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Uranium and Nuclear Power Industry

Saskatchewan a model for uranium riches – by Josh Healey (Halifax Chronicle-Herald News – July 19, 2018)

http://thechronicleherald.ca/

Uranium deposits were first discovered in Saskatchewan in the early 1950s and, from that moment on, the province was Canada’s premier player in the uranium mining industry.

The Athabasca Basin, located in northern Saskatchewan, boasts some of the highest-grade uranium ore in the world. Mining, consequently, is a key industry in this region, which generated the lion’s share of Canada’s 13,330 tonnes of uranium in 2017.

Could Nova Scotia’s uranium deposits offer this kind of economic potential? At this point, given known deposits, a spokesperson from the federal Department of Natural Resources says no.

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U.S. to investigate Canadian uranium imports, citing national-security concerns – by Salmaan Farooqui (Globe and Mail – July 19, 2018)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

The United States will investigate imports of uranium over national-security concerns, raising the prospect of damaging tariffs for Canadian producers of the metal.

U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said on Wednesday that the investigation was prompted by a petition from two U.S. uranium mining companies.

He pointed to a drop in U.S. production of uranium, which is used to power 99 commercial reactors, the U.S. Navy’s nuclear submarines and aircraft carriers, and in the country’s nuclear weapons arsenal.

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U.S. Opens Inquiry Into Uranium Imports in Sign That Trade War Is Spreading – by Ana Swanson and Brad Plumer (New York Times – July 18, 2018)

https://www.nytimes.com/

WASHINGTON — The Trump administration said on Wednesday that it was starting an investigation into uranium imports, potentially opening another front in an expansive trade war that has shaken alliances with countries around the world.

Wilbur Ross, the commerce secretary, said the department would investigate whether imported uranium ore and related products — key ingredients in America’s nuclear arsenal, and used in power production and nuclear submarines and aircraft carriers — threatened national security.

Uranium produced domestically now fills only 5 percent of America’s needs, Mr. Ross said, down from half in 1987. The uranium inquiry is the latest of several trade-related steps the Trump administration has taken with an eye toward imposing stiff tariffs on imports.

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Should Nova Scotia’s uranium ban be lifted? – by Josh Healey (Halifax Chronicle-Herald News – July 17, 2018)

http://thechronicleherald.ca/

For the second time in as many weeks, New Brunswick’s Energy and Resource Development Minister Rick Doucet spread the news: his province welcomes nuclear energy.

“Your government sees energy as a way to grow the economy,” said Doucet of the province’s $10 million dollar investment into a nuclear research cluster.

Companies are taking notice of New Brunswick’s open energy stance as it looks to add to the only nuclear reactor in Atlantic Canada at Point Lepreau. Advanced Reactor Concepts (ARC), an American-based company, recently announced a partnership with the province and an investment of $5 million into research and operations in New Brunswick. They are bringing jobs and industry to the struggling city of Saint John.

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Unloved uranium sector eyed for revival on reactor build – by Melanie Burton (Reuters U.K. – July 13, 2018)

https://uk.reuters.com/

MELBOURNE, July 13 (Reuters) – Seven years on from Japan’s Fukushima nuclear disaster, the beaten down uranium sector is attracting interest as analysts and investors see signs its time in the wilderness may drawing to an end.

Years of low prices have forced cuts by large producers who have also shelved new investments, while reactor restarts in Japan and a drive by China to cut pollution point to a potential revival, although the timing of any pick-up is unclear.

Australian fund manager Tribeca is betting on a sector recovery over the next two to four years, with the forthcoming launch of a uranium-focused mining investment fund.

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Navajo Nation urges expansion of radiation exposure law (THE ASSOCIATED PRESS – July 10, 2018)

https://vancouversun.com/

SHIPROCK, N.M. — From the end of World War II to the mid-1980s, about 30 million ton of uranium ore were extracted from lands belonging to the nation’s largest American Indian reservation. Today, across the Navajo Nation, sit dozens of abandoned uranium mines and the high risk to residents of contamination exposure.

Now, the Navajo Nation is urging the U.S. Congress to expand a federal law that compensates people who were exposed to radiation resulting from nuclear bomb tests stemming from the Cold War.

Currently, the law only covers people who lived downwind from nuclear test sites in Nevada, Arizona and Utah, as well as workers in the uranium mining industry in a dozen states. But the tribe says it’s time for Navajo Nation workers after 1971 to be included.

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From mining town to retirement destination—the transformation of Elliot Lake – by Erik White (CBC News Sudbury – July 8, 2018)

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

Elliot Lake was on the brink of becoming of ghost town when the mines closed in the early 1990s.

Four seniors from southern Ontario are quietly sitting in the back of a mini-van as it whizzes up and down the hilly, curvy streets of Elliot Lake. In the driver’s seat, Retirement Living tour guide Linda McKay is far from quiet.

“You’re going to feel like you’re going in circles all the time, and you’re going to get dizzy, but you’ll never get lost,” McKay tells them. She tells the visitors, who were put up in a hotel in the town last night, about everything from the transit service to where they might spot some wild foxes.

McKay drives past the vacant lot where the mall that “collapsed on us” used to stand, referring to the Algo Centre Mall disaster that killed two women in 2012. “Tired yet?” she asks.

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Billboards Call Out Interior Secretary on Grand Canyon Uranium Mining – by Joseph Flaherty (Phoenix New Times – June 19, 2018)

http://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/

Arizona sporting groups are targeting Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke in a publicity campaign to head off a possible rollback of an Obama-era ban on new mining claims around the Grand Canyon.

On Monday, the Arizona Wildlife Federation and Trout Unlimited unveiled two Phoenix billboards that call on Zinke to save Grand Canyon from uranium mining, citing the industry’s hazards for water and wildlife.

The Trump administration has signaled that it may revisit the Interior Department’s 2012 moratorium on new mining claims, known as a mineral withdrawal, that protects over 1 million acres of public lands for 20 years. (Existing mining claims were not affected.) Ending the moratorium “just doesn’t pass the common-sense test,” said Scott Garlid, the conservation director for the AWF.

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Trump Orders Action to Stem Coal, Nuclear Plant Shutdowns – by Jennifer A Dlouhy (Bloomberg News – June 1, 2018)

https://www.bloomberg.com/

President Donald Trump ordered his energy secretary to take immediate action to stem power plant closures, arguing that a decline in coal and nuclear electricity is putting the nation’s security at risk.

“Impending retirements of fuel-secure power facilities are leading to a rapid depletion of a critical part of our nation’s energy mix and impacting the resilience of our power grid,” White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said in an emailed statement Friday. Trump has directed Energy Secretary Rick Perry “to prepare immediate steps to stop the loss of these resources and looks forward to his recommendations.”

Trump’s directive comes as administration officials search for ways to extend the life of money-losing coal and nuclear power plants that face competition from cheaper natural gas and renewable energy. The plants are considered “fuel-secure” because they house coal and nuclear material on site and are not dependent on pipelines that can be disrupted, wind that stops blowing or a sun that sets.

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BHP appoints new Olympic Dam boss – by Peter Ker and Simon Evans (Australian Financial Review – May 29, 2018)

https://www.afr.com/

BHP Billiton’s head of geoscience Laura Tyler will take charge of the Olympic Dam copper, gold and uranium mine, confirming her status as a rising star within the executive ranks of the global miner.

Ms Tyler, who has also been chief of staff to BHP’s chief executive Andrew Mackenzie, will replace Jacqui McGill as asset president of the famous South Australian mine.

Ms McGill, who has been one of the faces of the company through its “Think Big” television campaign, will leave BHP in the wake of the change.

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Uranium makes feds’ list of minerals ‘critical’ to national security, setting off a debate in Utah and beyond – by Brian Maffly (The Salt Lake Tribune – May 23, 2018)

https://www.sltrib.com/

The Interior Department has identified 35 “nonfuel” mineral commodities that are essential to national security, including uranium and several others found in Utah.

Interior’s U.S. Geological Survey helped compile the list under an executive order President Donald Trump issued in December, calling for a national strategy for reducing reliance on critical minerals and promoting access to domestic supplies.

The appearance of uranium on the list, published Friday in the Federal Register, has spurred controversy among those who contend uranium does not qualify as either nonfuel or critical. Rep. Raul Grijalva, D-Ariz., sent a letter Monday to Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke demanding an explanation.

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France’s Areva rebrands to Orano in dire uranium market – by Geert De Clercq (Reuters U.S. – January 23, 2018)

https://www.reuters.com/

PARIS (Reuters) – French uranium mining and nuclear fuel group Areva rebranded itself as Orano on Tuesday, closing the book on a years-long restructuring but still facing an uncertain future, with uranium prices at decade lows and the nuclear industry in the doldrums.

Chief Executive Philippe Knoche said a new name and logo were necessary to start another chapter in the history of the state-owned company, which was split in two and recapitalized in 2017 after years of losses wiped out its equity.

“We had to change our name – we are a new company with a different perimeter, focused on the fuel cycle,” Knoche said at a presentation of the new brand. Orano refers to uranium, the core of the firm’s business, and its new circular yellow logo references the yellowcake uranium concentrate that it extracts from the ore.

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How U.S.-Russia tensions could revive Canada’s struggling uranium mines – by Gabriel Friedma (Financial Post – April 18, 2018)

http://business.financialpost.com/

Just months after Saskatoon-based Cameco Corp. laid off hundreds of workers and shuttered the largest high-grade uranium mine in Canada, the market for the radioactive metal used in nuclear power generation is suddenly in flux, as tensions between the U.S. and Russia flare.

Last week, in response to new U.S. sanctions, Russian lawmakers proposed measures that would halt enriched uranium exports to the U.S. — a move other countries could follow — which analysts believe could reset the supply and demand picture.

“The fact of the matter is it could potentially be quite explosive,” said Rob Chang, a former analyst with Cantor Fitzgerald, who now sits on the board of Fission Uranium Corp., an exploration company.

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Nuclear power plan for the North – by Karen McKinley (Northern Ontario Business – April 7, 2018)

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

Laurentian University, MIRARCO and Bruce Power agree to study small nuclear reactors for remote communities and mines

The first step toward having feasible nuclear power for remote Northern communities and mines has been made with an agreement.

Representatives from Bruce Power, MIRARCO Mining Innovation and Laurentian University met at the Sudbury university on April 6 to announce they have signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to research the feasibility of small modular reactors (SMRs) as a sustainable, clean and safe power source for communities that still rely on diesel fuel generators for their power needs.

The five-year, $1-million research agreement will create an industrial chair position at MIRARCO, which will help highlight clean energy solution opportunities in the province’s North.

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Canadian author’s ‘atomic memoir’ links H-bomb to Great Bear Lake – by Soma Basu (The Hindu – April 6, 2018)

http://www.thehindu.com/

Dr.Julie Salverson, is an anti-nuclear activist, scholar and artist, who works as Assistant Professor of Drama at Queen’s University, Kingston, Canada.

Dr.Julie Salverson’s book Lines of Flight is about a little known aspect of Canada’s connection to the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima in 1945

All of us are constantly living in the middle of something happening somewhere. As a witness to increasing violent events in the world, how do we live life with courage?

Dr.Julie Salverson’s book Lines of Flight delves into how humanity is inextinguishable no matter what in the light of her accidental discovery of the connection between the small village Deline outside Toronto and the bomb that fell on Hiroshima.

The shock value of the little known information put her on a 10-year radioactive trail from Canada to Japan in 2002. “I arrived in Hiroshima for the first time in the middle of a Christmas party. Overwhelmed I was with the pain and loss of the sufferers but I realised the city was not just about the bomb.

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