Thousands of jobs to go at BHP Billiton –
Thousands of jobs to go at BHP Billiton ABC Rural News 21/01/2009The world’s biggest mining company, BHP Billiton, will shed 6000 jobs – more than half of them here in Australia………………………….200 members of the expansion team project for the Olympic Dam copper, gold and uranium mine in South Australia will also be made redundant.
Spot price falls, as does exploration spending
Uranium: spot price falls, as does uranium exploration By Luke Brocki Uranium Investing News and U3O8.biz Jan 19, 2009 Spot uranium prices fell US$2 this week to US$51 a pound U3O8, according to price publisher Ux Consulting. And while rival publisher Tradetech’s uranium price estimate hasn’t budged this year, sitting stable at US$52 a pound, analysts suspect sellers are starting to soften, reducing prices to attract buyers. UxC says six-month delivery times on contracts are starting to gain in popularity, replacing shorter terms. This has historically been good news, but longer contracts won’t turn the tide in a soft market without help from a strong spot price…………………………According to the weekly uranium update from Toll Cross Securities Inc., junior explorers dropped 2% this week, advanced explorers fell 5%, production visibility companies fell 8%, and producers dropped 3%. The Toll Cross Junior Uranium Index, which monitors a basket of stocks deemed by Toll Cross as representative of the sector, fell nearly 5% to 163,85 from 171.74.
Areva bags licence to operate world’s second biggest uranium mine
Areva bags licence to operate world’s second biggest uranium mine
domain-b.com news 16 January 2009After months of negotiation, the French nuclear energy group Areva has been granted a license to build and operate the Imouraren uranium mine in Niger, the biggest in Africa and the second biggest in the world.
The Imouraren deposit is the largest known uranium deposit in Africa, and the world’s second largest, after Australia’s Olympic Dam deposit…………………….Under the agreement, Areva will have a 66.65-per cent share in the newly created mining company, with the remaining 33.35 per cent being owned by the State of Niger.
domain-b.com : Areva bags licence to operate world’s second biggest uranium mine
Areva clashes with Finnish utility over delays to new nuclear plant
Areva clashes with Finnish utility over delays to new nuclear plant S
centa.co.uk, UK – 15 Jan 09 Areva, the nuclear plant designer expected to be at the forefront of a British atomic power revival, has become embroiled in a bitter war of words with a …this online article is available only to the UK
Start-up Delayed for Finnish Nuclear Plant
Start-up Delayed for Finnish Nuclear Plant
Energy On Line LCG, January 14, 2009–The Areva-Siemens Consortium stated yesterday that the Olkiluoto 3 nuclear power plant unit is now not scheduled for completion until 2012. The initial target for completing the Finnish project was 2009.Finnish utility Teollisuuden Voima (TVO) stated that the Areva-Siemens Consortium, the turn-key supplier of the 1,600-MW nuclear power plant, filed an arbitration request over delays and overruns in the Olkiluoto 3 project and that the completion date has been delayed until June 2012.The power plant incorporates AREVA’s European Evolutionary Power Reactor (EPR). In the United States, Areva is acting to develop a fleet of nuclear reactors using AREVA’s U.S. EPR design, which is a Generation III+ design based upon AREVA’s European EPR.
LCG Consulting – EnergyOnline / Start-up Delayed for Finnish Nuclear Plant
Tags: AREVA
Bankrupt company to avoid uranium cleanup costs?
Tronox Bankruptcy raises questions about uranium cleanup
By Brandon Bennett
Black Hills Pioneer Weekly News January 13, 2009
<!–
–> HARDING COUNTY – Tronox Incorporated announced on Monday that it and certain of the company’s subsidiaries filed voluntary petitions for reorganization under Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code.
That raises questions about its obligations in Harding County in northwest South Dakota with regard to reclaiming land formerly used for uranium mining.
The land had been mined in the 1950s by Tronox’s predecessor, Kerr-McGee, and was left in poor condition…………………………..The company began the reclamation and environmental cleanup in 2007 after an unusually large number of cancer cases were reported in the Riley Pass area of the Cave Hills.
Ranchers asked the U.S. Forest Service to take action, and since the land was federally owned the agency asked Tronox, as a successor to Kerr-McGee, to reclaim the land in question and remove some dirt that some feel has contributed to the unhealthy situation.
Some work had been done, but Forest Service officials weren’t sure where this bankruptcy leaves them.
…………………….Meanwhile, the ranchers who have been affected by the mining have been watching what has been going on and aren’t sure if they’ll ever get rid of the problem.
Tags: nuclear, antinuclear, radioactive, uranium
Nuclear dump: Cornwall cannot be bought, say MPs
Nuclear dump: Cornwall cannot be bought, say MPs
this is cornwall.co.uk January 09, 2009, Cornwall’s Liberal Democrat MPs and Parliamentary candidates have united to slam plans to investigate the possibility of a nuclear waste site being located in the Duchy…………………………If the county were to host such a site it could receive billions of pounds of Government funds in return to improve infrastructure and public facilities…………………………other Lib Dems say that no amount of money would be enough to convince them it would be a good idea.
Stephen Gilbert, parliamentary candidate for St Austell and Newquay, said: “My view is very simple, the Government could never offer Cornwall enough money for me to believe that we should be used as the dumping ground for Britain’s nuclear waste. The County Council Lib Dem Executive was right to reject the idea in the first place and now needs to throw it out again.
“Cornwall has fought long and hard to develop its reputation as being at the forefront of the green revolution, with great local food producers, new technologies and a growing environmental tourism sector. We must not put this reputation at risk.”
North Cornwall MP Dan Rogerson said: “We will not accept the Government’s bribes.
“Cornwall should not have to become a dumping ground for hazardous nuclear waste just to get the funding we need for local services. We deserve that as of right.
“There may be extra funding on offer from Ministers but the price is too high, and I am pleased the leadership of the council is clear that this should not go ahead.”
Falmouth and Camborne MP Julia Goldsworthy added: “The last thing Cornwall needs is nuclear waste on our doorstep.
“There could be serious risks to health if anything went wrong with the storage arrangements, to say nothing of the obvious problems that could occur if material escaped en route through Cornwall.
“This is a bad idea that the council was right to abandon. They must stick to their guns.”
Nuclear dump: Cornwall cannot be bought, say MPs
Tags: nuclear, antinuclear, uranium, radioactive
Nuclear energy will not solve natural gas crisis
Nuclear energy will not solve natural gas crisis, says Greenpeace The Slovak Spectator by Zuzana Vilikovská 8 Jan 09 Greenpeace in Slovakia is protesting against efforts to solve the natural gas crisis by re-launching the operation of the V1 Nuclear Power Plant in Jaslovské Bohunice, which was shut down on the last day of 2008, the SITA wrote.
Nuclear energy will not solve natural gas crisis, says Greenpeace – The Slovak Spectator
Tags: nuclear, antinuclear, radioactive, uranium
Nuclear Plant Powers Way Down After Water Leak Found
Michael Kanellos Nuclear Plant Powers Way Down After Water Leak Found
January 8, 2009 at 5:19 PMThe Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant has cut power production by 60 percent after a leak in the pipe that provides water to the steam generator was discovered, according to the AP.The leak is dripping about 60 drops a minute and the water is mildly radioactive.On Wednesday, the Vermont Yankee (which is my favorite nuclear power plant name) had a leak in the gasket.Better clean it up, lads. The nuclear industry is promoting itself as a clean and economical and large-scale alternative to coal and natural gas. It’s also not intermittent like solar or wind, and a few plants can provide large amounts of baseload power, say proponents………………
Debates rage over whether nuclear will be economical or not. See Joe Romm’s take on a new report that says new nuclear will cost 15 cents or more a kilowatt hour.
But — ugh — safety and leaks are tougher to argue over. If the safety and maintenance record gets murky, nuclear advocates are going to have a tough time mustering support.
Greentech Media: Green Light » Blog Archive » Nuclear Plant Powers Way Down After Water Leak Found
Tags: nuclear, antinuclear, radioactive, uranium
The Uncertain Business of Building New Nuclear
The Uncertain Business of Building New Nuclear BNET industries By Chris Morrison | January 7th, 2009
A new study on Climate Progress has some surprising conclusions for nuclear power. Final costs for generating power at new plants, the study says, will be 25 to 30 cents per kilowatt-hour, which is some three times the cost of today’s energy.
Nuclear is a major part of some plans to move away from fossil fuels like coal and gas, so numbers like this should be extremely worrying to advocates of atomic power……………..
…………….. Historical costs have exceeded initial estimates, and current costs are risingSeverance points to a Cambridge Energy Research Associates report that shows a 131 percent increase in the cost of power plants from 2000 – 2008. That’s is a particular problem for nuclear, because plants can take 10 years or more to build, meaning initial estimates have to factor in future cost increases (or be wrong).
This is a vicious circle, because the long time frame involved increases the business risks of the project, risk that in turn increases expenses. Furthermore, the length of time it takes to build plants means that utilities must pay interest on any debt they took out for construction (usually running in the the billions of dollars) for years before seeing any income.
These might appear to be problems that can be overcome with good planning. Unfortunately, most current designs for nuclear plants haven’t been proven in the field, meaning there’s an element of learn-as-you-go for the people who are building. On a $10 billion project, that’s not a good thing………………..For any cost overruns that do occur, it will likely be the utility or ratepayers that foot the bill, as nuclear plant construction firms are wising up and adding contract provisions that mandate profits for them……………………………One potential side-affect of cost-overruns and delays is outright abandonment of projects. That happened with the Washington Public Power Supply System, which defaulted on $2.25 billion in loans when it walked away from a nuclear project.
Utilities constructing nuclear plants may find their credit ratings dropping……………………..Higher electricity rates from nuclear may destroy demand for the energy
If the above issues come to a head and ratepayers end up eating the costs, they may simply choose to use less power, or tap into sources like home solar and wind, which may well become cheaper than energy from the utility.
The Uncertain Business of Building New Nuclear | BNET Energy Blog | BNET
Tags: nuclear, antinuclear, uranium, radioactive
Arbitration over delays in nuclear build
Arbitration over delays in nuclear build
World Nuclear News 05 January 2009The row over delays at the Olkiluoto 3 new-build project has grown more serious after constructing consortium Areva-Siemens took their customer Teollisuuden Voima Oyj (TVO) to arbitration…………………
……In the first half of last year, TVO submitted a claim to Areva-Siemens for compensation for “losses and costs incurred due to the delay” in completing the construction project. TVO has also rejected a claim presented to it by Areva-Siemens, and it is this claim for which the consortium has filed a request for arbitration with the International Chamber of Commerce. Areva said that it initiated the proceedings on 5 December 2008; TVO announced that it had received notification on 30 December 2008.
The Credit Crisis and Nuclear Markets
The Credit Crisis and Nuclear Markets
UX Weekly 7 Jan 09 The news that is currently gripping the United States and the world at large is the credit crisis in the U.S. Financial institutions have failed in the U.S. and Europe, and there is concern that more will fail. Things will likely get worse before getting better now that the U.S. House of Representatives voted 228-205 against the financial bailout plan. However, even if this legislation were passed and signed into law, it is not seen as a panacea for the crisis, the effects of which will likely be felt for some time. Pretty much all parts of the world economy have been or will be impacted by it, even the uranium market and nuclear power.
Below we look at both the near-term and the long-term implications for the nuclear industry.Recently, the uranium market has experienced a great amount of activity as sellers have adopted a more aggressive posture to the market. These sellers have included hedge funds and companies owned by funds or financial interests, and companies facing cash flow issues. One of the major changes in the spot uranium market over the past several years has been a greater involvement of hedge funds and other financial entities in the market. This makes the market more subject to the vicissitudes of the financial sector……………………………. The credit crisis has longer-term effects as well, as it certainly does not bode well for the future of nuclear power. Nuclear power plants are extremely capital intensive and thus require a great deal of financing, which will now be even more expensive and difficult to obtain. The other aspect of the crisis is that economic growth will likely be much slower in the future, and thus there will be less need for new electricity generating capacity, including that based on nuclear power………………………………….
Similar to financing new nuclear power plants, it will be more difficult and more expensive to finance new mines, if they are financed at all. Uranium mining costs, as is the case with all mining costs, have greatly exceeded the general inflation rate even before the recent crisis, and this relationship will likely be maintained or exacerbated in the aftermath of the credit crisis.
The rate of uranium production expansion will be cut back due to both the recent fall in price and higher production costs. Because of this, many prospective projects which were questionable at recent price levels are even more problematic now. Further, the dimmer prospect for a nuclear renaissance in the wake of the credit crisis makes it that much less likely that investments in uranium production infrastructure will be made…………………………….
Finally, the credit crisis reminds us of the very real possibility that markets can fail. We have discussed the concept of market failure as it pertains to the uranium market a number of times in this publication. It is revealing, if certainly not heartening, to see a market failure scenario being played out on such a grand scale, with the government again right in the middle of things.
UxC: UxW – The Credit Crisis and Nuclear Markets
Tags: nuclear, antinuclear, radioactive, uranium
Chris Goodall on the rising costs of UK nuclear energy | Environment | guardian.co.uk
The rising costs of UK nuclear energyThe fall in the pound’s value undermines any financial case for nuclear energy, writes Chris Goodall from Carbon Commentary, part of the Guardian Environment Network 6 Jan 09
“……………………………Since the government’s paper, nuclear power has suffered two huge blows. First, the pound has declined in value against the euro. This makes the core components of a nuclear power station more expensive as they are priced in the European currency. Second, the construction of the new nuclear power station in Finland has descended almost into farce as costs have ballooned and progress has slowed. The Finnish power station is much the more advanced of the two new nuclear plants currently under construction in Europe. If Finland is any guide, nuclear power is far more expensive than anybody expected……………………………………….The Finnish debacle
The French nuclear specialist Areva signed a fixed price contract with the Finnish consortium TVO. The value was about €3bn, in addition to the costs that TVO incurred readying the site for construction work and taking the plans through the Finnish approval processes. Areva has since taken several financial provisions in its accounts, reflecting the problems it has faced in completing the work to its initial budget. A provision is a way of recognising that a firm is going to make a future loss on a contract. So, for example, banks make provisions when it is apparent that a loan to a near-bankrupt company is unlikely ever to be repaid.Areva is largely owned by the French state, although some of its shares are held by investment institutions and others. In the Anglo-Saxon world, having private shareholders would oblige the company to state the absolute size of these provisions. In France it is different and Areva has consistently refused to state their actual size. But the French press recently offered the opinion that total provisions may now be €1.5bn, suggesting that Areva thinks that the total cost of fulfilling the contract is already €4.5bn, a rise of 50% on the initial price.
This will not be the end of the matter. Areva has recently indicated that the final completion date of the plant will be sometime in 2012, making the station over three years late. Any further construction problems will raise the total eventual cost yet further……………………………..The value of the euro
If the Finnish construction costs were replicated in the UK, and the euro/pound exchange rate had remained at around £1/€1.50, the cost of the project would imply a cost to generate electricity of over £50 per megawatt hour. This is more than the current wholesale price in the UK (although the wholesale price has been much higher than this figure for most of the last 12 months).
Chris Goodall on the rising costs of UK nuclear energy | Environment | guardian.co.uk
Bill levies waste fee on haulers
Bill levies waste fee on haulers
By JANESE HEAVIN of the Columbia Tribune’s staff December 27, 2008 “………………….Sen.-elect Kurt Schaefer, R-Columbia, has pre-filed a bill that would charge trucking companies $1,800 to haul a container of radioactive wastes through the state and $1,300 for every load transported via rail. The money would be used to reimburse the Missouri State Highway Patrol, which, by law, must escort rigs that ship radioactive waste.
Bill levies waste fee on haulers
Tags: nuclear
Texas can take lessons from Finland’s nuclear power plant delays | News for Dallas, Texas | Dallas Morning News | Dallas Business News
Texas can take lessons from Finland’s nuclear power plant delays
Dallas News BUSINESS December 21, 2008ByOLKILUOTO ISLAND, Finland – Three times a day, thousands of workers from across Europe tramp through the snow and rocks here to a bulbous concrete hulk looming beneath an aerial ballet of construction cranes.
The round-the-clock shifts are trying to resurrect nuclear power, an energy option that fell out of favor in 1986 when the Soviet Union’s Chernobyl reactor exploded.
The revival is not going well.
The new Olkiluoto plant is struggling with cost overruns and delays. These are especially vexing in Finland’s deregulated electricity market, where utilities can’t just pass on the added costs without risking a flight of customers to other power suppliers. The plant is at least two years behind schedule.
TVO, the Finnish utility buying the plant for $3.4 billion, expects the French and German builders to eat cost overruns and replacement power purchases. Those are likely to be well above $1 billion. The builders, in turn, blame the utility, and the two sides are headed to arbitration.
These sorts of problems exasperated North Texas ratepayers 20 years ago when the twin Comanche Peak nuclear plants in Glen Rose were under construction. Costs ballooned from $800 million to more than $11 billion.
Tags: nuclear, antinuclear, radioactive, uranium
1 This Month
22 June – Virtual Event –Climate Change: New Data, New Debate
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Report Launch Online: We are seeing an increasing exploitation of space for military and commercial purposes. This must change.
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Cuba Is Not a Failed State – It Is a Besieged State
PETITION: “Global Appeal to Endorse Palestinian Right of Return of Refugees”
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