Rapid fall in uranium spot AND TERM prices
The week ended with TradeTech’s Weekly U3O8 Spot Price Indicator sitting at $36.50 a pound, a decline of $1.75 over the prior week’s value. This is the lowest price that has been seen in more than seven years
The weakness was not isolated to the spot market and is starting to spill over into the term market.
Uranium Market Marches South at Double Time 9 News Finance byFN Arena By Andrew Nelson Tuesday, July 23, 2013 The crack appeared the week before last. Sellers started to buckle under the strain and gave in to lower prices. A US$1.30 drop ensued. That’s the way last week started and from there things only got worse for the uranium spot price. Continue reading
New Mexico court ruling against uranium mine permit
Judge overturns uranium mine permit http://www.abqjournal.com/main/224658/abqnewsseeker/judge-overturns-uranium-mine-permit.html By Associated Press on Tue, Jul 23, 2013 SANTA FE (AP) — A lawyer for environmental groups say a Santa Fe judge has overturned a decision by Gov. Susana Martinez’s administration granting a permit for a uranium mine to remain inactive without any cleanup.
Eric Jantz of the New Mexico Environmental Law Center said District Judge Raymond Ortiz’s decision on Monday will send the case back to the state Mining and Minerals Division for further public hearings.
The agency renewed a standby permit last year for Rio Grande Resources’ Mount Taylor mine near Grants.
The judge ruled Amigos Bravos and the Multicultural Alliance for a Safe Environment weren’t adequately allowed to raise issues about protecting ground water from contamination from mining waste piles.
The judge also said the agency wrongly kept a company report confidential on the mine’s economic viability.
USA scandal of Uranium Center of Excellence taxpayer ripoff
The “excellence” of this facility was that the radioactive garbage was green-washed as “recyclable,” and Ohio voters were also duped by the promise that it would bring hundreds of jobs, when the final tally was only two full-time inventory managers. I suppose that if spent fuel storage had been added, it would have been called the Center for Real Awesomeness with Plutonium.
Many of the same contractors who had been paid to haul the excellent garbage in were then paid a second time to haul the excellent garbage out in a less-than-excellent shell game that meant lucre for an elite group of crappy corporations.
Uranium Titan Tumbles EcoWatch July 12, 2013 By Geoffrey Sea“…….Excellent Extortion Recent developments at Piketon and Paducah make no sense at all without understanding that the working national plan for how to deal with the outmoded gaseous diffusion plants and their massively contaminated sites has been to convert both into “national sacrifice” waste repositories. But you won’t find that plan in any Federal Register notices or Environmental Impact Reports. Rather, it’s the subtext of a hundred different records of decision and formal notifications. The new way to evade those nuisance environmental compliance requirements is for federal agencies and funded corporations to simply not announce what they intend to do. Continue reading
The disastrous history of U.S. Enrichment Corporation (USEC)
Despite public funding, no governmental process is contemplated for gathering or disseminating data on the commercial worthiness of USEC’s centrifuges, because that answer is already widely known: The technology at issue is forty years old and out of date…… doesn’t produce anything anymore and it never will
the “American Centrifuge” project (ACP) was never more than a false front, a mechanism for wrangling government bailout after government bailout, while the rock-red company waited for a Republican administration that would approve its audacious waste storage plans.
That team included Iraq War architect Richard Perle and a physics professor whose only claim to fame was in pushing centralized storage solutions for spent nuclear fuel. His name was Ernest Moniz. (left)
Uranium Titan Tumbles EcoWatch July 12, 2013 By Geoffrey Sea “……The Un-American Centrifuge Plant Created first as a government corporation in response to a mismanagement scandal at the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) in the 1990s, USEC was privatized in 1998. The USEC Privatization Act, premised on delusional Thatcherite ideology, placed two solemn obligations on the respective parties in the split: The Department of Energy, though continuing to own the land and facilities with which USEC operates, had to stay out of the business of uranium enrichment; USEC, while free to conduct its business as a private corporation, had to use its free access to public land and resources to develop advanced uranium enrichment technology and improve the U.S. position in the global enrichment marketplace.
Now those statutory goals can only bring a ROFLMAO reaction. USEC has become a wholly-dependent ward of the Department of Energy, which effectively makes all the big “business” decisions that concern enrichment, and USEC has defaulted on any credible effort to deploy a domestic advanced enrichment technology. Yet the Privatization Act remains on the books, its provisions violated cavalierly but with no efforts at repeal, like metropolitan municipal laws about donkey carts and Sunday dancing.
The basic and shocking truth about USEC, Continue reading
Auditors shocked at rocketing costs for Uranium Processing Facility
Auditors Slam Uranium Project’s Ballooning Expense http://news.yahoo.com/auditors-slam-uranium-projects-ballooning-expense-150204641.html Diane Barnes, Global Security Newswire 16 July 13, WASHINGTON –– When U.S. government contractors designing a $500 million nuclear-weapon facility last year said they would have to raise the roof, they didn’t exactly mean it was time to pump up the music.
An update to plans for the future Uranium Processing Facility at the Y-12 national security complex in Oak Ridge, Tenn., would increase its height by 13 feet — a move required for the building to hold all its intended contents. Problem was: officials offered no stab at how much the revision would cost.
The changes ended up costing well over half a billion dollars more, congressional auditors said last Friday. The site is to replace existing facilities that handle and store highly enriched uranium.
The Government Accountability Office blamed the additional $540 million price tag on a failure by the lead design firm to “adequately manage and integrate the design work” of four subcontractors. Construction of the building itself has not begun.
The unanticipated expense contrasted with a number of “overly optimistic assumptions” made by the National Nuclear Security Administration, which has overseen the project, and laid out in a 35-page GAO report.
The project’s maximum anticipated expense soared from $1.1 billion to $6.5 billion between 2004 and 2011, and the cost might increase further because the roof revision burned through nearly half of NNSA “contingency” funds. The nuclear weapons complex oversight agency — a semiautonomous branch of the Energy Department — “did not account for such a large sum of money being needed to address this risk,” the auditors said in their report to the Senate Appropriations Energy and Water Development Subcommittee.
The panel fears “NNSA will not be able to execute multiple, highly complex life-extension projects and construction projects concurrently under ambitious schedules,” lawmakers said in a report on spending legislation approved by the full committee in June.
The Energy Department last month informed Congress the facility will not start becoming operational until 2025, the Knoxville News Sentinelreported on Saturday.
Guangdong protests against uranium processing plant
Jiangmen residents protest against uranium processing plant http://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/1280894/jiangmen-residents-protest-against-uranium-processing-plant Several hundred people gathered in Jiangmen’s city centre on Friday morning to protest against a planned uranium processing plant in the Guangdong city.
“Jiangmen doesn’t want radiation”, one banner carried by demonstrators said. “We want children, not atoms,” said another. Police appear to have been anticipating the protest with Jiangmen city government building being cordoned-off.
One group of protesters gathered in front of the building, another group meet at the Donghu Lake park.
Two protesters, who declined to be identified, said that the protest had been organized via QQ and WeChat, two social messaging services, at least two days ahead of the protest.
One local said that the local government had held an emergency meeting last night to prepare for the protest. According to one demonstrator, the public protest lasted from 8am to 11:30am and is planned resume in the afternoon.
Some protesters were holding banners calling for another protest on Sunday.
Thee 30-hectare plant would carry out uranium conversion, enrichment and fuel fabrication, the Jiangmen City Development and Reform Bureau said in an earlier statement.
The plant’s construction some 100km from Hong Kong and Macau has sparked health concerns in both cities as well. The Heshan government under the administration of Jiangmen held a press conference earlier on Friday morning defending the project. Heshan mayor Wu Yuxiong said that the local government has decided to extend the period in which the risk assessment report is publicly accessible by a further ten days.
Microblogs about the protests have been quickly censored, indicating increased sensitivity about a backlash. Earlier this year, two demonstrations against a gas refinery in Kunming have caused a public backlash. A similar protest in Chengdu had been repressed.
Confusion and secrecy surround China’s proposed uranium processing plant in Jiangmen,
Experts call for more details on Guangdong uranium plant, South China Morning Post, Olga Wong and Minnie Chan Concern over sketchy nature of details and possible radiation risks from proposed nuclear development in Guangdong.
Nuclear experts and green activists have called for more information from the Guangdong government after limited details were released about its proposal for a uranium processing plant in Jiangmen, about 100 kilometres from Hong Kong.
An announcement by the Jiangmen City Development and Reform Bureau said the 230-hectare plant would carry out uranium conversion, enrichment and fuel fabrication.
But the three-page statement, issued last Thursday, did not make it clear whether the plant, in the Longwan industrial district of Zhishanzhen, would perform spent fuel reprocessing – recycling of old fuel rods that could emit high doses of radiation – or what measures would be used to avoid radiation leaks…… Continue reading
Uranium price goes ever downward
Spot uranium prices about $39.50/lb with ‘downward’ bias: sources Washington (Platts)- Jim Ostroff -9 Jul2013 The spot price of uranium is around $39.50 a pound, unchanged from last Tuesday, but the ongoing weak demand for U3O8 indicates that prices are more likely to soften further than rise in coming weeks, according to price publisher Ux Consulting and market sources.
Ux, in its weekly report Monday, said the spot U3O8 price was $39.50/lb, unchanged from Friday, but that the market “could see further erosion as the month wears on.” It added, “The overall demand situation may not improve anytime soon,” noting it is unlikely “that Japanese reactors will see a surge in restarts in the near future.”
Ux on Monday reduced its daily Broker Average Price — based on information from Evolution Markets and Armajaro Securities — by 6 cents to $39.38/lb. The BAP bid-offer spread Monday was $39.00-$39.75/lb, with the bid down 13 cents and the offer unchanged from Friday…..”The bias still is to the downside a bit” in the uranium spot market, one market source said in an interview Tuesday. “There remains more supply than demand and nobody seems to be motivated on either side,” to conclude deals, he said. http://www.platts.com/latest-news/electric-power/washington/spot-uranium-prices-about-3950lb-with-downward-21262350
Uranium Processing Facility in Tennessee getting even further behind schedule
Oak Ridge uranium project even more behind schedule than it used to be http://www.abqjournal.com/main/219488/blogs/nm-science/oak-ridge-uranium-project-even-more-behind-schedule-than-it-used-to-be.html By John Fleck / Journal Staff Writer on Wed, Jul 10, 2013
[T]he Department of Energy’s Stockpile Stewardship and Management Plan states that the First Phase of the Uranium Processing Facility project will be completed in 2025, which indicated a rather significant delay from previous reports that — just a couple of years ago — had the entire project completed before then. The First Phase is focused on moving the operations now housed in the 9212 uranium processing complex at the Y-12 nuclear weapons plant in Oak Ridge. Phases Two and Three, incorporating the work now done in Y-12′s 9215 building and 9204-2E (Beta-2E), would not be completed until around 2038.
The National Nuclear Security Administration, in a response to earlier questions about the plan, this week confirmed the schedule in the Stockpile Stewardship report as being the most up-to-date assessment of the work plan for the multibillion-dollar project.
Health and environmental destruction in Africa, by foreign uranium companies
Health hazards posed by uranium mining IPP MEDIA 5th July 2013“……..History has it that uranium mining companies had never solved problems associated with extraction of uranium and also never employed good practice of settling uranium radioactive waste seriously after the mining activity is complete.
Of course, these foreign companies have their eyes fixed on maximising profits against corresponding safe infrastructure investment. Some of the companies run away from implementing this social cooperative responsibility to the poor ignorant communities.
This happens in countries where local atomic energy commissions are non-existent, or if present are under- equipped with the necessary human and material resources for effective supervision, monitoring and control of 
the foreign mining companies for radiation protection to the miners and the environment.
The whole population in the area surrounding the mines is endangered with the diseases mentioned above, lung cancer being the most serious for miners due to inhalation of radon gas in the pits and in the dusty atmosphere of the processing mills.
Uranium radioactive waste stored close to the mines can leach into ground water and contaminate drinking water. Other possibilities of radioactivity reaching humans and environment are a result of deficient radioactive waste management practices by the mining companies, Continue reading
Toxicity of ionising radiation from uranium mining
Health hazards posed by uranium mining IPP MEDIA 5th July 2013 All Uranium mined end up as either nuclear weapons or highly radioactive waste from nuclear reactors. Uranium is a naturally occurring radioactive toxic element, found in the ground worldwide, including Tanzania, soon to be mined! Countries with active uranium mining are Australia, Canada, Central Africa Republic, France Namibia, Niger, South Africa and the US. The normal decay of uranium in the soil results in the production of decay radioactive products.In the process of mining uranium we liberate from the ground these natural radioactive substances like radium and radon, which are among the most harmful materials known in science.
Uranium emits ionising nuclear radiation like x-rays. Ionising radiation is energetic enough to break chemical bonds, thereby possessing the ability to damage or destroy living cells. Hence the need to keep away from nuclear radiation x-rays, uranium and its radioactive waste. Ultrasound, radio, sound and light are non-ionising nuclear radiations and are harmless
As long as the mineral remains outside the body, uranium poses little health hazards. However, if uranium is inhaled or ingested, its radioactivity and toxicity pose increased risks of lung cancer as well as cancer of bones, stomach, soft tissue and blood. It may also cause damage to internal organs notably kidneys alongside affecting the reproductive system, leading to birth defects in future generations.
Imaging swallowing or inhaling small radiation exposing x-ray machines with jammed exposure switches could result in serious health effects in the form of cancer. Similar incidence of diseases is observed in Atomic bomb survivors, refer bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan 1942 at end of World War II.
All the decay radioactive products of uranium remain in the crushed rock when uranium is separated from the ore. The rock left over’s waste contains 85 per cent radioactivity of the ore as well as heavy metals and toxic dissolving chemicals, which have dangerous health hazards.
Uranium mining is responsible for introducing into the human environment a tremendous large range of radioactive materials which are all very harmful to biological organisms – human beings included.
Australian uranium mining company Paladin in trouble in Namibia, as well as in Malawi
Some of the issues pertain to female worker’s miscarriages; [CEO] Duvenhage’s apparent failure to engage with the union; the company’s reluctance to give workers a “single cent” for an annual increment; unfair performance bonuses; nepotism and corruption.
Australian-based Paladin Energy Ltd. (TSE:PDN) owns 100% interest in the mine.
Protests hit second largest uranium mine in Namibia http://www.mining.com/protests-hit-second-largest-uranium-mine-in-namibia-85919/ Vladimir Basov | July 2, 2013 About 300 workers, including mine staff and contractor employees, picketed at Langer Heinrich Uranium (LHU) mine last Thursday over pay and working conditions, The Namibian reported.
Workers and media were barred from the minesite where the demonstration was supposed to take place although the protesters had organized the peaceful demonstration at the beginning of last week and had announced it to the mine’s management.
As a result, all day shift buses were forced to stop inside the concession area where workers then had to disembark – about five kilometres away from the actual site. To their dismay, the protesters were forced to picket at the concession area. The Mineworkers Union of Namibia (MUN) branch executives felt that the mine’s management snubbed what it termed a legal and democratic action. Continue reading
Legal fightback by Native Americans against uranium mining
The proposed legislation can be found at the website of Defenders of the Black Hills,
Uranium Mining and Native Resistance: The Uranium Exploration and Mining Accountability Act http://intercontinentalcry.org/uranium-mining-and-native-resistance-the-uranium-exploration-and-mining-accountability-act/ BY CURTIS KLINE • JUL 2, 2013 NATIVE AMERICANS IN THE NORTHERN GREAT PLAINS HAVE THE HIGHEST CANCER RATES IN THE UNITED STATES, PARTICULARLY LUNG CANCER. IT’S A PROBLEM THAT THE UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT HAS WOEFULLY IGNORED, MUCH THE HORROR OF THE MEN AND WOMEN WHO MUST CARRY THE PAINFUL, LIFE-THREATENING BURDEN.
The cancer rates started increasing drastically a few decades after uranium mining began on their territory.
According to a report by Earthworks, “Mining not only exposes uranium to the atmosphere, where it becomes reactive, but releases other radioactive elements such as thorium and radium and toxic heavy metals including arsenic, selenium, mercury and cadmium. Exposure to these radioactive elements can cause lung cancer, skin cancer, bone cancer, leukemia, kidney damage and birth defects.”
Today, in the northern great plains states of Wyoming, Montana and the Dakotas, the memory of that uranium mining exists in the form of 2,885 abandoned open pit uranium mines. All of the abandoned mines can be found on land that is supposed to be for the absolute use of the Great Sioux Nation under the 1868 Fort Laramie Treaty with the United States.
There are also 1,200 abandoned uranium mines in the Navajo Nation, where cancer rates are also significantly disproportionate. In fact, it is estimated that 60 to 80 percent of all uranium in the United States is located on tribal land, and three fourths of uranium mining worldwide is on Indigenous land.
Defenders of the Black Hills, a group whose mission is to preserve, protect, restore, and respect the area of the 1851 and 1868 Fort Laramie Treaties, is calling the health situation in their own territoryAmerica’s Chernobyl. Continue reading
Paladin uranium’s losses, but its CEO does very well financially
Paladin boss earnings increase while Kayelekera cut jobs http://www.nyasatimes.com/2013/02/14/paladin-boss-gets-massive-pay-hike-after-malawi-job-cuts/ By Nyasa Times Reporter February 14, 2013 Despite uranium miner, Paladin Energy limited claiming that its Malawi operations in the northern district of Karonga at Kayelekera are operating on massive losses and that world uranium prices are low, the company’s managing director John Borshoff elected to cash in his leave entitlementment, Nyasa Times has established.
Paladin’s annual report reveals that despite Borshoff honouring a promise to cut his salary by 25% between November 2011 and November 2012 – a promise he extended to June 2013, the CEO was able to boost his remuneration after a review of annual leave entitlements thereby pocketing a 52% rise in earnings. The review focused on annual and long-service leave in a bid to cut Paladin’s liabilities, and Borshoff responded by cashing out 220 days of leave.The transaction approaved by the remuneration Committee and the board netted Borshoff $1,717,000 and helped increase his remuneration to $3,464,000, from $2.26 million in 2012.
The uranium miner recently retrenched 110 staff from its Kayelekera mine in Malawi in an austerity drive which others commentators fault Boshoff for excercising his right to cash in the leave entitlement when local staff just had their calls for a 66 per cent pay rise rejected.
”Its total mockery to the Malawian workers at Kayelekera who were retrenched but have not had their benefits yet. These people are suffering. That’s a wake-up call to Malawi Government that Paladin is making profits despite plunge in prices” Karonga Business Community Chairperson Wavisanga Silungwe said in a statement made available to Nyasa Times.
“While production has gone up, the uranium price has not; hence Kayelekera continues to operate at a loss. We had warned government that this situation was unsustainable and would lead to job losses unless the uranium price improved, which it has not,” said Paladin’s (African) Ltd General Manager, international affairs, Greg Walker.
Walker said the staff reduction is in “response to economic pressures on the company caused by the continuing depressed uranium price” Borshoff’s contract with Paladin has one year left, and provides him with three months’ long-service leave for every five years of service. He is entitled to two years of double base salary when he retires or has his employment terminated.
Uranium mining’s threat to Grand Canyon water
Are We Really Okay With a Uranium Mine Next Door to the Grand Canyon? This move would definitely not fall under the good neighbor policy Take Part, July 3, 2013 Lawrence Karol “……Located just six miles south of Grand Canyon National Park is the site of Canyon Mine, a proposed uranium mine that could negatively impact the area’s cultural values, wildlife, and waters. The Sierra Club has stated that, “Originally approved in 1986, the Canyon Mine has long been the subject of protests by the Havasupai Tribe and others objecting to potential uranium mining impacts on regional groundwater, springs, creeks, and cultural values associated with Red Butte, a Traditional Cultural Property.”
The Obama administration has taken steps to protect one million acres around Grand Canyon from new uranium mining, but Canyon Mine has been permitted to move forward as an existing claim even though the last environmental review of the project is over two decades old.
“Mining has a history of taking precedence over other important issues due in part to the outdated Mining Law of 1872 and the significant political influence of large multinational mining corporations,” says Brune.
“The reviews for Canyon Mine are more than 27 years old, older than a number of the volunteers working on this issue,” he adds. “The mine’s permit was issued with no consideration of significant new information, including the designation of the Red Butte Traditional Cultural Property and the reintroduction of the endangered California condor.”
“Scientific studies published since 1986 demonstrate more strongly the connection between the water in this area and the seeps, springs, and creeks in Grand Canyon. If this mine pollutes the groundwater, it pollutes Grand Canyon,” says Brune………http://www.takepart.com/article/2013/07/03/uranium-mine-next-door-grand-canyon
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