Another delayed hearing about Rapid City uranium mining plan
Water board delays Rapid City uranium mine hearing http://www.seattlepi.com/news/science/article/Water-board-delays-Rapid-City-uranium-mine-hearing-5010884.php, November 25, 2013 PIERRE, S.D. (AP) — A second state panel has delayed hearings on a proposed uranium mine in the Black Hills until two federal agencies decide on the project.
The South Dakota Water Management Board on Monday postponed its second week of hearings scheduled for the week of Dec. 9 in Rapid City.
The Board of Minerals and Environment earlier delayed its second round of hearings on Powertech Uranium Corp.’s application for a mine near Edgemont.
Both state boards say they’ll reschedule after the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and Environmental Protection Agency rule on the project and establish financial surety. The Water Management Board says the delay was in response to a request from Powertech and other parties. The panel must decide whether to grant water rights permits and a groundwater discharge plan.
Ruptured pipeline leaks radioactive water from old uranium mill
Pipeline blamed for spill at former uranium plant in Colorado http://trib.com/business/energy/pipeline-blamed-for-spill-at-former-uranium-plant-in-colorado/article_de1c924f-92ae-5df5-b0d8-e5be8d2282da.html By the Associated Press, 25 Nov 13, CANON CITY, Colo. — A pipeline rupture led to a spill of an estimated 4,000 to 9,000 gallons of contaminated water spilled at a former uranium mill near Canon City, but an on-site collection system contained the spill, officials told residents.
A joint on the underground pipeline broke Nov. 5, unleashing the spill at the defunct Cotter Corp. mill, Jennifer Opila, a radioactive materials monitor for the state health department, told the Thursday meeting. The pipe was repaired and operable by Nov. 6, Opila said.
Cotter safety officer Jim Cain said between 4,000 and 9,000 gallons of water spilled. A sample showed traces of uranium and molybdenum were found, Cain said.
John Hamrick, vice president of Cotter Mill operations, said there have been three leaks “in three different years, all for different reasons.”
Cotter once processed uranium for weapons and fuel at the mill. Federal authorities placed the mill on a national list for Superfund cleanups in the 1980s after radioactive materials traced to the mill were found to have contaminated the soil and groundwater. Part of the neighboring Lincoln Park community also is a Superfund site.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency eventually turned oversight of cleanup work to state officials.
Uranium hasn’t been processed at the mill since 2006. The state requires mill sites that are being decommissioned to be thoroughly cleaned up and restored at the operator’s expense. It’s expected to be a multimillion-dollar effort.
Non Proliferation Treaty allows Iran to enrich uranium
Legal right to enrich uranium for Iran http://www.tehrantimes.com/politics/112302-uranium-enrichment-is-a-right-hans-blix 23 Nov 13, TEHRAN — Hans Blix, the former director of the International Atomic Energy Agency, says his interpretation of Article IV of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty is that uranium enrichment is a “right”.
The remarks by Blix come as Iran and the six major powers (the five permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany, known as the 5+1 group) are negotiating in Geneva.
The censorship of the true effects of depleted uranium
A factor rarely mentioned is the potential effects of DU on children yet to be born to U.S. Iraq war veterans, who served in places like Fallujah, Basra and Najaf.
HORRIFIC EFFECTS OF DEPLETED URANIUM STILL CENSORED BY U.S. MILITARY, MEDIA HTTPS://AMERICANFREEPRESS.NET/?P=13599 NOVEMBER 03, 2013 BY RICHARD WALKER In a move seen by medical experts worldwide as an effort to suppress the truth about the horrors of depleted uranium (DU) munitions, the United Nations (UN) health arm, the World Health Organization (WHO), along with the Ministry of Health of Iraq (MoH) on September 13, 2013, produced a report that was not even authored, meaning no experts attached their names to it, on birth defects among Iraqi babies in which DU was not even considered a factor.
The report was published on the WHO website at a time when birth defects among Iraqi babies have been rising steadily, especially in areas like Najaf and Fallujah, where DU shells were used indiscriminately, killing and injuring large numbers of civilians. Some estimates for the 2003 death toll in Iraq put the civilian casualties in Fallujah as high as 75% to 80%. Continue reading
Another uranium company stops operations, with poor market prospects
Company slows uranium mining in northern Arizona, Yahoo 7 Finance 21 Nov 13,Uranium mining company to temporarily halt operations in northern Arizona amid low ore prices. FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (AP) — The only two uranium mines operating in Arizona and an associated mill in southern Utah are set to cease operations temporarily as prices for the ore decline.
Energy Fuels Resources Inc. said uranium at its Arizona One Mine in the north part of the state will be depleted in early 2014, and the nearby Pinenut Mine and the White Mesa Mill in Blanding, Utah, will be placed on standby next year.
The move comes after the company stopped short of extracting uranium at another mine south of the Grand Canyon near Tusayan and as per-pound prices for uranium on the spot market dip to a five-year low, in the mid-$30s. The company plans to maintain the sites so that they can begin operating if the uranium market improves……..
Environmentalists are looking to the U.S. Forest Service and the U.S. Bureau of Land Management to ensure that the company doesn’t leave anything behind that would harm wildlife or the landscape.
“It’s a good thing on the one hand, but there’s a systemic problem in the regulations by the land management agencies that allow these mines to blink on and off at will without any review or revision in their plans of operation,” said Roger Clark of the Grand Canyon Trust. http://au.finance.yahoo.com/news/company-slows-uranium-mining-northern-153826141.html
Yet another uranium company makes wider losses
Energy Fuels makes efforts to sustain current drop in uranium prices Proactive Investors by Deborah Bacal 16 Nov 13 Energy Fuels (TSE:EFR)(OTCQX:EFRFD), which recently gained a majority stake in one of the largest and highest grade uranium projects in the U.S. through its acquisition of Strathmore Minerals, reported widened third quarter losses as a result of a drop during the period in both uranium spot and term prices, which it sees rising in the future.
For the three months to September 30, America’s largest conventional uranium producer, which says it has a strategy in place to beat current low prices, reported net loss was $70.47 million, or $4.30 per share, compared to $19.16 million, or $1.41 per share, a year ago. Revenues fell slightly to $24.5 million from $25.03 million.
As a result of the downward trend in prices through to the end of the quarter and Energy Fuels’ expectations to place the Pinenut mine on stand-by in July of next year, the company said it recorded an impairment loss of $60.26 million in the period. ince July 1, the spot price of uranium dropped from $39.65 per pound to its current price of $35.35 per pound, the company noted, and the long term price declined from $57.00 per lb. to $50.00 per pound.
Poor uranium market freezes Uranium One’s expansion
Rosatom’s Uranium One to Freeze Expansion Moscow Times, 13 November 2013 | Issue 5255 Reuters Canadian miner Uranium One Holding, acquired this year by state-owned reactor builder and supplier Rosatom, said it would freeze expansion projects in Russia and elsewhere due to low uranium prices.
The price of uranium, used mainly as fuel for nuclear plants, plummeted after the March 2011 meltdown at Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi atomic power plant and has shown no signs of recovery.
“We cannot discount the dramatic fall in natural uranium prices, as a result of which more than 50 percent of global uranium production is currently loss-making,” Uranium One President Vadim Zhivov said in e-mailed comments Wednesday.
Uranium One, which Rosatom took private last month, will mothball the Honeymoon mine in uranium-rich South Australia, local media reported this week, citing high costs and unfavorable contracts with Japan’s Mitsui.
A company spokesman confirmed Wednesday that the mine would be put in “care and maintenance” mode. Zhivov did not specify which of the company’s projects had been cancelled, saying the details would be announced later…….
November uranium futures on the New York Mercantile exchange closed at $35.85 per pound on Tuesday, compared with $68 per pound before the earthquake and tsunami in Japan.
Uranium workers unhappy with safety arrangements
A Fridge Full of Uranium for Honeywell Employees, In These Times, BY MIKE ELK 7 Nov 13 On Monday, a Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) team arrived at Honeywell’s Metropolis, Ill., uranium conversion plant to do a routine weeklong inspection. Recently, workers at the plant have alleged that the employee refrigerator in the control room of the main processing building has repeatedly tested positive for dangerous levels of uranium.
But because Honeywell will not allow a qualified union worker to accompany NRC representatives on their inspections if the workers are on layoff, the union claims that the company is putting them and the local community at risk.
During the last few years, the plant has faced problems with federal authorities over a series of safety issues. In March 2011, after an investigation by the Environmental Proection Agency (EPA), Honeywell pleaded guilty to one felony offense for knowingly storing hazardous radioactive waste without a permit in violation of the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA)” and paid an $11.9 million fine to the federal government. Two months later, OSHA officially cited the company for 17 serious violations for the accidental release of toxic hydrogen fluoride (HF) gas directly into the atmosphere outside of the plant in December 2010.
Members of United Steel Workers Local 7-699, which represents workers at the Metropolis plant, claim that having a specifically designated worker present during inspections was the key to at least some of the company’s citations in 2011. The plant, workers say, is large and complex. Though inspectors are highly trained, they may miss small but crucial details during their visits. Union representatives, they say, can point out problems known to workers that regulatory officials may otherwise overlook.
So when workers found out that the union’s elected representative, USW Local 7-699 President Stephen Lech, would not be allowed to go on the NRC inspections because he is on what the union labels a “punitive” layoff, they were outraged. As union president, they say, Lech talks to more members of the union and has a more in-depth knowledge of safety issues than anyone else…….http://inthesetimes.com/working/entry/15848/honeywell_employees_west_texas_regulation_uranium_fridge/
Scotland’s “mass walk-on” protest against firing of depleted uranium weapons
Dundrennan depleted uranium protest staged http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-south-scotland-24835544 6 Nov 13 The last DU tests were carried out at Dundrennan five years ago Campaigners have held a “mass walk-on” at the Dundrennan range in protest at the test firing of depleted uranium (DU) weapons into the Solway Firth.
It was part of an international day of action and followed concerns about serious health issues resulting from the use of such weapons in war zones.
The last DU tests at the south of Scotland range were in 2008. Earlier this year the Ministry of Defence said it had no plans to restart firing in the area.
One of the campaigners, Rachel Thompson, said the protest had been well supported from across Scotland and beyond. “We have found that depleted uranium is one of those issues people really do care about,” she said.
“They knew when they started that Scottish people did not want this to happen.” She said the protest wanted to make the link between that objection and the consequences of the use of such weapons in Iraq.
Uranium project in trouble – will apply for $2 billion govt loan
Uranium project faces more money quandaries Politico, By DARIUS DIXON | 11/6/13
A major project aimed at maintaining the nation’s ability to enrich its own uranium may soon find itself in another cash crunch.
USEC, the company behind the American Centrifuge Project, said Tuesday that it will enter a period of fiscal uncertainty after the end of the year, when it’s scheduled to finish a cost-share agreement with the Energy Department aimed at demonstrating the project’s technology. The company plans to reapply for a $2 billion loan guarantee from the agency as early as December, but that will leave a gap when USEC may not have the money to keep working on the Ohio project while DOE studies the application.
“In light of our liquidity, we do not have the ability to continue to fund ACP at its current levels beyond the end of 2013 without additional government support,” USEC President and CEO John Welch said Tuesday on a call with investors. “Even with their support, our ability to provide funding in 2014 will be limited.”
He said the company “could make a decision to demobilize or terminate the project in the near term.”…….
“In light of our liquidity, we do not have the ability to continue to fund ACP at its current levels beyond the end of 2013 without additional government support,” USEC President and CEO John Welch said Tuesday on a call with investors. “Even with their support, our ability to provide funding in 2014 will be limited.”
He said the company “could make a decision to demobilize or terminate the project in the near term.”
: http://www.politico.com/story/2013/11/uranium-project-faces-more-money-quandaries-99407.html#ixzz2jzXqnI26
Uranium miner at Grand Canyon halting, due to poor uranium market
Work for uranium mine near Grand Canyon hits pause Arizona Daily Star, 7 Nov 13 The Associated Press FLAGSTAFF — A uranium mining company that was sinking a shaft for a mine south of Grand Canyon National Park has put the work on hold, citing market conditions and the expense of litigation. Energy Fuels Resources Inc. said the operation will be on standby until December 2014 or until a ruling is issued in a federal case challenging the U.S. Forest Service’s decision to allow development of the Canyon Mine near Tusayan. The company had planned to start extracting 83,000 tons of ore to produce 1.6 million pounds of processed uranium, or yellow cake, in 2015 but now will have to re-evaluate the timeframe….
….Prices for uranium have dropped to the mid-$30s per pound on the spot market, among the lowest in the past five years. http://azstarnet.com/ap/state/work-for-uranium-mine-near-grand-canyon-hits-pause/article_643f8e19-f2a1-565e-ad6b-7acb0ac2a625.html
Iran DOES have a legal right to enrich uranium
Bottom line: At present Iran has the legal right under treaty to enrich uranium. It may be persuaded to give up that right in negotiations, but there is at present no justification for holding it to this unreasonable demand.
Does Iran Have the Right to Enrich Uranium? The Answer Is Yes Dissident Voice, by William O. Beeman / November 2nd, 2013 Now that serious talks with Iran over its nuclear program are underway, one seemingly insurmountable issue is whether Iran has the right to enrich uranium. The short answer is: Yes.
Those who are trying to torpedo the ongoing talks, including Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, want Iran to be forced to agree to the whole monty–a complete cessation of uranium enrichment and a dismantling of all enrichment facilities.
Iran claims that it has the inalienable right to enrich uranium as guaranteed in the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty (NPT) to which it is a signatory.
The NPT treaty language is quite clear. In Article IV of the treaty it states: “Nothing in this Treaty shall be interpreted as affecting the inalienable right of all the Parties to the Treaty to develop research, production and use of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes without discrimination and in conformity with Articles I and II of this Treaty.” Continue reading
Hungary the 12th country to have highly enriched uranium HEU converted to LEU
UNITED STATES, INTERNATIONAL PARTNERS REMOVE LAST REMAINING WEAPONS-USABLE HIGHLY ENRICHED URANIUM FROM HUNGARY, SET NUCLEAR SECURITY MILESTONE EIN News Desk 4 Nov 13,WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Energy today announced under a multi-year international effort coordinated between Hungary, the United States, the Russian Federation, and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the successful removal of all remaining highly enriched uranium (HEU) from Hungary. This makes Hungary the twelfth country to completely eliminate HEU from its borders since President Obama’s 2009 announcement of an international effort to secure all vulnerable nuclear material around the world……..
The final 49.2 kilograms of remaining HEU in Hungary were removed over a series of three secure air shipments during the past six weeks and transported to Russia. Previously, the four participants returned 190 kilograms of HEU from Hungary to Russia via three shipments – in 2008, 2009, and 2012. The material will be transported to Russia where it will be downblended into low enriched uranium (LEU) for use in nuclear power reactors.
The other eleven countries and locations that have completely removed HEU under this effort are Austria, Chile, Czech Republic, Libya, Mexico, Romania, Serbia, Taiwan, Turkey, Ukraine, and Vietnam. To date, the Department has removed or dispositioned more than 5,000 kilograms of HEU and plutonium from more than 40 countries around the world and has removed all HEU from 25 countries. A fact sheet on the Department’s efforts to prevent nuclear terrorism is available here…….. http://www.einnews.com/pr_news/174969858/united-states-international-partners-remove-last-remaining-weapons-usable-highly-enriched-uranium-from-hungary-set-nuclear-security-milestone
Unanswered questions about proposed uranium mine in South Dakota
Uranium mine hearings reveal questions about proposed project Rapid City Journal 3 Nov 13 After two weeks of public testimony, one thing has become clear about the proposed uranium mine that would operate near Edgemont: many things about the project remain unclear.
The process paperwork and permit applications …..
“It consists of nearly 80,000 pages of documents, very complex documents,” said Hickey, who represents the Black Hills Wild Horse Sanctuary. ,,,,,,
As a pair of governor-appointed state permit boards decide whether to allow uranium mining to South Dakota, the stakes couldn’t be higher, and yet the issue couldn’t be murkier. As he testified at last week’s hearings, John Mays, vice president of engineering for Powertech, didn’t ease the concerns of opponents who worry over potential groundwater contamination.
Under questioning, Mays refused to commit Powertech to cleaning water in the mining area to its pre-mining condition. Mays said it was a primary goal, but not a requirement.
Nor would Mays specify what other heavy metals might be extracted along with uranium and then injected back into the aquifers.
Mays testified that only uranium and vanadium — another metal the company hopes to mine — are certain to circulate in and out of the ground. As for arsenic, selenium, molybdenum, and other potentially harmful metals, Mays wouldn’t say.
“What you’re telling this board is that you don’t really know what’s in that ore yet?” Bruce Ellison asked Mays. Ellison is an attorney for Clean Water Alliance, a group of mining opponents. “You haven’t done enough testing?” Continue reading
Depleted uranium and nuclear wastes – the perfect opportunity for “dirty bombs”
Nuclear Power Dirty Bomb The Market Oracle, Oct 28, 2013 By: Andrew_McKillop “……RECYCLE, REUSE AND DEFEND THE ECONOMY Nuclear waste business, as we know, is not business friendly and leads to the very basic reflex of simply dumping a considerable and growing part of the world’s unmanageable nuclear wastes from the current world fleet of around 436 operating civil reactors (depending on how many Japanese reactors are brought 
back into service). Proliferation risks are deliberately restricted to only conventional explosive nuclear weapons and their radioactive materials – totally ignoring both Depleted Uranium weapons using “recycled” nuclear wastes, and the potential future Dirty Bomb targets of active and “partly decommissioned” reactors lurking on the horizon. These with almost no possible doubt will be prime targets in coming civil wars and international wars. These nuclear war options are above all cheap, and of course very dirty.
Since the 1991 Gulf War 1 against Iraq, the war against Afghanistan starting in 2001, and the second war against Iraq of 2003 at least 2500 tons of Depleted Uranium weapons have been used by the US, UK and France in these “delightfully far away” over the horizon wars against lesser races and nations. Depleted Uranium ordnance, to date has caused a conservatively estimated 10 000 cancer deaths, and as many as 50 000 still-living cancer victims in Iraq and Afghanistan.
This has easily calculated economic consequences. When this concerns free market white democrat middle class consumers, the same types of cancers are costed at roughly $ 40 000 for a cancer death and $ 25 000-per-year for surviving cancer sufferers.
The “cute idea” of recycling nuclear wastes as DU ordnance has a cosy market-friendly smell, to some, but the economic damage that these filthy weapons generate smells a lot worse. Those who profit from misery and death will finally pay. The same weapons can be turned around and used on them……… http://www.marketoracle.co.uk/Article42864.html
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