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Uranium and Nuclear Power Industry

India turns to nuclear as energy crisis deepens – by Aditya Phatak (Phys.org – September 28, 2014)

http://phys.org/

India’s new prime minister is turning to nuclear energy to ease a power crisis made worse by the cancellation of hundreds of coal mining permits, but he faces scepticism both at home and abroad.

Energy-starved India relies on coal to produce two thirds of its electricity, but power blackouts are common and demand is rising quickly as the economy and middle class expand.

On Wednesday, the Supreme Court cancelled over 200 coal mining permits because the licensing process was deemed illegal, making the need for alternative energy sources yet more pressing.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has made nuclear a priority as he seeks to fulfil his campaign pledge to kickstart the country’s flagging economy.

But to succeed, he will need to convince a sceptical public that nuclear is safe, and dispel foreign proliferation concerns to secure the imports of uranium and technology that India needs to produce atomic energy.

“Concerns of power disruptions raised post the Supreme Court judgement on the coal issue show how reliance on single source of energy is unhealthy,” said Amit Bhandari, energy and environment fellow at Gateway House, a Mumbai-based think-tank.

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NEWS RELEASE: The First Nations in Quebec stand united in their opposition to uranium mining

WENDAKE, QC, Sept. 25, 2014 /CNW Telbec/ – At a workshop on uranium development hosted by the Assembly of First Nations Quebec-Labrador (AFNQL) today, First Nations from across the province reaffirmed their opposition to uranium development on their territories and throughout Quebec. The workshop brought together representatives of First Nations from across Quebec to discuss the future of uranium development in Quebec.

In March 2013, the AFNQL passed a resolution inviting its members to voice their opposition to uranium development and to declare a global rejection of the exploration and exploitation of uranium on all First Nation territories. This followed the resolution adopted by the Grand Council of the Crees in August 2012 declaring a permanent moratorium on uranium development in Cree territory.

“The exploration and exploitation of uranium constitute major and irreversible threats to our population, our territories and the resources they contain”, said Chief Terence McBride, the Chief of Timiskaming First Nation and member of the Interim Chiefs Committee for the AFNQL. “As First Nations, we have a sacred duty to protect our territories and ensure the sustainable development of our natural resources.”

“Our experience here today has clearly demonstrated that the First Nations of Quebec and Labrador are united in our opposition to uranium development in our territories,” continued Grand Chief Matthew Coon Come of the Cree Nation. “We strongly encourage all the First Nations and citizens in Quebec to clearly and publicly express their opposition to uranium development.”

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Japan’s predicament a boon for future of energy exporters – by Brian Milner (Globe and Mail – September 18, 2014)

The Globe and Mail is Canada’s national newspaper with the second largest broadsheet circulation in the country. It has enormous influence on Canada’s political and business elite.

This is another of an occasional series from The Globe and Mail’s Brian Milner, who visited Japan to assess the results of dramatic efforts to revitalize the world’s third-largest economy.

One commercial office building in Tokyo’s busy Uchisaiwaicho district is notable for its constant police presence. That’s because it’s the headquarters of Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO), provider of power to nearly 30 million people and one of Japan’s more reviled companies.

TEPCO gained its spot in the Hall of Shame over its dreadful handling of the Fukushima nuclear disaster triggered by the massive earthquake and tsunami in March, 2011, as well as subsequent revelations of poor maintenance and safety flaws and anger over the slow pace of compensation. Huge anti-nuclear demonstrations followed, and the public outcry has scarcely abated. As recently as its annual meeting in June, management had to fend off activist shareholders demanding a permanent end to nuclear power.

Now, a year since the complete shutdown of the rest of Japan’s 48 reactors for safety checks, those demands have taken on new urgency. The Nuclear Regulation Authority, the government’s watchdog, has given the green light for another utility, Kyushu Electric Power Co., to restart two reactors at its Sendai plant in southwestern Japan. Other utilities are seeking the go-ahead to turn another 18 reactors back on.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe needs to get at least part of the country’s substantial nuclear capacity back on line to cut a soaring energy import tab – including hefty government subsidies – that makes Japanese industry less competitive and presents one more obstacle to his recovery strategy.

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Uranium Enters Bull Market Amid Russian Sanctions, Strike – by Ben Sharples and Heesu Lee Bloomberg News – September 16, 2014)

http://www.businessweek.com/

Uranium entered a bull market amid new sanctions against Russia over its conflict with Ukraine and a labor strike at the world’s biggest mine in Canada.

The atomic fuel has advanced 21 percent in New York from a May 20 low of $28 a pound, according to data from Ux Consulting Co. in Roswell, Georgia, which provides research on the nuclear industry. Prices closed 1.8 percent higher at $34 yesterday and have averaged $31.87 in 2014.

The U.S. and European Union stepped up their sanctions last week on Russia, which provides enrichment services to western utilities, stoking concern the Ukraine crisis may deepen. In Canada, the United Steelworkers union said Sept. 12 that it had reached a “tentative” agreement with Cameco (CCO) Corp. to end a two-week strike at McArthur River.

“The market may need some more time to digest the recent announcements about McArthur River and additional Russian sanctions to determine any additional impacts on price,” Ux Consulting said in a note dated Sept. 15.

Uranium declined as much as 60 percent since March 2011 when an earthquake and tsunami caused the meltdown of Tokyo Electric Power Co.’s Fukushima Dai-Ichi plant and led to the shutdown of Japan’s nuclear fleet. The nation is seeking to restart reactors as it conducts safety checks, while producers from Kazakhstan to Australia cancel projects and close mines.

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Uranium: Not if but when – by Lawrence Williams (Mineweb.com – September 12, 2014)

http://www.mineweb.com/

Speakers at a uranium seminar in London were all in agreement that uranium prices will rise, but only in the medium to long term.

LONDON (MINEWEB) – Presenters at a uranium seminar organised this week by the London branch of Women in Mining, and sponsored by Fission Uranium, from a broad spectrum of the industry were all in agreement that uranium prices would likely rise substantially, but perhaps not yet – only in the medium to long term. And medium to long is just another way of saying ‘jam tomorrow’, although in this case ‘tomorrow’ will undoubtedly come but price rises may not be significant until perhaps the end of the decade.

The opening keynote was given by Ian Hiscock of commodities research group CRU who reckoned that short term price weakness would remain but that demand for uranium would likely double in the next 20 years with growth in usage for nuclear power generation flat to downwards in the West, due to the probably overdone post Fukushima fallout, but very substantial growth occurring in the East, and in particular in China which has a huge nuclear power development programme in place.

Nuclear power arguably offers the only real major scale non polluting, zero carbon emission technology out there and China sees this as a means for reducing its enormous air pollution problems which beset its major cities from its massive coal-fired power generation sector.

The problem for uranium is that because of its association with atomic weaponry many people live in fear of it – a fear exemplified by the three main nuclear power disasters – Three Mile Island in North America in 1979, Chernobyl in the Ukraine in 1986 and most recently Fukushima in Japan in 2011.

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Tough conditions for cleanup 50 years later of former Saskatchewan uranium mill – by Rob Drinkwater (Lethbridge Herald – August 31, 2014)

http://lethbridgeherald.com/

Edmonton – CANADIAN PRESS – More than 50 years after a Saskatchewan uranium mill that is a key part of Canada’s nuclear history closed, heavy machinery is once again rumbling across the remote northern corner of the province.

But this time workers at the former Lorado mill are cleaning up a massive pile of radioactive, acidic tailings that has poisoned a lake and threatened the health of wildlife and hunters for decades.

“I think we’re a lot more environmentally aware than we were 40 or 50 years ago,” said Ian Wilson with the Saskatchewan Research Council, which is the Crown-owned company that’s carrying out the cleanup.

The Lorado mill is near Uranium City, less than 50 kilometres from the Northwest Territories boundary. It’s where uranium mining once supported a community of up to 5,000 people.

The Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission says the town was one of several in Canada to rise following the Second World War and during a boom in uranium demand that was driven by military needs.

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After 33 years, uranium riches finally in sight for Cameco at Cigar Lake – by Peter Koven (National Post – September 2, 2014)

The National Post is Canada’s second largest national paper.

Stepping out of the shaft and into the underground workings at Cigar Lake, it is hard to believe that anything ever went wrong here.

The Northern Saskatchewan mine looks pristine and ready to go. A massive jet boring system 480 metres below the surface has begun extracting uranium ore from the deposit by pumping water upward at supersonic speed. Other tunnels are filled with a dizzying network of storage, piping and processing infrastructure to handle the incredibly rich ore and deal with the incredibly poor ground conditions.

Along with the nearby McArthur River mine, this is easily the richest uranium operation in the world, with grades that are more than 100 times the world average. In terms of complexity, it’s roughly a million times the world average. It took 33 years of work to move Cigar Lake from discovery to production. The very fact it exists is a credit to human technology and engineering.

But until recently, it didn’t feel like such a triumph. When a crew tried to step out of that same underground shaft in February 2010, they could barely take a step.

“They found a metre of mud right through the mine. Just complete mud,” recalls Tim Gitzel, the chief executive of Cameco Corp., which built the mine and owns half of it. “They couldn’t even get the cage down because there was so much mud.”

The crew was the first one to enter the mine after a devastating flood in 2008, that that came on the heels of one in 2006. The two disasters cast a black cloud over Cameco and made a lot of people wonder if the Saskatoon-based company could ever get this mine working properly.

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Nuclear watchdog requests safety checks after B.C. mine breach – by Dene Moore (CTV News/Canadian Press – August 19, 2014)

http://www.ctvnews.ca/

VANCOUVER — A toxic spill from a British Columbia mine has prompted the country’s nuclear watchdog to request a series of checks at uranium facilities. The Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission will discuss the failure of the tailings pond at the Mount Polley gold and copper mine during a meeting Wednesday.

In the interim, the commission has asked the uranium mining and milling operations it oversees to ensure that all necessary inspections and monitoring are in compliance with licence conditions.

“The recent tailings dam breach that occurred at the Mount Polley mine in British Columbia on Aug. 4, 2014, has raised awareness of issues associated with tailings impoundments,” said a letter sent to Areva Resources, Cameco Corp. , Rio Algom, Willet Green Miller, P.J. Brugger and Associates, EWL Management Ltd. and Denison Mines Inc.

“This is a reminder that vigilance must be maintained by ensuring that tailings dams continue to be properly designed, constructed, operated, maintained and monitored to prevent such occurrences.”

The companies were asked to confirm that mitigation measures are in place in the event of a tailings breach. They’re also asked to confirm the safety of tailings facilities and report any identified gaps to the commission by Sept. 15.

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India’s Uranium Boss Says Deformed Children May Be ‘Imported’ – by Rakteem Katakey and Tom Lasseter (Bloomberg News – July 23, 2014)

http://www.businessweek.com/

Confronted with reports villages near Uranium Corp. of India Ltd.’s mines have unusually high numbers of physically deformed people, Chairman Diwakar Acharya said: “I wouldn’t be surprised if a lot of those guys are imported from elsewhere, ok?”

A Bloomberg News report on July 9 highlighted the struggles of the locals with disease and early deaths — and the suspicion they shared with some environmental activists that the health conditions are linked to mining waste.

Acharya dismissed as biased any findings of a correlation between the mines and deformities in nearby villages.

Activists and doctors come with an agenda to Jadugora, a town of about 19,500 people in eastern Jharkhand state that’s home to the company’s main operations, he said in a July 14 interview.

“See, what happens is, you say you are a specialist and you’ll come and treat,” Acharya said at Uranium Corp.’s headquarters. “But all you do is, you are convinced UCIL is evil and you have come here only with the sole motive of finding reasons which would validate your preconceived notions.”

Uranium Corp. sends its security officers to monitor attempts by outsiders to examine villagers, Acharya said, explaining it was a necessary step for collecting information about alleged health problems.

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Australia could start uranium sales to India – by Shivom Seth (Mineweb.com – July 22, 2014)

http://www.mineweb.com/

Australian Trade Minister Andrew Robb told newspersons that Australian uranium sales to India were very close.

MUMBAI (MINEWEB) – With the International Energy Agency forecasting a doubling of nuclear power generation out to 2035, Australia has said it could soon start exporting uranium to India.

Australia holds about a third of the world’s recoverable uranium resources, and exports nearly 7,000 tonnes a year. Energy starved India is looking to nuclear power to supplement its existing options to fuel economic growth.

Australian Trade Minister Andrew Robb told newspersons that Australian uranium sales to India were very close, after he attended a G20 trade ministers meeting in Sydney last week, and held talks with an Indian trade delegation.

Prime Minister Julia Gillard had started talks on supplying uranium to India during a three day official visit to the country in 2012. Gillard had reversed the ban in 2011.

With a new government at the helm in Canberra in 2013, India and Australia were aiming to complete negotiations on a civil nuclear agreement for uranium supplies by the end of the year.

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Uranium stocks tumble after RBC takes axe to price forecasts – by Peter Koven (National Post – June 6, 2014)

The National Post is Canada’s second largest national paper.

Uranium miners have offered a very consistent message to investors over the past couple of years: The short-term outlook is bad, but don’t worry, a lot more uranium is going to be needed down the road. RBC Capital Markets Analysts agree. Only they think it will be a much longer road than most.

Analysts Fraser Phillips and Patrick Morton on Thursday sent shudders through the industry as they took an axe to their uranium price forecasts. They cut their 2014 spot price forecast to US$31.50 a pound, down from US$45. And it got worse from there. The 2015 target was cut to US$40 (from US$60), and targets for the 2016 to 2018 period fell to just US$40-US$45 from US$75-US$80.

Not surprisingly, shares of every significant uranium company (including Cameco Corp., Paladin Energy Ltd. and Denison Mines Corp.) tumbled on Thursday.

The analysts believe the uranium market is going to be in surplus until 2021, which is far longer than most insiders expect. They blame continuing oversupply in the market.

“Active annual supply exceeds demand by a significant margin, and on top of that, significant excess inventories have been and continue to be accumulated post the Fukushima disaster, particularly in Japan,” they said in a note.

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Developing mines in Northern Saskatchewan requires strong partnerships (Regina Leader-Post – May 24, 2014)

http://www.leaderpost.com/index.html

In the past several years, more than 315 agreements have been signed across Canada between resource companies and First Nations and Métis people to provide secure benefits to the communities.

According to Sean Willy, the director of corporate responsibility at Cameco, the partnerships in Northern Saskatchewan have been a benchmark for other companies across the country. “Saskatchewan has always been one of the leaders in Aboriginal engagement. Our model is emulated across the country and around the globe,” he said.

The Saskatoon-based company is one of the world’s largest uranium producers. He said that signing an agreement with both the English River First Nation and the northern Village of Pinehouse in Northern Saskatchewan simply helped solidify an already-strong 25-year relationship.

“They asked if we’d be interested in signing an agreement, and we said, ‘Sure, if you think it would be in the best interests of your communities,'” said Willy. “We wanted to recapture everything we were already doing as partners – basically, we just needed to codify the formal relationship.”

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Cameco delays Millenium Mine – by Jason Warick (Regina Leader-Post – May 20, 2014)

http://www.leaderpost.com/index.html

Cameco Corp.’s decision to delay construction of its Millennium uranium mine is one more reminder of Saskatchewan’s vulnerability to the whims of commodities markets, experts say.

However, the province’s economy should be strong enough to weather the recent troubles in the uranium and potash industries, they add. Robust oil prices, a record grain harvest and other factors provide reasons for optimism. “Saskatchewan has got everything the world wants,” said Colin Boyd, professor of management in the University of Saskatchewan’s Edwards School of Business.

Boyd said reliance on any single commodity “can be a roller-coaster ride,” but Saskatchewan is diversifying. “I think we’ll be absolutely fine,” he said.

Fellow Edwards School professor Brooke Dobni said there may not be record economic growth every year, but the long-term outlook is good. “We’re not at the peak, and there are so many variables we don’t control, but we’re still doing OK, Dobni, the school’s chair for Saskatchewan enterprise, said.

Cameco’s Millennium uranium mine project is 36 kilometres from the company’s Key Lake operation in the Athabasca Basin. Cameco owns 69.9 per cent of the project and serves as the operator, with Japan’s JCU Exploration Co. owning the remainder.

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Robert Friedland’s son going public with African uranium play – by Peter Koven (National Post – May 17, 2014)

The National Post is Canada’s second largest national paper.

It is awfully tough for a mining company in the beaten-down uranium sector to raise money these days. But it doesn’t hurt if the executive chairman has the last name “Friedland.”

That’s Govind, not Robert. Govind Friedland’s company, appropriately named GoviEx Uranium Inc., has filed a final prospectus for an initial public offering on the Canadian Securities Exchange. It is a small deal expected to raise between US$1.5-million and US$5-million, with up to 2.3 million shares being issued at US$2.15 each.

There are more than 117 million shares outstanding today, though only 24.5% of them will be converted into freely-trading stock following the IPO. Vancouver-based GoviEx will use the proceeds to fund work on its Madaouela project in Niger.

Govind is the son of legendary mining financier Robert Friedland, and he has spent plenty of time working for his father’s companies. But he also made a name for himself with his uranium exploration work in Niger.

Between 2007 and 2011, GoviEx raised roughly US$100-million in private funds to pursue uranium opportunities in the West African nation, according to the IPO prospectus. The company attracted big-name investors like Cameco Corp. and Toshiba Corp. in that period.

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Environmental study on uranium mining announced – by Michelle Lalonde (Montreal Gazette – May 8, 2014)

http://www.montrealgazette.com/index.html

A coalition of doctors, environmental groups and First Nations leaders gathered in Montreal Thursday to publicly urge Quebec’s new premier to maintain the moratorium on uranium mining until the risks and impacts of these mines on surrounding communities have been thoroughly studied.

The province’s environmental watchdog, the Bureau d’audiences publiques sur l’environnement (BAPE), announced Tuesday it will begin a year-long study of the uranium mining issue starting later this month.

That process, lead by former environmental journalist Louis-Gilles Francoeur, will be carried out in three phases: pre-consultation hearings to determine public concerns from May 20 to June 23, an information phase this fall where the committee will consult experts, and an official public hearing phase next fall and winter where interested parties can present written briefs or speak directly to the commissioners.

Uranium is a naturally occurring radioactive element that is present in many areas of Quebec, including northern Quebec, Temiscaming, the Laurentians, Gatineau, Shawinigan, Sept-Îles and the North Shore.

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