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Uranium enrichment company URENCO for sale – uneconomic

Powerhouse of the Uranium Enrichment Industry Seeks an Exit NYT, BY STANLEY REED , 26 May 13“..….Urenco was formed by treaty in 1971 when Britain, West Germany and the Netherlands decided for
strategic and business reasons to combine their uranium enrichment programs. The company is still owned by the British and Dutch governments, with one-third each, and with the German third held jointly by two big utility companies, E.On and RWE.

Urenco now has four enrichment plants — in Britain, the Netherlands
and Germany — selling fuel for civilian energy purposes around the
world, capturing nearly a third of the global market………the
company is at a crossroads. Growth may flatten in the next couple of
years, executives say, mainly because Japan — a major user of nuclear
power until the 2011 Fukushima Daiichi disaster — has shut down its
reactors, taking about 10 percent of the world’s nuclear energy
generating capacity offline. And the Japanese have stockpiled
substantial amounts of fuel for the day, if ever, that those reactors
go back into operation……
“Nuclear strategies have changed,” said Michael Kruse, a consultant on
nuclear issues for the management consultant Arthur D. Little in
Frankfurt. “Governments no longer think they need to be in this
business,” he said, “and utilities in several countries want out after
Fukushima.”

People in the industry say the most likely buyers would be companies
already in the industry that might want to offer clients fuel along
with nuclear power stations. Areva, a French giant, might fit that
bill. So might Toshiba of Japan, which is studying building nuclear
plants in Britain. Still, “there are in my view not many companies
that can buy Urenco,” Mr. Kruse said.

May 29, 2013 Posted by | business and costs, EUROPE, Uranium | Leave a comment

Hitachi, Toshiba and Mitsubishi General Electric, Westinghouse, Areva will make Japan keep nuclear power

flag-japanIs it safe? Ruling party pushes nuclear village agenda BY JEFF KINGSTON  JAPAN TIMES, 26 May 13,  “…..The election of the pro-nuclear Liberal Democratic Party to power in December 2012 was not about energy policy, but has revived prospects for the nuclear village; citizens may favor phasing out nuclear energy, but they will not get to decide. Hitachi, Toshiba and Mitsubishi tie-ups with General Electric, Westinghouse and Areva mean that Japan stands at the nexus of the global nuclear-energy industry. The recent award of a $22 billion contract by Turkey to a Japanese-led consortium indicates how high the stakes are, explaining why domestic firms’ nuclear-policy preferences are fully reflected in government policy.

exclamation-If Japan terminated nuclear power, the pain would extend beyond the utilities and vendors; lenders and investors, including Japan’s major banks and insurance firms, would also face huge losses. Pulling the plug on nuclear power could also drive some of Japan’s 10 utilities into insolvency. In addition, there have been strident voices from the political right calling for the retention of nuclear energy because it leaves available the nuclear-weapons option. Washington, too, has warned Tokyo that phasing out nuclear energy would harm bilateral relations because it would raise concerns about Japan’s large stockpiles of plutonium and uncomfortable questions about the consistency of U.S. nuclear non-proliferation efforts targeting Iran and North Korea…….http://www.japantimes.co.jp/opinion/2013/05/26/commentary/is-it-safe-ruling-party-pushes-nuclear-village-agenda/#.UaPpE9JwpLs

May 27, 2013 Posted by | business and costs, Japan, politics, Reference, secrets,lies and civil liberties | 1 Comment

The heavy footprint of uranium company AREVA, in impoverished Niger

areva-medusa1Areva, world’s 2nd uranium company heavily present in Niger, Expatica.comm 23 May 13  French nuclear group Areva, the world’s second-largest uranium producer whose mine in northern Niger was hit by a car bomb on Thursday, extracts more than a third of its mineral in the impoverished west African country.

Areva has been present in Niger for more than 40 years, operating two big mines near the northern town of Arlit through two affiliated companies — Somair and Cominak — which represent 37 percent of its total uranium production. Continue reading →

May 25, 2013 Posted by | business and costs, Niger, politics, Uranium | Leave a comment

Uranium enrichment – how crooked deals on USEC enrich the private sector

uranium-enrichmentTo keep a large campaign contributor out of bankruptcy court for a few more months, the Paducah plant was permitted to reach the current crisis state. And the people of Kentucky were sent straight to nuclear hell. 

highly-recommendedCountdown to Nuclear Ruin at Paducah  EcoWatch May 22, 2013 by Geoffrey Sea “……….Murphie’s Law    So how did it come to this? Since the plant was originally scheduled to cease operations on May 31, 2012, why didn’t USEC and DOE have plenty of time to plan for orderly and funded clean power-down, which was precisely what the sleazy one-year extension deal was supposed to give time to accomplish.

The answer is that the entire uranium enrichment enterprise of the U.S. has become a sham operation, a sham designed to funnel U.S. Treasury funds to private companies including USEC and its partners, a sham designed to convert any problem or scandal into additional contractor award fees, a sham designed to keep the fig-leaf of a privatized USEC Inc. from blowing away and exposing all the naughty bits.

Those became the goals of the operation, not enriching uranium, developing new technology or achieving safe operations or cleanup of the sites. Murphie’s Law is that if anything can go wrong, it will boost contractor award fees, for a select group of companies hand-picked by Murphie himself. Thus, the principal “cleanup” contractors at Piketon are Fluor and Babcock & Wilcox (B&W), both of which are suppliers to USEC’s fake “American Centrifuge Project,” and B&W is a strategic partner of USEC with a large share of USEC preferred stock, poised to take over USEC’s operations if the latter goes under. Continue reading →

May 25, 2013 Posted by | business and costs, politics, secrets,lies and civil liberties, Uranium | Leave a comment

TEPCO’s share price up on projected restarting of Japan’s nuclear reactors

Thanks To Abenomics, The Company At The centre Of The Fukushima Nuclear Crisis, Has Surged Nearly 400% This Year  22 May 13 ‘… a pretty shocking chart: it’s the share price of TEPCO, the beleaguered Japanese power company at the centre of the Fukushima nuclear disaster that followed from the Japanese earthquake in April 2011.

Year-to-date, the stock is up 396%. In recent days, it’s gone absolutely vertical in the past few days on speculation that the company will at last power up its nuclear reactors again, which have been shut down since the disaster.Bloomberg’s Tsuyoshi Inajima has the details:

Tepco shares yesterday rose 16 per cent to 726 yen after the Yomiuri newspaper reported the utility will apply to the Nuclear Regulation Authority for a restart of No. 1 and No. 7 units at the Kashiwazaki Kariwa plant in northern Japan in July.

Tepco denied the Yomiuri report and said the utility is still designing a filtered vent system, part of the new safety requirements to be set by the nuclear safety watchdog. The company can’t say when it can complete the installation.

Of course, the announcement and beginning of the implementation of the Japanese government’s “Abenomics” economic stimulus strategy has caused the broader Japanese stock market to surge this year, making it one of the best performing global stock markets so far in 2013. (The surge in stocks is also a byproduct of the weakening Japanese yen, which has been the primary conduit of Abenomics so far.)……. http://au.businessinsider.com/abenomics-sends-tepco-shares-surging-2013-5

May 22, 2013 Posted by | business and costs, Japan | Leave a comment

Down she goes again – the uranium price

Spot uranium price slides to near $40.50/lb: market sources  Washington (Platts Jasmin Melvin )–21May2013   The uranium spot price has been pushed down slightly to $40.50/lb or lower in a market with ample supply but few buyers looking to make deals, market sources said Tuesday.

Three market sources said Tuesday that the spot uranium price could be stuck within a $40/lb to $41/lb range for the next couple of weeks.

“There’s a very limited number of buyers, and there seems to be more interest on the selling side — again not large numbers but enough that if someone comes in and says they want to sell, it’s pushing the price down a little,” one of the sources said.  Price publisher Ux Consulting said in its weekly report Monday that the market “can be characterized as rather quiet with a forward price curve that is about as flat as a pancake.” …. http://www.platts.com/RSSFeedDetailedNews/RSSFeed/ElectricPower/21056634

May 22, 2013 Posted by | 2 WORLD, business and costs, Uranium | 1 Comment

S. Korea advised to focus on expanding nuclear exports By Lee Chi-dong WASHINGTON, May 21 (Yonhap) — South Korea’s new administration needs to focus on finding ways to expand its nuclear exports, especially to the Middle East, as it plans to resume talks with the United States on their civilian nuclear cooperation, experts here said Tuesday….   In a paper co-authored with his colleague Chen Kane and released at a seminar hosted by the Korea Economic Institute (KEI), he recommended South Korea and the U.S. continue to build on recent initial discussions on how the U.S. can support future South Korean nuclear exports.

marketig-nukes
South Korea hopes to become a major exporter of nuclear plants….. It won a US$20.4-billion contract with the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to build four nuclear power plants there. Potential future export markets for South Korea include Saudi Arabia, India, Vietnam, Poland, and South Africa, as well as the U.S. and China…… http://english.yonhapnews.co.kr/national/2013/05/22/26/0301000000AEN20130522000200315F.HTML

May 22, 2013 Posted by | marketing, South Korea | Leave a comment

Prepare for nuclear war: good business for fallout shelter salesmen

A Look Inside Nuclear Fallout Shelters http://abcnews.go.com/US/slideshow/inside-nuclear-fallout-shelters-19185600

diagram-fallout-shelter

These Shelters Will Prepare You For Nuclear War  (but don’t those safe inhabitants look bored out of their brains?)

May 21, 2013 Posted by | business and costs, USA | 1 Comment

Australian uranium companies hit by 90% fall in share price

graph-down-uraniumflag-AustraliaCoal, uranium and gold stocks among the hardest hit as good times end BY:ROBIN BROMBY  The Australian   May 20, 2013  “…… Among those hardest hit are coal, uranium and gold. The base metal stocks don’t seem to have suffered to quite the same degree, although few stocks have come off less than about 60 per cent.

Among those with declines of more than 90 per cent since their peak are leading uranium stocks. In their case, their peak was back in 2007. Producer Energy Resources of Australia (ERA) has come down from $18.92 then to $1.04 now. Paladin Energy (PDN) hit $10.80 back in 2007 and now sits at 94c. Bannerman Resources (BMN) with its Namibia project was a star back then at a high of $4.14, now at 5.8c…..”

May 20, 2013 Posted by | AUSTRALIA, business and costs | Leave a comment

San Onofre nuclear plant at the brink: the beginning of the end?

reactor-San-Onofre-1San Onofre at the No Nukes Brink http://www.nukefree.org/editorsblog/san-onofre-no-nukes-brink By Harvey Wasserman, 18 May 13  In January, it seemed the restart of San Onofre Unit 2 would be a corporate cake walk.

With its massive money and clout, Southern California Edison was ready to ram through a license exception for a reactor whose botched $770 million steam generator fix had kept it shut for a year.

But a funny thing has happened on the way to the restart:  a No Nukes groundswell has turned this routine rubber stamping into an epic battle the grassroots just might win.

Indeed, if ever there was a time when individual activism could have a magnified impact, this is it (see www.sanonofresafety.org and www.a4nr.org).

This comes as the nuclear industry is in nearly full retreat.  Two US reactors are already down this year.  Yet another proposed project has just been cancelled in North Carolina.  And powerful grassroots campaigns have pushed numerous operating reactors to the brink of extinction throughout the US, Europe and Japan, where all but two reactors remain shut since Fukushima.

In California, it’s San Onofre that’s perched at the brink.  Continue reading →

May 18, 2013 Posted by | business and costs, USA | Leave a comment

Big stock exchange fall for French nuclear company EDF

graph-down-uraniumEDF Slumps After Nuclear Price Concerns Trigger Stock Downgrade http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-05-16/edf-slumps-after-nuclear-price-concerns-trigger-stock-downgrade.html By Tara Patel – May 16, 2013 
Electricite de France SA, Europe’s biggest power producer, fell the most in five months in Paris.
trading after Bank of America Corp. cut its rating on the stock on concern earnings from nuclear generation will fall short.

EDF (EDF) fell as much as 5.5 percent, the biggest intraday decline since Nov. 29, and was down 4.8 percent at 17.265 euros as of 4:39 p.m. local time. The French government, which controls Paris-based EDF, is due to set wholesale prices for the company’s atomic power by the end of the year as the utility pushes for higher rates to help finance investments and cover costs. The tariff “could disappoint investors,” Arnaud Joan, an analyst at Bank of America in London, wrote in a report published today. Continue reading →

May 18, 2013 Posted by | business and costs, Greece | Leave a comment

San Onofre nuclear plant corrodes, as restart becomes less likely

reactor-San-Onofre-1Death Blow? “Complete rejection” of plan to restart ailing California nuclear reactor without public hearing — Plant corroding as it sits idle http://enenews.com/death-blow-complete-rejection-of-plan-to-restart-ailing-california-nuclear-reactor-without-public-hearing-plant-corroding-as-it-sits-idle 16 May 13
Reuters: An independent nuclear regulatory panel on Monday called for a full public hearing on the proposed restart of one of the two damaged San Onofre nuclear reactors, a move that will delay Southern California Edison’s plan to run the plant this summer. […] Damon Moglen of Friends of the Earth called the ruling “a complete rejection of Edison’s plan to restart its damaged nuclear reactors without public review or input.”

San Diego Union-Tribune:: Murray Jennex, a former systems engineer at San Onofre for nearly 20 years who now teaches at San Diego State University’s College of Business Administration, said the order likely pushes back a final decision on restarting the Unit 2 reactor until after summer. “I won’t say this is a death blow to Unit 2, but it does make restart less likely,” Jennex said. “If approved, the additional downtime makes the Unit 2 restart more complex and costly due to corrosion issues from sitting.”

AP: San Onofre nuke plant restart halted […] A federal panel sided Monday with environmentalists who have called for lengthy hearings on a plan to restart the ailing San Onofre nuclear power plant — a decision that further clouds the future of the twin reactors.
See also: Inside Sources: I was there when San Onofre nuclear plant shut down, I wouldn’t trust them to turn it back on — We’re dealing with unknown territory here (VIDEO)

May 16, 2013 Posted by | business and costs, USA | Leave a comment

Bad news for some years for the uranium ndustry

bad-smell-nukeUranium on the nose, The Motley Fool By  – May 16, 2013  More than 26 months after the nuclear accident at Fukushima, Japan, the nuclear industry is still feeling the effects with depressed uranium prices and cost pressures that are squeezing margins……

The price for uranium has fallen 40% since Fukushima to US$40 a pound, as Japan suspended its fleet of nuclear plants, while Germany…

….. the uranium price could stagnate at current levels for many years, much like it did after previous nuclear incidents. Japan may not restart its reactors, preferring instead to seek other energy alternatives, and reactors currently under construction could still be cancelled or postponed.

That is not good news for ASX listed uranium miners Paladin, Energy Resources of Australia (ASX: ERA), Toro Energy (ASX: TOE) or Deep Yellow Limited (ASX: DYL). http://www.fool.com.au/2013/05/16/uranium-on-the-nose/

May 16, 2013 Posted by | AUSTRALIA, business and costs, Uranium | Leave a comment

Loss posted for Mega Uranium

Mega Uranium Ltd. Releases Unaudited Results for the Three and Six Months Ended March 31, 2013, Market watch, 14 May 13,  “…….Summary results for the three months ended March 31, 2013, as compared to the three months ended March 31, 2012:


        --  Net loss for the three months ended March 31, 2013 was $2.6 million
            ($0.01 per common share) compared to a net loss of $0.4 million for the
            three months ended March 31, 2012 ($0.00 per common share).

….Summary results for the six months ended March 31, 2013, as compared to the six months ended March 31, 2012:

        
        --  Net loss for the six months ended March 31, 2013 was $4.2 million ($0.02
            per common share) compared to a net loss of $1.1 million for the six
            months ended March 31, 2012 ($0.00 per common share).......

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/mega-uranium-ltd-releases-unaudited-results-for-the-three-and-six-months-ended-march-31-2013-2013-05-14-16173136?reflink=MW_news_stmp

May 16, 2013 Posted by | business and costs, Uranium | Leave a comment

Loss posted for Uranium One

Uranium One posts $9.5m Q1 loss, production up 10% Mining Weekly, By: Natasha Odendaal 14th May 2013 JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – JSE- and TSX-listed Uranium One on Monday reported a net loss of $9.5-million for the first quarter ended March 31.

This was down from earnings of $4.5-million recorded in the comparative period the year before.

The group, which owns assets in Kazakhstan, the US, Australia and Tanzania, recorded a 60% drop in earnings from mine operations, including joint ventures (JVs), reaching $19.6-million during the first quarter, compared with the $49.3-million achieved in the corresponding period the year before.

Revenue for the period dipped to $5.2-million, from $5.3-million in the first quarter of 2012, while its JV operations contributed revenue of $57.4-million, down from the $90.6-million earned in the comparative quarter last year.

Uranium sales also declined year-on-year with 1.38-million pounds of uranium sold at an average price of $45/lb in the first quarter, compared with the 1.8-million pounds sold at $53/lb in the first quarter of 2012…… the company warned that the year ahead would be capital intensive as it incurred capital expenditure of $164-million on its assets in Kazakhstan, the US and Australia.

About $98-million was allocated for wellfield development, and the remaining $66-million for plant and equipment.

Uranium One noted that general and administrative expenses – excluding noncash items – were expected to reach about $40-million.

Exploration expenses were expected to reach $8-million. http://www.miningweekly.com/article/uranium-one-posts-95m-q1-loss-production-up-10-2013-05-14

May 16, 2013 Posted by | business and costs, Uranium | Leave a comment

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