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Uranium miners’ hope – African fighting might lift price of uranium

Uranium Price May Spike On Geopolitical Tensions In Africa Daily Markets By Jeb Handwerger updated January 31, 2013 Keep a close eye on Al Qaeda in Africa. France is sending in Special Forces into Niger to protect their uranium sources controlled by state owned Areva. France is concerned that the fight in neighboring Mali may threaten neighboring Niger which has been a huge producer of uranium for 50 years.

February 1, 2013 Posted by Christina Macpherson | business and costs | Leave a comment

Australian uranium company ERA closed its only mine, made big loss

Australia uranium miner ERA books steep 2012 loss http://www.marketwatch.com/story/australia-uranium-miner-era-books-steep-2012-loss-2013-01-31 By Ross Kelly SYDNEY–-Energy Resource of Australia Ltd. said Thursday annual losses deepened to 218.8 million Australian dollars (US$227.4 million) due to weak uranium prices, a high Australian dollar and the cost of rehabilitating a recently-depleted mine bordering Kakadu National Park.

The company, which counts Rio Tinto Ltd. as its largest shareholder, said the net loss for the year to Dec.31 compared to a A$153.6 hole in 2011.

ERA stopped mining at its only producing pit, Ranger, in November and will process stockpiled ore while it decides whether to build a new underground mine there. The company produced 3,710 metric tons of uranium oxide in 2012 and forecast production sourced from stockpiles in 2013 of between 2,700 and 3,300 tons.

ERA also announced that its chairman, David Klinger, would retire next month and be replaced by current non-executive director Peter McMahon.

February 1, 2013 Posted by Christina Macpherson | AUSTRALIA, business and costs | Leave a comment

In USA 40 nuclear reactors might be closed down

Analyst: “The Slow Demise of U.S. Nuclear Power” — 40 reactors could be closed http://enenews.com/analyst-slow-demise-of-u-s-nuclear-power-40-reactors-at-risk-of-closing
Title: Are U.S. Nuclear Power Plants Going the Way of Coal Plants?
Source: Investment U
Author: David Fessler, Senior Analyst
Date: January 29, 2013: Issue #1958

Last October, Dominion Resources, Inc. (NYSE: D) announced it would be closing its Kewaunee nuclear power plant. Located in Wisconsin, this small, 566-megawatt (MW) unit is the first nuclear plant to succumb to cheap natural gas. […]

[…] According to data from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), 40 [U.S. nuclear reactors] are smaller than one GW in size. They all could ultimately suffer the same fate as Dominion’s Kewaunee reactor.

Is There a Way to Play the Slow Demise of U.S. Nuclear Power?

[…] Regardless of how many plants are closed, or how quickly it happens, the pipeline companies will be the beneficiaries.

January 31, 2013 Posted by Christina Macpherson | business and costs, USA | 1 Comment

Vogtle nuclear plant a financial debacle for USA’s loan guarantee program

Georgia nuclear power plant could be Solyndra redux, report says
A report by two energy-consulting firms says the US government has not protected US taxpayers well enough against the risks of federal loan guarantees to a new nuclear power project. Christian Science Monitor, By Mark Clayton, Staff writer / January 30, 2013 Construction of the first newly licensed US nuclear power plant in decades could become a “Solyndra-like” debacle thanks to billions in federal loan guarantees whose terms appear too weak to protect taxpayers, according to one group’s analysis of internal documents released by the US Department of Energy.

The two-reactor $14 billion Vogtle plant being built in Georgia is seen as a test of the US nuclear industry’s planned “renaissance” with a new nuclear reactor design and updated construction processes all aimed at cutting time and costs.

But two Massachusetts-based energy-consulting firms, Earth Track and Synapse Energy Economics, say the $8.3 billion in federal loan guarantees backing the project were crafted with excessively favorable financial terms for the recipient companies, weak federal oversight, and possible political interference in the loan-guarantee process. The two firms analyzed hundreds of Energy Department e-mails and financial documents released earlier this month to the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy (SACE), a green-energy watchdog group that won access to them in a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit. …..

In their report, Earth Track and Synapse say the documents reveal: Continue reading →

January 31, 2013 Posted by Christina Macpherson | business and costs, politics, USA | Leave a comment

Running nuclear power plant – 45 times more costly than coal, and gas is even cheaper

while fuel costs [for nuclear power] are low, maintenance costs for enhanced
safeguards are rising.

UBS UBSN.VX -0.98% analyst Julien Dumoulin-Smith estimates fixed costs
per kilowatt of capacity at a nuclear plant are perhaps five times
those for a comparably sized coal plant.

Smaller nuclear plants, with less output over which to spread fixed
costs, suffer most.

Gas Suffocates Nuclear Power
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323854904578263952157252768.html
Natural gas is poison for coal. But its toxicity also extends to
nuclear power. 25 Jan 13, Low gas prices have made it cheaper to run
gas-fired power plants more often and, because these plants often set
the wholesale electricity price, reduced power prices overall. Add on
tightening emissions standards, and coal plants have suffered, with
many expected to close.

But nuclear power stations haven’t escaped. Cheap electricity due to
weak gas prices hurts their profits, too. Continue reading →

January 26, 2013 Posted by Christina Macpherson | business and costs, USA | Leave a comment

Corporations circle around for lucrative nuclear waste cleanup

UK firms to bid for Japan’s nuclear clean-up
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/uk-firms-to-bid-for-japans-nuclear-cleanup-8458524.html
MARK LEFTLY, 20 JANUARY 2013 British engineers Amec, Babcock
International, and Atkins are believed to be circling nuclear
decommissioning work estimated to be worth at least $5bn (£3.2bn) in
Japan as a result of the Fukushima disaster.

The new Japanese government is thought to be preparing decommissioning
contracts that will include Fukushima’s Daiichi plant, which was
overwhelmed by a tsunami in 2011, and other reactors in seismically
endangered areas.
A nuclear source said bids could be invited for the clean-up work
before the end of the year, with British groups in a strong position
due to all the decommissioning work that has been undertaken in the
UK.
US-owned Energy Solutions will also be interested.
“This is a huge opportunity,” claimed the source. “Japan should start
making some real progress on decommissioning now.”

January 21, 2013 Posted by Christina Macpherson | business and costs, decommission reactor, Japan | Leave a comment

Virginia uranium might well not be profitable, after all

“The industry needs prices at $75 or $80 a pound for future mine production to be profitable.” Thus, the uranium market has a long way to go before the 119 million pound tract around Coles Hill Farm east of Chatham, said to be the largest in the U.S., can actually be profitable to mine.

This is a fact that Virginia Uranium hasn’t really advertised..

The Wobbly World of Global Uranium Prices, Bacon’s Rebellion,
January 19, 2013 by Peter Galuszka

Highly controversial plans to mine and mill a rich tract of uranium in Pittsylvania County are before the General Assembly. Plenty of studies, lobbyists and scads of money are being thrown about on both sides of the argument.

Yet a brief story on page B7 in today’s Wall Street Journal deals with a topic that may be the truly decisive factor in the project…… Continue reading →

January 21, 2013 Posted by Christina Macpherson | business and costs, Uranium, USA | Leave a comment

France’s drive to sell nuclear abroad, while getting out of it at home

France on nuclear charm offensive in Saudi Arabia, By Geert De Clercq PARIS, Jan 18 (Reuters) – A top French minister and the chief executives of French utility EDF and reactor builder Areva are visiting Saudi Arabiathis weekend to build a case for selling French nuclear reactors to the oil-rich country.

Industry Minister Arnaud Montebourg will meet with Saudi officials and with representatives of EDF and Areva, who opened a joint office in Riyadh six months ago to lay the groundwork for a French nuclear offer.

Montebourg will build on a Nov. 4 visit by French President Francois Hollande to Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah and a 2011 agreement betweenFrance and Saudi Arabia that offered the Saudis atomic know-how and training for local staff….

France plays a strong hand in Saudi Arabia, which has no nuclear capabilities of its own but has deep pockets and wants to acquire the most modern technology…..

Unlike other suppliers, Areva also sells uranium, offering utilities long-term supply contracts…….

he French will face formidable competition from U.S., Japanese and South Korean consortia. Westinghouse-Toshiba has deep ties with the Middle East, and a Korean-led consortium dealt the French a humiliating blow with its surprise win of a $40 billion contract in Abu Dhabi three years ago…….

Hollande’s government, despite having decided to cut the share of nuclear in French electricity generation to 50 percent in 2025 from the current 75 percent, is keen to export reactors….. http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/01/18/france-saudi-nuclear-idUSL6N0ANEA120130118

January 19, 2013 Posted by Christina Macpherson | France, marketing | Leave a comment

Nuclear reactors in operation – drop in numbers, as IAEA reclassifies 47 Japanese reactors as “Long-term Shutdown” (LTS)

IAEA Shifts 47 Japanese Reactors Into “Long-Term Shutdown” Category 16 January 2013 In an unprecedented move, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has shifted 47 Japanese nuclear reactors from the category “In Operation” to the category “Long-term Shutdown” (LTS) in its web-based Power Reactor Information System (PRIS). The number of nuclear reactors listed as “In Operation” in the world thus drops from 437 yesterday to 390 today, a level last seen in Chernobyl-year 1986 and a dramatic step of the IAEA’s official statistics in recognizing industrial reality in Japan.

This is without doubt a unique revision of world operational nuclear data. However, numerous questions remain. The definitions of the IAEA’s reactor status categories remain unclear. Units can remain in the LTS category for many years, without any apparent limit. Japan has now 48 units listed as LTS, one of which is the fast breeder reactor Monju that has not been generating electricity since a sodium fire severely damaged the plant in 1995, while three further units at Kashiwazaki-kariwa have not been generating power since an earthquake hit the site in 2007.

Of the other 47 Japanese units, 42 have been retroactively classified as LTS as of 1 January 2012 (strangely including the 3 Kashiwazaki-kariwa units), while five reactors have retroactively entered that listing between 14 January and 26 March 2012. One reactor, Tomari-3 in Hokkaido—the last one to generate electricity before the country entered a two-month nuclear-free period between 5 May and 5 July 2012—remains, for unknown reasons, in the categories “In Operation” (world overview) and “Operational” (country file). This is despite the fact that only two reactors are currently effectively generating power in Japan, units 3 and 4 at the Ohi plant in Fukui Prefecture.

The future of the Japanese nuclear power plants remains highly uncertain. In spite of a clearly more pro-nuclear government that came in with the election of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, it will likely take years until more power plants could get back on line. Abe stated on 4 January 2013:

“We will first of all determine whether or not to restart nuclear power plants on the basis of scientific safety standards. Then over the course of roughly three years we will assess the futures of existing nuclear power plants and transition to a new stable energy mix over ten years. The new construction or replacement of nuclear power plants is not a matter that is able to be determined immediately. Naturally this is an area in which we should make our determination in accordance with the principle of gradually decreasing our degree of reliance on nuclear power to the greatest extent possible.”

Other sources have also suggested that it could take a long time for nuclear plants to adapt after the newly established Nuclear Regulatory Authority will come up with new safety standards in July 2013.

January 17, 2013 Posted by Christina Macpherson | 2 WORLD, business and costs, Japan | Leave a comment

New nuclear power- not a good investment

the nuclear renaissance may be largely over before it started.

New Centralized Nuclear Plants: Still an Investment Worth Making? Forbes, Peter Kelly-Detwiler,15 Jan 2013,

“…….Even without Fukushima, the verdict on large centralized US nukes is probably in, for the following reasons:

1) They take too long: In the ten years it can take to build a nuclear plant, the world can change considerably (look at what has happened with natural gas prices and the costs of solar since some of these investments were first proposed). The energy world is changing very quickly, which poses a significant risk for thirty to forty year investments.

2) They are among the most expensive and capital-intensive investments in the world; they cost many billions of dollars, and they are too frequently prone to crippling multi-billion dollar cost overruns and delays. In May 2008, the US Congressional Budget Office found that the actual cost of building 75 of America’s earlier nuclear plants involved an average 207% overrun, soaring from $938 to $2,959 per kilowatt.

3) And once the investments commence, they are all-or-nothing. You can’t pull out without losing your entire investment. For those with longer memories, WPPS and Shoreham represent $2.25 bn (1983) and $6 bn (1989) wasted investments in which nothing was gained and ratepayers and bondholders lost a good deal. Continue reading →

January 17, 2013 Posted by Christina Macpherson | 2 WORLD, business and costs | Leave a comment

San Onofre leads the way for USA rust bucket nuclear reactors to go

The fiasco at San Onfre is being replayed at rust bucket reactors throughout the US.

Meanwhile, the conversion to green power in Germany is booming. When 8 reactors were shut and the conversion to wind, solar and biomass became official policy, “experts” predicated energy shortages and soaring prices. But the opposite has happened as supply has boomed and prices have dropped.

The same things will happen in California and elsewhere as these radioactive jalopies begin to shut. The effectiveness of citizen activism in California is now vastly multiplied as these two decrepit reactors become increasingly obsolete, inoperable and economically insupportable.

Showdown at San Onofre: Why the Nuclear Industry May Be Dealt a Big Blowhttp://www.alternet.org/environment/showdown-san-onofre-why-nuclear-industry-may-be-dealt-big-blow?akid=9919.1085969.01RI09&rd=1&src=newsletter775567&t=19 Two stricken California reactors may soon redefine a global movement aimed at eradicating nuclear power.January 7, 2013

Two stricken California reactors may soon redefine a global movement aimed at eradicating nuclear power.

They sit in a seismic zone vulnerable to tsunamis. Faulty steam generators have forced them shut for nearly a year.

A powerful “No Nukes” movement wants them to stay that way. If they win, the shutdown of America’s 104 licensed reactors will seriously accelerate.

The story of San Onofre Units 2 & 3 is one of atomic idiocy. Continue reading →

January 17, 2013 Posted by Christina Macpherson | business and costs, USA | Leave a comment

Virginia would be gambling its future, with uranium mining

Uranium mining: A fiscal conservative might say, ‘no’, http://www.wpcva.com/altavista/opinion/article_7de6346e-5ff6-11e2-9db4-001a4bcf887a.html ALTAVISTA Journal, Katie Whitehead/Special to the Journal. January 16, 2013

Traditional conservative values support continuing the moratorium on uranium mining in Virginia. Moving forward with legalization of uranium mining in Virginia would be expensive for taxpayers, with no guarantee the costs would ever be recovered.

The governor’s Uranium Working Group (UWG) report lists the many protective actions Virginia would need to take to regulate and monitor uranium mining and milling. Following through on all the suggested safety measures would require establishing a comprehensive uranium mining and milling regulatory program. The only proposal worth considering — other than maintaining the moratorium — is a fully funded, fully staffed, comprehensive, state-level, statewide program that incorporates all the measures outlined by the UWG. Even then, it might be impossible to guarantee a degree of safety in operation that would be acceptable to a majority of citizens.

Dr. Paul Locke, chairman of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) study committee, recently told reporters, “Putting protective regulations into place would be a very, very, very difficult task. Continue reading →

January 17, 2013 Posted by Christina Macpherson | business and costs, USA | Leave a comment

Chrystal River, Vermont nuclear plants likely to follow Kewaunee into closure

Analyst: Florida nuclear plant will likely be closed — Gundersen: “The dominoes are starting to fall” (AUDIO)

Title: Repairs at Four Nuclear Reactors Are So Expensive That They Should Not Be Restarted http://enenews.com/analyst-florida-nuclear-plant-will-be-closed-gundersen-dominoes-starting-fall-audio
Source: Fairewinds Energy Education
Date: January 13, 2013

Nuclear Expert Arnie Gundersen, Fairewinds Energy Education: Duke is seriously considering pulling the plug on the [Crystal River nuclear] plant […]

Last week we had a financial analyst at UBS suggest that Vermont Yankee didn’t make economic sense.

This week, we’ve got a financial analyst at another firm called Fitch and he says that the Crystal River plant will likely be closed because Duke can’t make economic sense out of it.

So the dominoes are starting to fall.

We’ve have Kewaunee, which is shutting down in the Midwest because of financial reasons. And now we’ve got UBS analysts and Fitch analysts also claiming it makes no economic sense to keep other nuclear plants running.

January 17, 2013 Posted by Christina Macpherson | business and costs, USA | Leave a comment

There’s money in them thar nuclear wastes

Veolia Draws Upon Fukushima to Move Into Nuclear Dismantling, Bloomberg, By Tara Patel – Jan 15, 2013 Veolia Environnement SA (VIE), which treated radioactive water from Japan’s nuclear meltdown at Fukushima, plans to use the experience to move into decontamination and power plant dismantling.

The water utility and the nuclear research group known as CEA plan to earn as much as 400 million euros ($534 million) in revenue within about four years by cleaning radioactive sites and taking apart installations, they said today.

“The market is developing very quickly,” Veolia Chief Executive Officer Antoine Frerot told a press conference today in Paris. About 300 nuclear reactors will have to be halted worldwide within two decades including in France, Germany, Japan and the U.S., he said.

The shift into the atomic market comes after President Francois Hollande pledged to lower France’s dependence on the energy and shut the country’s oldest plant at Fessenheim. It’s also the first new market Veolia has publicly announced it will enter into since Frerot pledged to pull out of some countries and businesses in a bid to boost profit…… http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-01-15/veolia-draws-upon-fukushima-to-move-into-nuclear-dismantling-1-.html

January 17, 2013 Posted by Christina Macpherson | business and costs, decommission reactor, Japan | Leave a comment

Shortage of workers at Fukushima nuclear plant resulted in high radiation exposure

Worker shortages revealed at nuclear plant after disaster
http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/T130113003104.htm 14 Jan
A manager’s calls for reinforcements to help contain a series of
crises at Tokyo Electric Power Co.’s Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power
plant were ignored, newly released TEPCO teleconference footage has
revealed.

Although Masao Yoshida, then manager of the plant damaged by the March
11, 2011, earthquake and tsunami, repeatedly asked TEPCO headquarters
in Tokyo to send more workers, the request was not met in a timely
manner. As a result, the plant’s workers suffered extreme fatigue and
heightened radiation exposure, the footage showed. Continue reading →

January 14, 2013 Posted by Christina Macpherson | - Fukushima 2011, employment, Japan | Leave a comment

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