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Uranium and Nuclear Power Industry

Documentary: The Bomb (2015)

 

http://www.pbs.org/

The Bomb is a 2015 American documentary film about the history of nuclear weapons, from theoretical scientific considerations at the very beginning, to their first use on August 6, 1945,[1][2] to their global political implications in the present-day.

[3][4][5][6][7] The two-hour PBS film was written and directed by Rushmore DeNooyer, who noted the project took a year and a half to complete, since much of the film footage and images was only recently declassified by the United States Department of Defense.[5]

According to DeNooyer, “It wouldn’t take very many bombs to really change life on Earth, … The idea that there are thousands of them sitting around is pretty scary. I don’t think people today realize that. They don’t think about it. I don’t think they are scared.

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China’s nuclear war on coal – by Frik Els (Mining.com – June 23, 2016)

http://www.mining.com/

Beijing’s already cut coal miners working hours by 16% and plans to eliminate 500 million tonnes of coal capacity within just 3–5 years

After 13 years of rapid growth, China burns more coal than the rest of the world combined. The country was responsible for more than 80% of global growth in coal usage since the start of the century.

Even these numbers were upped in a recent study by the US Energy Information Administration (EIA) that showed energy-content-based coal consumption from 2000 to 2013 was up to 14% higher than previously reported at nearly 4.5 billion tonnes, while coal production was up to 7% higher.

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Documentary: Uranium – Twisting The Dragon’s Tail (2015)

 

The story of uranium is part science, part history and all epic adventure. It’s a journey through place and time, around the most dangerous and wondrous rock on Earth.

Born violently in the collapse of a star long ago, uranium is woven throughout the fabric of Earth. It has properties like no other rock: the element spits energy which can transform DNA, shaping the very nature of what it means to be human. Once considered worthless, this rock has become the most desirable, most expensive and most feared substance in the world. And on a warming planet with limited fossil fuel, uranium may transform once again—into our savior.

Uranium: Twisting the Dragon’s Tail is an action-packed journey to explore this dangerous, wondrous and controversial rock. Join physicist Dr. Derek Muller, creator of YouTube channel Veritasium, as he travels to Russia, Japan, North America, Europe and Australia to explore the vast world of this fascinating element.

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Mining companies, northern communities renew uranium development partnership (Saskatoon StarPhoenex – June 22, 2016)

http://thestarphoenix.com/

Seven northern communities have renewed their agreement with Cameco Corp. and Areva Resources Canada Inc. to support uranium mining operations in Saskatchewan’s Athabasca Basin.

“The renewed partnership agreement gives the Athabasca communities certainty, to help ensure that the companies operate sustainably, bringing positive changes for the future generation,” Diane McDonald, lead negotiator for the communities, said in a statement.

The Ya’Thi Néné agreement, which means “Land of the North” in Dene, builds on a previous deal struck in 1999. It confirms the support of Black Lake, Fond du Lac, Hatchet Lake, Stony Rapids, Wollaston Lake, Uranium City and Camsell Portage for the Cigar Lake, McLean Lake and now-shuttered Rabbit Lake uranium operations.

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[India] Mining of atomic minerals to be opened up to private sector – by Gireesh Chandra Prasad (Live Mint.com – June 15, 2016)

http://www.livemint.com/

The government, like it did with hydrocarbons, is set to open up exploration and production of atomic minerals to private mining companies.

It is part of a strategy to increase domestic supplies of fuel as the country readies to expand its nuclear power generation capacity, Balvinder Kumar, secretary in the ministry of mines, said.

India currently has a 5.7 gigawatts (GW) nuclear power generation capacity, which barely accounts for 2% of the total power capacity but is expected to witness a sharp increase over the next 16 years as the country moves away from fossil fuels for its energy needs.

The Department of Atomic Energy’s target is to have 63GW of nuclear power capacity by 2032.

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Cameco CEO Tim Gritzel on uranium market transformation – by Irina Dorokhova – Kursiv (Mining.com – June 10, 2016)

http://www.mining.com/

Uranium is having the worst start to a year in a decade. U3O8 is down more than 20% in 2016 with the UxC broker average price trading around the $28 a pound mark this week. Current levels are the cheapest spot uranium has been since 2005. At the same time the long term price, where most uranium business is conducted, is hovering at around $44 a pound, where it’s been since July 2015.

IntIrina Dorokhova of MINEX Central Asia sat down with Tim Gritzel, President and CEO of Cameco to talk about the changing dynamics of the uranium market, how the Canadian company is riding out the slump and its new agreement with Kazakh giant Kazatomprom.

Mr. Gitzel, what’s happening in the spot uranium market? Why do you think the spot price stabilized in 2015 and dropped in the first quarter of 2016?

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A tale of two minerals: Overproduction, low demand, weak prices dog potash, uranium mining – by Bruce Johnstone (Regina Leader-Post – May 27, 2016)

http://thestarphoenix.com/

With apologies to Charles Dickens, it was the best of times and worst of times for Saskatchewan’s mining industry in 2015.

Both production volume and value of Saskatchewan’s most important mineral resources — potash and uranium — were up in 2015 over 2014. And, for the first time ever, Saskatchewan was ranked second in terms of the value of mineral production among Canada’s mining provinces last year.

But by the fourth quarter of 2015 and first quarter of 2016, overproduction and low prices resulted in potash and uranium mine shutdowns and layoffs.According to Natural Resources Canada, the value of Saskatchewan’s mineral production was $8.5 billion in 2015, with a nearly 20 per cent share of Canadian mineral production.

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First Nations must pursue own interests in resource projects – by Doug Cuthand (Saskatoon StarPhoenix – April 30, 2016)

http://thestarphoenix.com/

Back in the 1970s and ’80s there was opposition to developing uranium mines
in Northern Saskatchewan. Our people were used as an ally by the opponents,
but in the end the mines were developed. Northern people expressed their
concerns for the environment, but they also saw the value of employment
and business opportunities.

The uranium industry became an economic engine, creating jobs and contract
opportunities for our people. Today there are indigenous companies that
provide camp catering, trucking, security and other spinoff services.

Pipeline building is once again in the news, and the pros and the cons are lining up. Our people once again are somewhere in the middle, seen either as an ally or an impediment.

First Nations have been left out of resource development instead of being treated as stakeholders. The same people who ignore our potential also are the ones to complain about indigenous poverty and suggest that we move away from traditional communities. Meanwhile, the environmentalists and anti-developers co-opt our people as allies in order to justify their cause.

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Is A Green World A Safer World? – by David Rothkopf (Foreign Policy – August 22, 2009)

http://foreignpolicy.com/

A guide to the coming green geopolitical crises.

Greening the world will certainly eliminate some of the most serious risks we face, but it will also create new ones. A move to electric cars, for example, could set off a competition for lithium — another limited, geographically concentrated resource.

The sheer amount of water needed to create some kinds of alternative energy could suck certain regions dry, upping the odds of resource-based conflict. And as the world builds scores more emissions-free nuclear power plants, the risk that terrorists get their hands on dangerous atomic materials — or that states launch nuclear-weapons programs — goes up.

The decades-long oil wars might be coming to an end as black gold says its long, long goodbye, but there will be new types of conflicts, controversies, and unwelcome surprises in our future (including perhaps a last wave of oil wars as some of the more fragile petrocracies decline).

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Chernobyl wounds still fresh as Ukrainians mark 30th anniversary of disaster – by Andrew Roth (Washington Post – April 26, 2016)

https://www.washingtonpost.com/

KIEV, Ukraine — As Ukrainians solemnly commemorated the 30th anniversary of the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear power plant accident on Tuesday, President Petro Poroshenko said that Russia’s support for separatists in the country’s east posed the threat of a repetition of the atomic catastrophe.

The remarks came at Chernobyl, where an international effort to seal the destroyed remains of the nuclear reactor that exploded in Ukraine 30 years ago is finally close to completion. Remarkably, despite the political revolution and armed conflict that have rocked the country since 2014, it’s close to being on schedule.

On Tuesday, Poroshenko stressed the political importance of nuclear power for Ukraine, saying the country would “neither today, nor tomorrow,” halt nuclear reactors because of the importance of maintaining the country’s energy independence, implying away from Russian gas.

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OPINIION: 30 years after Chernobyl, Australia still hasn’t learned to leave uranium in the ground – by Josephine Vallentine (The Guardian – April 26, 2016)

http://www.theguardian.com/

Josephine Vallentine is a former senator for Western Australia and an anti-nuclear campaigner.

I distinctly remember the day I heard the news of the accident at Soviet Union’s Chernobyl nuclear reactor complex. I was looking out the window of my tiny office in the old parliament house when the news came via ABC radio. I froze, immediately realising some of the nightmarish implications. But I could only anticipate a fraction of the results of such an accident, and of course, information was sketchy.

Fast forward to 2012, when I met the man who tried to raise the alarm, biologist Professor Alexander Sergeivich. He had immediately seen radiation levels skyrocket on his tracking instruments at the Novozybkhov Pedological College, 180km east of Chernobyl on that fateful day.

From the first hours that radiation escaped, the authorities ignored him but he continued tracking the levels. Eventually, his figures were believed but by then the word had got out via neighbouring countries.

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Cameco Corp to shutter Rabbit Lake mine, cut 500 jobs due to weak uranium market – by Peter Koven (National Post – April 22, 2016)

http://business.financialpost.com/

Cameco Corp. announced it will shutter its long-running Rabbit Lake operation in Saskatchewan as the company tries to adjust to an extremely weak uranium market.

The shutdown will lead to roughly 500 job losses, Saskatoon-based Cameco said on Thursday night. The miner is also curtailing production at its U.S. operations, which will result in an additional 85 job cuts.

Cameco chief executive Tim Gitzel said these moves were unavoidable as the company needs to be prepared for a “lower-for-longer” scenario in the uranium business. “It was just a tough day for all of us here at Cameco and we’re thinking of our employees,” he said in an interview.

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Uranium market is getting crushed – by Frik Els (Mining.com – April 21, 2016)

http://www.mining.com/

Uranium price falls to lowest since May 2005 as bearishness overwhelms the sector

Iron ore is on an insane run, copper’s dug itself out of January’s seven-year trough, tin and zinc are in bull markets, coking coal is heading for triple digits and crude’s holding onto 60% gains since February’s low despite the Doha disaster.

Uranium? It’s having the worst start to a year in a decade. U3O8 is down more than 25% in 2016 with the UxC broker average price sliding to $25.69 a pound on Friday. That’s the cheapest uranium has been since May 2, 2005.

Haywood Securities in a research note points out that the spot U3O8 price “saw three years of back-to-back double-digit percentage losses from 2011-13, but none worse than what we’ve seen thus far in 2016, and at no point since Fukushima, did the average weekly spot price dip below $28 a pound.” The long term price, where most uranium business is conducted, is languishing at around $44 a pound.

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Cameco Corp. shuts down Rabbit Lake uranium mine indefinitely and cuts 500 jobs (Saskatoon StarPhoenix – April 21, 2016)

http://thestarphoenix.com/

Cameco Corp. is shuttering its Rabbit Lake uranium mine in northern Saskatchewan and curtailing production at its U.S. operations, resulting in the loss of about 585 jobs.

“Unfortunately, continued depressed market conditions do not support the operating and capital costs needed to sustain production at Rabbit Lake and the US operations,” Cameco CEO Tim Gitzel said in a statement late Thursday afternoon.

Rabbit Lake, which began production in 1975, will be placed in a “safe care and maintenance state” until market conditions improve “significantly.” The move will result in a reduction of about 500 jobs at the operation.

Layoffs will take place over the next four months, with affected employees being offered severance packages or alternatives such as relocation to other Cameco operations or job sharing options, the company said in a news release.

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India mulls restricted window for atomic mineral mining – by Ajoy K Das (MiningWeekly.com – April 14, 2016)

http://www.miningweekly.com/page/americas-home

KOLKATA (miningweekly.com) – The Indian government has proposed tweaking the atomic mineral concession rules, which would offer limited leeway to provincial governments to undertake mining of atomic minerals, subject to conditions.

Currently, mining of atomic minerals was under the sole purview of the federal government’s agencies under the scrutiny of the Atomic Minerals Directorate for Exploration and Research, within the purview of the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE).

However, once the new concession rules kicked in, provincial governments would be permitted to undertake mining of such minerals, subject to atomic mineral content being lower than a pre-determined threshold.

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