Halifax County Chamber opposes uranium mining in Southern Virginia
Chamber adopts anti-uranium resolution Halifax County Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors has gone on record adamantly opposing uranium mining in the commonwealth. Gazette Virginian 7 Oct 12, Continue reading
Gloom and doom for uranium market getting worse
Miners pressured as uncertainty sours uranium market Reuters Oct 5, 2012
* Uranium spot price hits new 2-year low, miners’ shares sag
* Idled Japan reactors weigh as politics unclear
* Uranium price seen stagnant to lower over next months By Julie Gordon…
TORONTO, Oct 5 – Eighteen months after the Fukushima nuclear meltdown, the spot price for uranium hit a two-year low this week, putting the squeeze on the already depressed shares of uranium miners.
With a looming election keeping Japan from making a decision on how much, if any, of its nuclear reactor fleet it will keep, and slowing growth inChina weighing on the broader resource sector, it will likely be months before uranium prices start moving back toward pre-Fukushima levels.
“In the near term, the price of uranium is going to go sideways to down,” said Raymond Goldie, a senior mining analyst at Salman Partners in Toronto, adding that the spot price is not likely to start recovering until March or April 2013.
That is bad news for producers Cameco Corp, Uranium One Inc and Paladin Energy Inc, which have watched their shares plummet since a massive earthquake and tsunami struck Japan in March 2011, crippling the Fukushima-Daiichi atomic power plant.
Cameco, the world’s largest publicly listed uranium producer, has lost more than 48 percent of its market value in the aftermath of the worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl. Uranium One is down 62 percent, while Paladin has fallen 72 percent. Continue reading
Costly radiation remediation at Port Hope
Port Hope radiation: $464,615 spent to remediate $130,000 house thestar.com October 05, 2012 PORT HOPE, ONT.—It started in the attic. Wally Davis wanted to build a room in the attic of his house. Since he lives in Port Hope, he couldn’t just go ahead and do it. He went to the Low Level Radioactive Waste Management Office, a federal agency, requested the file on his property and asked them to test for remnants of historic radioactive waste.
“There was contamination in the roof, on the floors, in the walls . . . everywhere in the house,” said Davis, 75, a retired Ontario Hydro employee.
In July 2011, Davis and his wife, Carole, were relocated to neighbouring Cobourg as agency staff started remediation work. The couple returned to their two-bedroom, 1,000-square-foot home this July and discovered that except for the outer walls, it had been essentially rebuilt.
“They did a superb job,” Davis said.
They did indeed. The waste management office spent $464,615 to clean up the house Davis bought a decade ago for $125,000 — or $130,000, he can’t remember.
“We didn’t have a clue how much they spent,” said Davis when the Star told him that almost a half-million dollars had been used to remediate his home.
“They didn’t tell us,” he said. “That is a lot of money.”The Davis home on Bruton St., in a leafy old part of town, is about two kilometres from the waterfront. It has a red-brick façade, an attached garage and a large front and back yard. There’s a shed in the back and a Canadian flag fluttering on a tall post.
Port Hope, the picture-pretty lakeside town about 110 kilometres east of Toronto, will soon see the biggest cleanup of historic radioactive waste in Canadian history. Fifty years of radium and uranium refining at the Cameco refinery, formerly Crown corporation Eldorado Nuclear Ltd., has left contamination spread around the town…. http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/article/1267186–port-hope-radiation-464-615-spent-to-remediate-130-000-house
Rebound in uranium prices just not happening
Cameco hit with downgrade as hopes for uranium rebound fade
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-investor/markets/market-blog/cameco-downgraded-amid-relentless-decline-in-uranium-price/article4570023/ DARCY KEITH The Globe and Mail , Sep. 26 2012, The rebound in the uranium market some speculated would surely follow the big-time drubbing the sector experienced in the aftermath of the Japanese Fukushima nuclear disaster isn’t exactly materializing. Continue reading
Uranium price slump for the long term
Short-term dip in uranium prices now a long-term slump Peter Koven | Sep 26, 2012“……..Eighteen months after the incident, uranium prices continue to hit new lows. The spot price sunk US50¢ to US$46.50 a pound this week, which is the lowest level since 2010, according to Ux Consulting. Investors briefly drove the spot price above US$135 in 2007.
The long-term price has also declined, though it is higher at US$60, reflecting the fact buyers will pay more for material delivered mid-decade or later.
TD Securities analyst Greg Barnes noted that September is usually buying season in the uranium market, so the current weakness is not a good sign.
Although sales volumes in the spot market have been very weak, there is more than enough uranium around to supply utilities, so any investing bet on the commodity is really a bet that nuclear power demand will substantially grow in the years to come….
.. questions about the future of nuclear continue to linger. Japan recently pushed reactor re-starts further into the future, while maintaining plans to phase out all nuclear power by the 2030s. And French President François Hollande reaffirmed his campaign promise to reduce the share of nuclear power in France’s energy mix to 50% from 75% currently.
“With two of the world’s most important nuclear markets questioning the longer-term outlook for nuclear power, we expect [the] uranium price to be in for another 12 months of lacklustre performance,” Mr. Barnes wrote in a note.
That view is widely shared by investors .
Design for recycling rare earths is urgently needed
“The situation clearly calls for international policy initiatives to minimize the seemingly bizarre situation of spending large amounts of technology, time, energy and money to acquire scarce metals from the mines and then throwing them away after a single use.”
Yale Researchers Call for Specialty Metals Recycling http://environment.yale.edu/news/article/yale-researchers-call-for-
specialty-metals-recycling/ 25 Sept 12 An international policy is needed for recycling scarce specialty metals that are critical in the production of consumer goods,
according to Yale researchers in Science.
“A recycling rate of zero for specialty metals is alarming when we consider that their use is growing quickly,” said co-author Barbara Reck, a research scientist at the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies.
Specialty metals, which include rare earth elements such as indium, gallium and germanium, account for more than 30 of the 60 metals in the periodic table. Because they are used in small amounts for very precise technological purposes, such as red phosphors, high-strength magnets, thin-film solar cells and computer chips, recovery can be so technologically and economically challenging that the attempt is seldom made. Continue reading
Uranium not a wise investment
the message remains that Japan is moving away from nuclear power in a big way.
Japan’s decision can only be described as a huge one with major effects on commodities markets….. [Japan’s] loss will negatively affect demand for uranium
That may mean more years of grief for long-suffering Cameco shareholders.
investors would be smart to invest in the companies benefiting from the change, rather than hoping that somehow nuclear power makes a big comeback.
Japan Says Sayonara to Nuclear Power The Motley Fool, By Tony Daltorio – September 24, 2012 It is 18 months since the disaster at the Fukushima nuclear power plant, and finally, the Japanese government has made a decision about the future of nuclear power in the country. The government has stated that it will phase out nuclear power entirely by 2040. This would make Japan the second major country, after Germany, to announce such a withdrawal from nuclear power. Continue reading
USA’s problem seeking safe disposal of uranium 233
Uranium Substitute Is No Longer Needed, but Its Disposal May Pose Security Risk http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/24/us/uranium-233-disposal-proves-a-problem.html By MATTHEW L. WALD September 23, 2012 WASHINGTON — At the dawn of the civilian nuclear age in the 1950s, one of the pressing questions was how to find enough fuel for reactors and bombs. The government and the private sector seized on a man-made substitute for natural uranium, producing about 3,400 pounds of an exotic and expensive material called uranium 233.
Today, the problem is how to safely get rid of it. Continue reading
Uranium industry not viable: production costs exceed revenue
Nuclear Energy’s Limp Causing Uranium Prices to Stumble Forbes 24 Sept 12 When the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami knocked out Japan’s Fukushima nuclear reactors, they also took down the price of uranium. The hesitance to resume nuclear operations not only in Japan but also elsewhere in the world has caused the demand for the nuclear feedstock to diminish.
Indeed, uranium prices have fallen from about $68 a ton before the nuclear crisis to $47 a ton as of September 2012, which is the lowest they have been in two years. ….
“Overall, the uranium market conditions continues to be in wait and see mode as utilities are generally well covered for the next few years, and suppliers are similarly heavily committed,” says Cameco, in its quarterly report to shareholders.
It’s expected to be a long two or three years before uranium prices pick back up. Earlier this month, Japan’s government said that it would end its use of nuclear energy by 2030. Meantime, Germany has said it would also phase out its nuclear program while Italy and
Switzerland have expressed similar sentiments.
Cameco, for example, has said that uranium prices must reach their pre-Fukushima levels before development would become profitable.
Meanwhile, BHP Billiton Mitsubishi Alliance just said that it would cease production at one of its Australian mines, noting that it was no long a viable concern in today’s pricing environment. BHP says that production costs exceed revenue from product sales.
Doom and gloom for the uranium industry – no improvement in sight
End of last month, the price had fallen to US$49.25 and for most of September, it hovered at the US$48 mark. This is almost 60% below the entry level target as calculated by Bannerman. The impact on the development of new mines, is obvious.
I believe the commodities boom is over, or at least on hold for another five years. In the meantime, no new mines.
Our Anticipated Uranium Projects Will Not Go Ahead, Except One [analysis] Equities.com Daniel Steinmann All Africa Global Media 22 Sept12, Bannerman Resources, the Australian company driving one of four new uranium projects in Namibia, recently said at a mining conference, the price for uranium U308 needs to be between US$75 and US$90 per pound (0.454kg) to drive any new investment in greenfields uranium mines.
Hidden in this seemingly neutral observation and analysis, are many serious consequences for the further development of the uranium sector Continue reading
China still has poor record on nuclear safety, uranium environmental damage
Should China be involved in the UK’s nuclear energy infrastructure? Guardian UK, Paul Dorfman, 21 Sept 12“….In Tibet, the Chinese nuclear industry is engaged in a determined effort to secure uranium deposits located in Amdo, where leaching and open pit extraction are reported to have resulted in significant environmental contamination. Regulation of safety oversight mechanisms is relatively weak in the Chinese nuclear industry, and according to a recent Nuclear Materials Security Index report, China ranks 29th among the group of 32 nuclear nations in terms of nuclear security and materials transparency. Although it’s to be hoped that greater corporate social responsibility and sensitivity to vulnerable industrial communities is evolving in both Russia and China, it’s still troubling to reflect on their respective human rights situations, documented by Amnesty International……http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/blog/2012/sep/21/nuclearpower-energy?newsfeed=true
Concern over Idaho wildfire at uranium contaminated site
One area of concern is a defunct uranium mine and milling operation 5 miles west of North Fork, where the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency conducted a cleanup several years ago of polluted soil, hazardous wastes and piles of raw uranium and thorium ore.
No decontamination of buildings at that site was ever performed, and at least one of those buildings burned in the fire, according to officials from the state Department of Environmental Quality
Idaho wildfire roars through former uranium mine site Laura Zuckerman
Reuters, September 21, 2012 SALMON, Idaho Continue reading
Atmosphere of gloom about the future of the uranium industry
[Cameco] now finds itself selling some of its output below the cost of production.
China continues to review approvals for new reactors amid concerns about safety
Uranium outlook bleak, Rebound two years off estimates BLOOMBERG NEWS SEPTEMBER 20, 2012 Uranium’s rebound from the Fukushima nuclear accident may take one or two years longer than analysts estimated, prolonging the languishing recovery of Cameco, whose stock price has lost half its value since the March 2011 tragedy.
Just a month before the tsunami struck, shares were trading at $42.39. Wednesday they closed at $21.01.
The price of uranium for immediate delivery declined to $47 a pound as of Sept. 17, its lowest in two years, according to Ux Consulting, a Roswell, Ga.-based uranium information provider.
BHP Billiton Ltd. and Paladin Energy Ltd. have slowed or deferred development this year of some projects to produce the raw material in nuclear reactor fuel…… Continue reading
And down down again goes the price of uranium
Uranium Recovery Postponed as Price Drops to 2-Year Low Bloomberg, By Christopher Donville – Sep 19, 2012 Uranium’s recovery from the Fukushima nuclear accident may take one or two years longer than analysts estimated as stockpiles in Japan and Germany keep prices low and cause mining companies to defer new development.
The price of uranium for immediate delivery declined to $47 a pound as of Sept. 17, its lowest in two years, according to Ux Consulting, a Roswell, Georgia-based uranium information provider.BHP Billiton Ltd. (BHP) and Paladin Energy Ltd. (PDN) have slowed or deferred development this year of some projects to produce the raw material in nuclear reactor fuel……
BHP, the world’s largest mining company, last month put on hold an expansion that would make its Olympic Dam project in Australia the biggest uranium mine.
Cameco Corp. (CCO), the world’s third-largest producer, said in July that its Kintyre uranium project in Australia would need a $67 uranium price to be economical. The company sold uranium for $42 a pound during the second quarter..
… Paladin, an Australian company that mines uranium in Africa , is delaying a feasibility study on phase four of its Langer Heinrich mine in Namibia , the company said on a conference call in May….Dustin Garrow, Paladin’s executive general manager of marketing.: “You’d have to see $85 uranium on a sustained basis to justify construction of new mines ..”
S. Korea urges U.S. to allow ‘peaceful’ nuclear enrichment SEOUL, Sept. 17 (Yonhap) –– South Korea called for the United States to approve it undertaking “peaceful” enrichment of uranium and reprocessing of spent nuclear fuel, a government think tank said Monday, as little progress has been made in bilateral negotiations to revise the countries’ nuclear accord.
Under a 1974 accord with the U.S., South Korea is banned from enriching uranium or reprocessing spent nuclear fuel. The allies have held five rounds of formal negotiations since 2010 to rewrite the bilateral nuclear cooperation treaty, which expires in 2014…..
Some nonproliferation experts say pyroprocessing is not significantly different from reprocessing, and pyroprocessed plutonium could be quickly turned into weapons-grade material….. http://english.yonhapnews.co.kr/national/2012/09/17/38/0301000000AEN20120917002600315F.HTML
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