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Uranium and Nuclear Power Industry

Uranium Risks Becoming the Next Critical Minerals Crisis – by David Fickling (Washington Post/Bloomberg – September 5, 2022)

https://www.washingtonpost.com/

Faced with the most serious energy crisis since the 1970s, the world is turning back to one of the biggest beneficiaries of the 1973 oil embargo: nuclear power. That’s good news, but we should take care. This solution to 2022’s energy security problems risks creating its own energy security headache down the road.

That’s because uranium’s supply chain is as susceptible to geopolitical manipulation as those for natural gas, cobalt, and rare earths. If developed countries want to count on atomic energy as a reliable source of zero-carbon power in the 2030s and 2040s, they’re going to need to start locking down the mineral resources now.

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‘It’s shameful’: Critics slam Doug Ford’s plan to replace nuclear power with natural gas – by Rob Ferguson (Toronto Star – August 23, 2022)

https://www.thestar.com/

Ontario’s plan to replace electricity generation when an aging nuclear plant closes in 2025 has critics saying the province didn’t get the memo on the growing dangers of climate change. Of six new contracts announced by the province’s Independent Electricity System Operator (IESO) on Tuesday, four are for power to be generated by burning natural gas, while the other two — for wind and energy storage — account for less than 10 per cent of the 764 megawatts under contract.

Energy Minister Todd Smith defended the procurement, made in the wake of last year’s IESO warning that phasing out gas-fired power plants before 2030 would result in rotating blackouts and higher electricity bills because alternate supply and transmission lines could not be built in time.

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Japan eyes return to nuclear power more than a decade after Fukushima disaster – by Justin McCurry (The Guardian – August 25, 2022)

https://www.theguardian.com/

Move designed to secure energy supplies would mark a dramatic shift in Japan’s policy stance held since 2011 reactor meltdown

Japan is considering building next-generation nuclear reactors and restarting idled plants in a major policy shift, 11 years after the triple meltdown at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant rocked the country’s dependence on atomic energy.

The prime minister, Fumio Kishida, said he had directed a government panel to look into how “next-generation nuclear reactors equipped with new safety mechanisms” could be used to help Japan achieve its goal of carbon neutrality by 2050. His “green transformation” council is expected to report back by the end of the year, he said on Wednesday.

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Sask. projecting $1.04B surplus amid rising resource revenues – by Stefanie Davis and Brendan Ellis (CTV News Saskatchewan – August 23, 2022)

https://regina.ctvnews.ca/

Saskatchewan is projecting a $1.04 billion surplus for 2022-23, with a large bump from non-renewable resource revenues projected. That figure is a $1.51 billion improvement from budget forecasts, which projected a $463 million deficit for the year.

“A strong economy and higher resource prices have meant a significant improvement in the province’s finances. That means we can balance the budget, pay down debt and help Saskatchewan people with the rising cost of living,” Finance Minister Donna Harpauer said.

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‘It’s shameful’: Critics slam Doug Ford’s plan to replace nuclear power with natural gas – by Rob Ferguson (Toronto Star – August 24, 2022)

https://www.thestar.com/

Ontario’s plan to replace electricity generation when an aging nuclear plant closes in 2025 has critics saying the province didn’t get the memo on the growing dangers of climate change.

Of six new contracts announced by the province’s Independent Electricity System Operator (IESO) on Tuesday, four are for power to be generated by burning natural gas, while the other two — for wind and energy storage — account for less than 10 per cent of the 764 megawatts under contract.

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A remote Canadian province luxuriates in the global supply crunch (The Economist – August 18, 2022)

https://www.economist.com/

Saskatchewan is enjoying wild growth in the wake of war in Europe

Gerrid gust’s great-grandfather was from near Dubno, a town that is now in western Ukraine. He settled between the two biggest towns in the Canadian province of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon and Regina, on a plot of 160 acres which he bought for C$10. The farm is now a patchwork of properties 100 times the size which Mr Gust runs with his father and brother. Each year they harvest wheat, lentils and rapeseed.

Every planting season 23-metre-wide “drillers” shoot seed and fertiliser directly into the soil for 16 hours a day. Then it is all down to the heavens. Nearly all of Saskatchewan’s crops depend on rain rather than irrigation. Last year “was desperately dry”, says Mr Gust.

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OPINION: The next Land Back battleground will be north of Lake Superior, as Chiefs say no to nuclear waste on their traditional lands – by Tanya Talaga (Globe and Mail – August 11, 2022)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Standing up for Indigenous rights, in the face of various governments’ continued abdication of their commitments to treaties and international law, is a fight First Nations will never tire of.

Good thing, because the work is endless. From the militarized RCMP operations in Wet’suwet’en territory in B.C. (concerning the Coastal GasLink pipeline), to the 1492 Land Back Lane land defence in Caledonia, Ont. (a Six Nations-led effort), our peoples are both the original and present-day protectors of the land, consistently light years ahead of any climate-change movement. Sadly, our efforts to protect the environment are rarely recognized until it is too late.

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Niger government increases stake in Dasa uranium project (World Nuclear News – August 12, 2022)

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

SOMIDA will be 80%-owned by Global Atomic, with the government holding the remainder which includes the 10% of shares mandated for government ownership by Niger’s Mining Code.

The government will be obligated to contribute 10% of all capital and operating costs over the life of the mine. Moussa Souley has been appointed as SOMIDA’s managing director and Robert Parr as Dasa project director.

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Bidding war for Canadian uranium explorer UEX hots up – by Mariaan Webb (MiningWeekly.com – August 10, 2022)

https://www.miningweekly.com/

The bidding war for that has erupted for Canadian uranium exploration junior UEX is heating up, with Denison Mines improving its offer, leaving fellow-suitor Uranium Energy Company (UEC) disappointed with UEX delaying its shareholder vote. UEX shareholders would have voted on UEC’s bid on Tuesday, but the company’s board had moved that meeting to August 15, following Denison’s amended offer.

Denison has offered to acquire UEX for 0.32 shares for every UEX share held, representing an implied purchase price of C$0.51 a share. Denison states that the acquisition proposal represents a 7% premium to the price implied by the amended agreement between UEX and UEC, and a 9% premium to the 20-day volume weighted average price implied by the amended UEC agreement.

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Uranium developer Denison says Phoenix feasibility field test is fully permitted – by Vladimir Basov (Kitco News – August 8, 2022)

https://www.kitco.com/

(Kitco News) – Denison Mines (TSX: DML) announced today it has received a License to Possess, Use, Store and Transfer a Nuclear Substance from the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission for the In-Situ Recovery Feasibility Field Test planned for the Phoenix uranium deposit at the company’s 95% owned Wheeler River project.

Denison Mines said that the receipt of this license, together with the previously announced approval from the Saskatchewan Minister of Environment, means that the Feasibility Field Test (FFT) is fully permitted to proceed as per the company’s plans.

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Germany argues over nuclear shutdown amid gas supply worries – by Geir Moulson (Associated Press – August 1, 2022)

https://apnews.com/

BERLIN (AP) — Rising concern over the impact of a potential Russian gas cutoff is fueling the debate in Germany over whether the country should switch off its last three nuclear power plants as planned at the end of this year.

The door to some kind of extension appeared to open a crack after the Economy Ministry in mid-July announced a new “stress test” on the security of electricity supplies. It’s supposed to take into account a tougher scenario than a previous test, concluded in May, that found supplies were assured.

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Cameco forecasts new jobs, production at Saskatchewan mines (CBC Saskatchewan – July 27, 2022)

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

Quarterly earnings report touts new contracts, more jobs at McArthur River/Key Lake facilities

Saskatchewan’s uranium giant is expecting to add more northern Saskatchewan jobs and more cash to its bottom line this year.

Saskatoon-based Cameco, one of the largest uranium producers in the world, has issued its second quarter earnings report. It shows the company brought in $84 million in net earnings over a three-month period. According to president and CEO Tim Gitzel, the market has been positive in 2022.

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Canada’s oilsands look into use of nuclear power as ‘net zero changes everything’ – by Amanda Stephenson (Canadian Press/CTV News – July 17, 2022)

https://www.ctvnews.ca/

CALGARY – The pressing global need to slash emissions in the face of a growing climate crisis is driving renewed interest in nuclear power — and few places more so than in Canada’s oilsands.

While the idea of using nuclear power to replace the fossil fuels burned in oilsands production has been bandied about for years, some experts say the reality could be just a decade or so away. On paper, at least, there is more potential to deploy small modular reactor (SMR) technology in the oilsands region of Alberta than anywhere else in the country.

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The Global Nuclear Power Comeback – by Christopher Barnard (Wall Street Journal – July 18, 2022)

https://www.wsj.com/

Countries are realizing they can’t meet their climate, energy and national-security goals with renewables and fossil fuels.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein, a longtime nuclear-energy critic, said in June she had changed her mind about California’s last nuclear plant, at Diablo Canyon. Closing it, she said, makes little sense “under these circumstances.”

Even before the current global energy crisis, experts warned for years that nuclear phaseouts like Germany’s would crunch energy supply at a time when countries are shifting from fossil fuels to meet climate mandates.

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The Forgotten Nuclear Accidents at Chalk River – by MÉLISSA GUILLEMETTE (The Walrus – July 13, 2022)

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The world’s first serious nuclear accident occurred in Ontario in 1952, followed by a second incident there in 1958. A look back at these events now that the federal government is compensating workers who took part in cleanup efforts.

GEORGE KIELY IS at a loss for words. On a July morning in 2021, I phone to get his reaction to the federal budget tabled three months earlier. One measure had caught my eye: $22.3 million set aside for several hundred workers who cleaned up Chalk River Laboratories after two nuclear accidents in the 1950s. I hadn’t known about these incidents.

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