Uranium and Nuclear Power Industry – Page 4

Opinion: Canada and the Three Seas Initiative: Energy security through nuclear co-operation – by George Christidis and Heather Exner-Pirot (Globe and Mail – November 8, 2024)

November 8, 2024

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

George Christidis is the interim chief executive of the Canadian Nuclear Association. Heather Exner-Pirot is the director of Energy, Natural Resources, and Environment at the Macdonald-Laurier Institute.

Advocates of nuclear energy tout its environmental and economic benefits, but there are also compelling geopolitical reasons to pursue nuclear.

Energy security concerns have thrust nuclear forward as a critical solution for many countries traditionally dependent on, or integrated with, Russian nuclear energy and gas supplies. Their desire to disentangle their energy systems from Russia presents Canada the opportunity to use its nuclear expertise and supply chain to contribute to European energy security.

Global Atomic anticipates $295m loan for Dasa project by Q1 2025 – by Staff (Mining.com – October 29, 2024)

October 31, 2024

https://www.mining.com/

Global Atomic (TSX: GLO) said on Tuesday it anticipates securing a project financing loan from the US development bank by early Q1 2025 to advance its Dasa uranium project in Niger.

The company reported that in recent discussions, the bank confirmed its intention to approve a $295 million debt facility, which would cover 60% of the project’s projected costs. Dasa is the highest-grade uranium deposit in Africa, surpassed only by grades found in Canada’s Athabasca Basin, and is scheduled to achieve commercial production in early 2026.

Utah has the last conventional uranium mill in the country. What does it do? – by Anastasia Hufham (Salt Lake Tribune – October 7, 2024)

October 28, 2024

https://www.sltrib.com/

The mill’s owner and regulators say there’s no evidence its uranium processing is causing contamination. But a nearby tribe and others fear the impacts of increased demand.

San Juan County – Trucks filled with thousands of pounds of rock roll up a paved road, the namesake twin buttes of Bears Ears National Monument visible in the distance on a clear day. The dark gray rock is uranium ore headed to the White Mesa Mill in Utah’s rural San Juan County — the last remaining “conventional” uranium mill in the United States.

The country’s other 14 uranium recovery sites solely process rock from the site where they’re located. This leaves White Mesa as the only American uranium mill still accepting ore and other radioactive materials from around the country and the world.

Why this town in the Northwest Territories was called the ‘Village of Widows’ – by Nina Dragicevic (CBC Docs – October 25, 2024)

October 28, 2024

https://www.cbc.ca/documentaries/

The discovery of a rare rock amidst the tundra of Canada’s Far North nearly 100 years ago set in motion one of mankind’s most destructive legacies: Decades of mining, workers getting sick and, finally, a pair of atomic bombs that killed tens of thousands of civilians in an instant — and changed the world forever.

As author and professor Peter van Wyck says in the documentary Atomic Reaction: “This is a piece of Canadian history that doesn’t get talked about much.” It all started near Délı̨nę, a community on Great Bear Lake in the Northwest Territories, where the Sahtu Dene people have lived for thousands of years. Originally a nomadic people, they started settling more firmly at Délı̨nę in the 1940s.

[Niger Mining] Orano suspends operations at Arlit (World Nuclear News – October 24, 2024)

October 25, 2024

https://www.world-nuclear-news.org/

Major financial difficulties facing SOMAÏR, the operator of the Arlit uranium mine in Niger, have led to the decision to suspend its activities from the end of October.

The French company said the financial difficulties which have been facing its 63.4%-owned subsidiary since July 2023 – when then-President of Niger Mohamed Bazoum was deposed in a coup d’état – have continued to grow. Niger’s border with Benin, through which uranium concentrates produced at Arlit are exported – has remained closed since the events of July 2023.

Who will pay for Ontario’s radioactive past? – by Aya Dufour (CBC News Features – October 15, 2024)

October 25, 2024

https://www.cbc.ca/newsinteractives/

One northern remediation project illustrates the complexity of the issue

If not for the fences and the signs, nothing’s obviously threatening about the radioactive waste that has plagued Nipissing First Nation for decades. It looks like sandy soil peppered with small rocks. Behind the benign appearance, however, are niobium and other naturally occurring radioactive materials that were left behind by a defunct mining operation dating back to the early days of the Cold War.

With the company long gone and the Ministry of Mines busy remediating and monitoring the other 5,865 abandoned mining projects in Ontario, the waste has just sat there for 67 years.

Rio Tinto to take over Ranger uranium mine cleanup – by Cecilia Jamasmie (Mining.com – October 15, 2024)

October 15, 2024

https://www.mining.com/

Rio Tinto will carry out the rehabilitation of the closed Ranger uranium mine in Australia’s Northern Territory, a government body has ruled.

The Takeovers Panel’s decision ends a long-running dispute over whether Rio Tinto or its majority owned uranium producer Energy Resources of Australia (ASX: ERA) would assume the site restoration’s costs. It also clears the way for Rio to assume full control of the uranium producer via the company’s capital raising, announced in August.

Canada’s nuclear watchdog green-lights operation of aging Pickering reactors to 2026 – by Matthew McClearn (Globe and Mail – October 11, 2024)

October 15, 2024

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Canada’s nuclear safety regulator again extended a crucial permit for the country’s oldest nuclear power plant on Friday, allowing it to continue operating beyond its original design life.

On Friday the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission authorized its owner, Ontario Power Generation, to operate the Pickering Nuclear Generating Station for an additional two years, to Dec. 31, 2026. The extended permit applies only to its newest four reactors, Units 5 through 8, which are collectively known as Pickering B. Those reactors entered service between 1983 and 1986.

Canada reviewing Paladin’s Fission Uranium takeover on national security grounds – by Cecilia Jamasmie (Mining.com – October 2, 2024)

October 3, 2024

https://www.mining.com/

Paladin Energy’s (ASX: PDN) proposed takeover of Canadian explorer Fission Uranium (TSX: FCU) has hit a roadblock after receiving a notice from the Canadian government informing the company the deal is now the subject of a national security review.

The Australian miner entered in June into an agreement with Fission Uranium to acquire it for C$1.14 billion ($846m), as strong prices for the fuel used in nuclear reactors has lit fire under market consolidations and deals.

U.S. Ramps Up Hunt for Uranium to End Reliance on Russia – by Ivan Penn and Rebecca F. Elliott (New York Times – September 2024)

September 30, 2024

https://www.nytimes.com/

Miners aim to meet a growing demand for emissions-free energy, though a failure to clean up old sites haunts the industry.

More than 1,400 feet below an Arizona pine forest, miners are blasting tunnels in search of a radioactive element that can be used to make electricity. Two states north, in central Wyoming, drillers have been digging well after well in the desert, where that element — uranium — is buried in layers of sandstone.

Uranium mines are ramping up across the West, spurred by rising demand for electricity and federal efforts to cut Russia out of the supply chain for U.S. nuclear fuel.

Canada’s nuclear waste needs a forever home. Scientists may be close to finding one – by Marcus Gee (Globe and Mail – September 18, 2024)

September 24, 2024

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Canada’s Candu nuclear reactors have been running for more than half a century. Ontario, home to all but one of the active reactors, gets about 60 per cent of its electrical power from nuclear, which has the benefit of producing next to no greenhouse gases.

To help meet climate targets while fulfilling the province’s electricity needs, the provincial government has announced plans to spend billions refurbishing an aging nuclear plant at Pickering, east of Toronto. It is part of a worldwide trend. After stagnating for years over worries about cost and safety that followed accidents in Chornobyl and Fukushima, nuclear power is getting a fresh look.

Canada’s nuclear waste needs a forever home. Scientists may be close to finding one – by Marcus Gee (Globe and Mail – September 18, 2024)

September 19, 2024

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Chinese investor steps in to block Paladin’s Fission buy – by Cecilia Jamasmie (Mining.com – September 16, 2024)

September 16, 2024

https://www.mining.com/

Australia’s Paladin Energy (ASX: PDN) has hit a roadblock in its proposed acquisition of Canada’s Fission Uranium (TSX: FCU) after a Chinese investor in the takeover target opposed the tie-up.

The Western Australia-based miner revealed on Monday that CGN Mining Company, a subsidiary of China General Nuclear Power with a 11.26% stake in Fission, is opposing the tie-up. Paladin moved in June to buy the Canadian miner for C$1.14 billion ($845 million), contingent on at least two-thirds of Fission shareholders voting in favour of the transaction by Aug. 26.

[Australia] Mirarr Traditional Owners criticise uranium miner ahead of final fight over Jabiluka – by David Prestipino (National Indigenous Times – September 16, 2024)

September 16, 2024

https://nit.com.au/

Mirarr Traditional Owners in the Northern Territory are disappointed at comments from Energy Resources Australia bosses they say undermine their cultural authority.

Criticism of the “disrespectful” comments in legal documents by ERA chief executive Brad Welsh and independent director Ken Wyatt comes as the company appeals the NT Government’s rejection in July of a 10-year-extension to its minerals licence over the uranium-rich land surrounded by Kakadu National Park.

Port Radium and the atomic highway – John Sandlos (Canadian Mining Journal – September 11, 2024)

September 12, 2024

https://www.canadianminingjournal.com/

Gilbert LaBine is one of the most celebrated heroes in Canada’s mining history. He began his career prospecting around Cobalt, the Porcupine and Kirkland Lake, but his success was limited. Everything changed, however, when LaBine found pitchblende near Great Bear Lake in 1930, a discovery that cemented his legend as a plucky explorer, willing to brave the harshest northern environments to strike paydirt.

LaBine created a company, Eldorado Mines, to develop extremely valuable radium mines at Cameron Bay (later re-named Port Radium). This first mining development in the Northwest Territories (NWT) created a huge amount of excitement within the government and the industry about the potential of mining north of the sixtieth parallel.