s uranium mining capital.

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Time to restore America’s nuclear energy leadership – by Dan Brouillette (Casper Star Tribune – June 7, 2020)

https://trib.com/

Dan Brouillette is the United States Secretary of Energy.

From the moment the United States split the atom more than seven decades ago, America has led the world in nuclear energy and advancements in nuclear technology.

From safely powering our homes to treating cancer, nuclear technology has undoubtedly improved our lives. Regrettably, this critical advantage, with all the economic and national security implications it brings with it, has been unmistakably slipping away.

Around the world, American nuclear companies face increasingly fierce and unfair competition from state-owned enterprises, including those of China and Russia.

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Arizona tribes fearful after losing court battle over uranium mine near Grand Canyon – by Debra Utacia Krol (Arizona Republic – June 5, 2020)

https://www.azcentral.com/

Havasupai Vice Chairman Matthew Putesoy is worried that a federal court decision regarding a uranium mine could lead to environmental catastrophe for his community and surrounding lands.

A U.S. District Court judge ruled May 22 against the tribe and two environmental groups in a seven-year-old lawsuit that sought to close the Canyon Mine, a uranium mine located about 10 miles south of the Grand Canyon’s south rim. Putesoy said the tribe is not prepared to abandon its fight.

“From Havasu Baaja’s point of view,” he said, using the traditional name of his people, “the Guardians of the Grand Canyon will continue to battle the mining companies and someway, somehow, stop the mine from happening. Once the water is gone there’s no replacing it.”

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Don’t Ignore the Nuclear Option – by Clara Ferreira Marques (Bloomberg News – May 31, 2020)

https://www.bloomberg.com/

It may be controversial. It’s also a reliable source of clean power that can replace fossil fuels.

With billions of workers at home and factories idle, early April saw daily carbon emissions fall 17% compared to 2019 averages, according to a study by a team of international scientists published this month. That’s great. Unfortunately, it only takes us back to 2006 levels, and it’s temporary.

For an even more painful reminder of the scale of the climate task, consider that for 2020 overall the same researchers from the University of East Anglia and Stanford estimate coronavirus lockdowns will amount to an emission reduction of about 4% to 7% — the sort of decline we need every year to limit warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius, the boldest global target.

The challenge is clear. So why are we leaving a major existing source of low-carbon power out of green stimulus discussions, as the European Union appeared to do last week?

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NexGen Energy lines up US$30M financing with Queen’s Road Capital – by Carl A. Williams (Northern Miner – May 12, 2020)

https://www.northernminer.com/

NexGen Energy (TSX: NXE; NYSE: NXE) has signed a US$30 million financing agreement with Queen’s Road Capital Investment (TSXV: QRC) and plans to use the funds to advance work at its flagship Arrow deposit, part of the company’s Rook 1 project in Saskatchewan.

“Warren Gilman, chairman and chief executive officer of Queen’s Road Capital, is a long-time shareholder and supporter of NexGen and also joined our board in 2017,” Leigh Curyer, NexGen’s CEO, said in an interview.

“Warren came to us and wanted to invest in uranium, but only wanted to invest in world-class projects and world-class management teams. We met both those criteria.”

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Looking for a Glowing Commodity? Try Uranium – by Clara Ferreira Marques (Bloomberg News – May 6, 2020)

https://www.bloombergquint.com/

(Bloomberg Opinion) — Uranium is having a moment in 2020, climbing a third in six weeks while much of the commodities universe melts down.

Years of poor economics and weak investment, combined with the impact of pandemic-related mine closures, are adding up to a supply squeeze, despite demand softened by industrial lockdowns. There will be no swift return to lofty levels last seen over a decade ago, but the metal may still be the only one to end the year with a record shortage and higher prices.

The start of the last bull run had plenty of similarities to today. Supply was suffering the effect of a long run of unimpressive prices. Thanks to revived interest in nuclear power, the spot market price for uranium surged by a factor of 13 between 2003 and 2007.

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“Get the Hell Off”: The Indigenous Fight to Stop a Uranium Mine in the Black Hills – by Delilah Friedler (Mother Jones – March/April 2020)

https://www.motherjones.com/

Can the Lakota win a “paper war” to save their sacred sites?

Regina Brave remembers the moment the first viral picture of her was taken. It was 1973, and 32-year-old Brave had taken up arms in a standoff between federal marshals and militant Indigenous activists in Wounded Knee, South Dakota, on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation.

Brave had been assigned to guard a bunker on the front lines and was holding a rifle when a reporter leaped from a car to snap her photo. She remembers thinking that an image of an armed woman would never make the papers—“It was a man’s world,” she says—but the bespectacled Brave, in a peacoat with hair pulled back, was on front pages across the country the following Sunday.

Brave had grown up on Pine Ridge, where the standoff emerged from a challenge to the tribal chair, whose alleged offenses included scheming to accept federal money for Paha Sapa, also known as the Black Hills.

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Uranium workers in northern Sask. facing 25 per cent pay cut – by Michael Bramadat-Willcock (National Observer – April 22, 2020)

https://www.nationalobserver.com/

Hundreds of workers in northern Saskatchewan will be hit with a 25 per cent pay cut in May, as Cameco Corporation’s Cigar Lake mine and Orano Canada Inc.’s McClean Lake mill extend their production suspension past the four week period that was announced on March 23.

“The global challenges posed by this pandemic are not abating — in fact, they are deepening,” Cameco’s president and CEO Tim Gitzel said in a written statement.

Cameco Corporation is the world’s largest publicly traded producer of uranium and Orano Canada Inc. operates the mill where ore from Cigar Lake mine is processed.

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Trump officials eye blocking uranium from Russia, China to help U.S. nuclear industry – by Timothy Gardner (Reuters U.S. – April 23, 2020)

https://www.reuters.com/

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Trump administration officials on Thursday recommended granting U.S. energy regulators the ability to block imports of nuclear fuel from Russia and China and detailed plans for setting up a government stockpile of uranium sourced from domestic miners.

The recommendations are meant to address growing concern in Washington that the United States has ceded its global leadership in nuclear technology in recent decades, and to boost domestic nuclear power producers and uranium miners suffering from a lack of investment.

Energy Secretary Dan Brouillette told reporters on a call that the report from the Nuclear Fuel Working Group was a “road map for what we think needs to be done to not only revitalize but re-establish American leadership in this entire industry.”

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