Twitter

Uranium and Nuclear Power Industry

Cameco, Sierra Club face off over uranium licences – by Canadian Press/CBC News Saskatchewan (October 04, 2013)

http://www.cbc.ca/sask/

An environmental group is raising pollution concerns about Cameco’s uranium mining in northern Saskatchewan to the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission. But Cameco says the Sierra Club’s allegations that it massively exceeded regulatory limits are false.

The commission heard from both sides during public hearings that ran Tuesday to Thursday on Cameco’s application to renew its mine and mill licences for its Key Lake, McArthur River and Rabbit Lake facilities.

“The most disturbing thing we discovered in the process of preparing the submission were huge, very huge numbers, in terms of pollution that’s coming from the plant and getting into the environment,” John Bennett, executive director of Sierra Club Canada, said Monday.

“Every kind of pollutant that comes out of them, their numbers are way over the limits and no one’s been enforcing it.” The Sierra Club says that as of 2010, water releases from the Deilmann tailings facility in cadmium exceed the Saskatchewan standard by 5,782 per cent. It says the Saskatchewan Ministry of Environment allows Cameco to release water from tailings ponds directly into the environment at Horsefly Lake.

Read more

Cameco seeks longer mine licences – by Jeremy Warren and Scott Larson (Saskatoon StarPhoenix – October 2, 2013)

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

The Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission added a third day to its agenda before it even started public hearings on Cameco’s licence renewals applications for three uranium mines in northern Saskatchewan.

The increased interest in the hearings, which started Tuesday night in La Ronge, meant the commission needed an extra day to accommodate the wide range of arguments it will hear about Cameco’s mining and milling operations at the Key Lake, McArthur River and Rabbit Lake facilities.

The company’s biggest request is for a longer licence period – an increase to 10 years from the current five years – for all three sites. It deserves the increase due to its excellent safety and environmental record, Cameco communications director Gord Struthers said.

“Given the excellent performance of our operations, this is completely appropriate,” he said. “(The commission) is on a trend of granting longer licences.” Struthers said the company would not face less regulatory oversight with an 10-year licence period, but he declined to say how the company might benefit from a longer licence period.

Read more

CRA says Saskatchewan uranium giant Cameco has avoided paying hundreds of millions in Canadian taxes by offshoring profits in Switzerland – by John Greenwood (National Post – September 26, 2013)

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

The Canada Revenue Agency says Saskatchewan-based Cameco Corp. hasn’t been paying its taxes and it wants the money. Now Saskatchewan premier Brad Wall has joined the fray, calling for Cameco, the world’s largest publicly traded uranium producer, to pay up.

Speaking to reporters this week, Mr. Wall said part of the tax revenue that Ottawa collects ends up going back to the provinces, so when the CRA says it’s not getting what it believes it should, “that’s a concern to [Saskatchewan] as well, and it should be. It doesn’t matter who the company is, or the individual. We should pay taxes that are due.”

At issue is Cameco’s alleged practice of shifting profits to a Switzerland subsidiary where taxes are lower. And while the Cameco case has been going on for several years and though the CRA won the most recent round, the ruling is being appealed and observers say it is unclear who will come out on top.

Read more

COLUMN-Unloved uranium may shine as longer-term bet – by Clyde Russell (Reuters U.K. – September 26, 2013)

http://uk.reuters.com/

Clyde Russell is a Reuters market analyst. The views expressed are his own.

LAUNCESTON, Australia, Sept 26 (Reuters) – It would be hard to find a natural resource less liked than uranium, but the radioactive fuel may just be the place for contrarian investors.

It’s not hard to see why uranium isn’t popular with swathes of the world’s public, given the high-profile disaster at the Fukushima nuclear power plant after a major earthquake and tsunami struck Japan in March 2011.

Uranium prices, both spot and New York futures , plunged after the Fukushima meltdown and have stayed depressed as countries such as Germany backed away from nuclear power amid rising public mistrust. Spot uranium is around $35 a pound, less than half of what it was before Fukushima and about a quarter of the all-time high reached in the middle of 2007.

Given that all of Japan’s 50 reactors are offline and Fukushima is once again in the news over the problem of the build-up and leaking of contaminated water, it hardly seems the right time to turn bullish on uranium.

Read more

[Saskatchewan Premier] Wall silent on Cameco tax move – by Murray Mandryk (Regina Leader-Post – September 24, 2013)

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

It’s been six years since Brad Wall was elected Saskatchewan premier, but it was three years ago at this time when he cemented himself as a populist politician.

A proposed takeover of Potash-Corp by multinational South African-Australian mining giant BHP Billiton left Wall on the horns of dilemma: Should he subscribe to his philosophically conservative roots and simply allow the market/shareholders to sort this matter? Or should he act in the best interests of a province whose priority would be PotashCorp’s market share and, thus, royalties?

Compounding matters were BHP Billiton’s eagerness to excuse itself from the marketing cartel Canpotex, which controls offshore potash sales, versus the fact that BHP Billiton was in the early stages of developing what may be the province’s biggest potash mine and one of the first new mines to be built in 40 years.

By setting aside his philosophy and choosing to put the interests of Saskatchewan taxpayers first, Wall established himself as a populist leader voters could look to, to do the right thing … even if that meant sometimes going against his natural inclinations.

However, Wall’s future political and governance success will largely depend on his ability to demonstrate that this wasn’t just a one-off and – when the situation requires – that he is capable of taking on the corporate giants on behalf of the Saskatchewan citizenry.

Read more

Canadian uranium sector prepares for rising tide – by Simon Rees (MiningWeekly.com – September 20, 2013)

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

TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – Uranium is back on the radar for many in the Canadian investment community. At first glance, this might seem counterintuitive: effective September 2, the uranium oxide spot price stood at $34/lb, while short-term market sentiment remains muted.

But uranium marches to a different, longer-term beat. Bullish analysts and commentators highlight wider macro factors that will eventually act as key supports for output, spot prices and fixed-term supply contracts. Canada is poised to reap great rewards as the world’s second-largest producer of uranium, they argue.

However, others urge caution; long-term macro expectations have the nasty habit of falling flat, while the junior spectrum – so critical for broadening the pipeline of available projects – continues to suffer from strong economic headwinds. Then there is the question of the possible effect that Quebec’s moratorium on uranium exploration and exploitation may have.

Canada’s two main uranium producers are Cameco and Areva, and both have significant footprints in the prolific Athabasca basin region of northern Saskatchewan.

Read more

Ottawa accuses Cameco of multi-million dollar tax dodge – by Geoff Leo (CBC News Saskatchewan – September 19, 2013)

http://www.cbc.ca/saskatchewan/

Saskatchewan may have missed out on $300M in corporate tax

One of the largest companies in Saskatchewan is in the midst of a multi-million dollar tax court battle with Canada Revenue Agency (CRA). Cameco has publicly estimated that it could end up owing $800-850 million in Canadian corporate taxes for the years 2008 to 2012, if it loses the case.

CRA contends that the uranium giant set up a subsidiary in Zug, Switzerland for the purpose of avoiding taxes in Canada. However Cameco’s CFO, Grant Isaac, disputes that claim.

He says there’s a compelling business case for having a marketing arm in Europe, close to customers there. “We believe that it was established in accordance with sound business principles and in accordance with relevant laws and regulations,” Isaac told investors at the corporation’s first quarter update in May 2013.

Read more

How Ontario plans to deal with tonnes of nuclear waste: Bury the problem – by Shawn McCarthy (Globe and Mail – September 13, 2013)

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.

INVERHURON, ONT. — On a clear day, Marti McFadzean can see the Bruce nuclear plant from her home in this cottage town on the sandy shores of Lake Huron, where she had summered since childhood and has now retired.

Ms. McFadzean was never too concerned about the proximity of a nuclear plant to her family’s tranquil summer retreat, where five generations have gathered since 1928. But this summer, the former school administrator interrupted her retirement to become a full-time NIMBY activist.

She and many of her neighbours along Lake Huron’s eastern shore are campaigning against a $1-billion plan by Ontario Power Generation (OPG) to bury low- and intermediate-level nuclear waste in a deep geologic repository (DGR) at the Bruce site, a facility that would be built just two kilometres from her home and only a kilometre from the lake itself.

For nuclear power producers, the Bruce DGR represents part of a long-term answer to a thorny problem that has dogged the industry since its postwar inception: what to do with the radioactive waste that will remain dangerous long after the reactors are gone, in some cases for hundreds of thousands of years.

Read more

Start-up problems delay production from Cameco’s Cigar Lake mine into 2014 – by By Lauren Krugel (Canadian Press/Montreal Gazette – September 9, 2013)

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

SASKATOON – Cameco Corp. says its long-delayed Cigar Lake uranium mine in Saskatchewan won’t begin producing until early 2014 because of some glitches it encountered during the start-up process.

The company had expected to produce 300,000 pounds of milled uranium this year, but on Monday said it will be unable to meet that target. The Cigar Lake mine — delayed several times in recent years due to flooding and other technical issues — is 97 per cent complete and had been close to finally starting up.

“When a mine is being commissioned, issues are going to come up and Cigar Lake is no exception,” CEO Tim Gitzel told a conference call.

“While we’re not happy with these delays, we have to keep in mind that Cigar Lake is a long-term project that we expect to last for many, many years. It is an important source of what will be low cost production for Cameco and a key component of our strategy to increase annual production to 36 million pounds by 2018.”

Read more

Uranium juniors merger between Fission, Alpha Minerals creates bigger target – by Peter Koven (September 4, 2013)

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

The co-owners of a landmark Saskatchewan uranium discovery are coming together in a deal that they hope will be a precursor to a much bigger sale in the future.

Ever since junior miners Fission Uranium Corp. and Alpha Minerals Inc. started to release spectacular drilling results from their Patterson Lake South (PLS) project last year, investors viewed a merger of the two companies as a logical move. It would give them greater scale, make them more appealing to large investors and create a potential takeover target for a senior producer.

A friendly deal finally arrived on Tuesday, as Fission said it will buy Alpha for $185-million in stock. The move comes after a few large Alpha shareholders approached Fission about putting the two companies together. Each company owns 50% of the PLS project.

“It all started with their shareholders coming to us, and not us coming to them,” Fission chairman and chief executive Dev Randhawa said in an interview. PLS is a very early-stage discovery, but the grades are high and the potential is enormous. It is the most exciting find in Saskatchewan’s Athabasca Basin since Hathor Exploration Ltd. discovered the Roughrider deposit in 2008. Hathor was later sold for $654-million.

Read more

Tuberculosis at Sask. mine sparks cross-Canada check of workers – by Kelly Malone (CJME.com – August 26, 2013)

 http://cjme.com/

Seven provinces working with TB Control Sask.

A case of tuberculosis (TB) at a Saskatchewan mine has led to contact tracing across Canada. The active tuberculosis was discovered at the Cigar Lake Cameco mine at the end of July and caused the mining company and TB Control Saskatchewan to work together to track individuals possibly exposed to the disease. The latest count showed 130 individuals spread across eight provinces from British Colombia to New Brunswick.

“It’s not uncommon. It depends on the situation and depends on what the communicable disease is,” said Deputy medical health officer in the Saskatoon Health Region Dr. Julie Kryzanowski.

“When that happens then there is notification sent out through interprovincial reporting structures to notify them of the potential exposure so they can be alert and do what needs to be done for people who live in their province or their health regions.”

Under the Public Health Act and disease control regulations there are a number of communicable diseases that are reportable by law, including TB. Public health does a follow up to figure out what individuals may have been exposed. Those people are offered a skin test to see if they have the TB bacteria and are then offered antibiotic treatment.

Read more

Nuclear waste disposal site closer to reality – Shawn Bell (Wawatay News – August 21, 2013)

http://wawataynews.ca/

A location is yet to be set and the timelines stretch 25 years in the future, but one thing seems certain: nuclear waste will be buried in the Canadian shield.

As the Nuclear Waste Management Organization (NWMO) – a not-for-profit organization established by the federal government – starts analyzing communities as part of the process of selecting a site to bury used nuclear rods, details continue to sharpen on how the project will one day look.

The first big decision – one that is well underway – is where the burial of used nuclear rods will happen. Geologists with the NWMO are looking for a specific slate of geologic features, including stable bedrock and little flowing water underground. But equally important, according to NWMO director of communications Mike Krizanc, is finding a host community willing and able to handle the growth that will come from the site.

“You can’t impose this on anyone,” Krizanc said during a recent media tour of the Darlington Nuclear Facility in Pickering, Ontario. “You need an informed and willing community before you go about doing it.” So far 21 communities across Ontario and in Saskatchewan have expressed interest in learning more about the facility. The NWMO is now working on both social and geological assessments of those communities in order to narrow the list.

Read more

Uranium miners face new hurdles as Fukushima disaster worsens – by James Regan (Reuters U.S. – August 21, 2013)

http://www.reuters.com/

SYDNEY – (Reuters) – Revelations of more toxic leaks from Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant will raise second-thoughts about Japan’s nuclear future, but won’t halt the long-term global expansion of the industry, the head of a uranium mining company said.

“It reinvigorates the heightened state of nervousness, it surely will make the Japanese government and nuclear regulatory authorities more cautious and conservative in the decisions about the restart,” said Vanessa Guthrie, managing director of Australia’s Toro Energy Ltd (TOE.AX), which expects to start mining uranium in Australia in 2016.

Japan is set to raise the severity rating of the leak to level 3, or “serious incident”, on an international scale for radiological releases, underlining a deepening sense of crisis at the site.

The price of uranium, used mainly as fuel for nuclear reactors, plunged after the March 2011 meltdown at the Fukushima plant 240 km (150 miles) from Tokyo and has struggled to recover ever since. August uranium futures stood at $35.15 per pound on Wednesday compared with $68 per pound before the earthquake and tsunami that triggered the disaster.

However, Guthrie said contract prices between uranium miners and buyers standing at around $58-$59 a pound more accurately reflect the supply and demand balance than the spot price.

Read more

A nuclear reactor that burns its own waste? – by Shawn McCarthy Globe and Mail – August 7, 2013)

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.

Bill Gates has invested some of his considerable fortune in a nuclear reactor developer that is promising to deliver cheaper power while operating more safely and dramatically reducing radioactive waste.

The Microsoft founder is looking for an “energy miracle” – or several – that can power a 21st-century economy without emitting greenhouse gases that contribute to catastrophic climate change.

And nuclear energy is high on his list of solutions. Especially if the next generation of reactor technology can reduce electricity costs while addressing the risks from radioactivity that leave many people deeply concerned about any growing dependence on nuclear.

Mr. Gates is chairman of TerraPower LLC, a Seattle-area company that is developing a travelling-wave, liquid-sodium reactor (TWR) that, the company says, provides an answer to those problems by essentially burning its own waste.

Read more

Staying cool? Thank nuclear power – by Margaret Wente (Globe and Mail – July 18, 2013)

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.

Hot out, isn’t it? At least for some of us, anyway. Southern Ontario is sweltering in temperatures that have soared into the 30s. Toronto has declared an extreme heat alert, and the air conditioners are running at full blast.

Thank god for air conditioning. Or rather, thank nuclear power – that’s what’s keeping us cool. Wednesday morning at 7 a.m., Ontario’s nuclear plants were generating more than half of the province’s electricity: 11,148 megawatts. Gas, hydro and coal accounted for another 8,608 MW. Wind power, at 97 MW, barely moved the dial. Those mighty turbines (for which we will be paying dearly for many years to come) contributed less than half of 1 per cent of the total power output.

Of course, wind energy is green. But so is nuclear. Unlike coal and natural gas, nuclear power creates zero greenhouse gas emissions.

“Nuclear energy is the most powerful weapon in the war on global warming,” Steve Aplin, an Ottawa-based consultant in energy and the environment, told me in a phone interview. He points out that if Ontario’s environmental lobby had succeeded in having nuclear power replaced by natural gas, the province’s carbon dioxide emissions would have soared.

Read more