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Complicated nuclear politics in Sweden

Political quarrel about uranium mining, Stockholm News, MATS ÖHLÉN 1 Feb 12, A rather peculiar situation has emerged in the Swedish Riksdag. Despite the fact that the Centre Party is clearly in favour of prohibiting uranium mining in Sweden, it’s about to vote down such a
proposal from the Greens. The reason is that the Centre Party is loyal with its coalition parties in the governing four-party alliance.

The Greens have earlier proposed a prohibition in the Riksdag but was voted down by among else the Centre Party. In a new attempt to get support for the proposal, the Greens have now reformulated their proposal exactly as the Centre Party does in it’s party congress decision in the issue.

After the initial preparation of the issue in the parliamentary Committee of Industry in Trade, it was clear that the Centre Party will vote against the proposal also this time. This according to the chief whip of the Centre Party group in Riksdag Anders W. Jonsson.

“If the Centre Party would vote in favour of the Green’s proposal, it would seriously damage our possibilities to convince our coalition parties in the government offices to present such a proposal”, Jonsson says to public broadcaster Sveriges Radio (SR)…..

Lise Nordin the economic spokesperson for the Greens is very critical towards the Centre Party. “The Centre Party choose power before the environment. Now they have the chance to decide that all threatened areas finally get a closure in this issue. But when it comes to it in the RIksdag, the Centre Party doesn’t stand up for the ideas which it claims to represent”, Lise Nordin says to SR. http://www.stockholmnews.com/more.aspx?NID=8356

February 2, 2012 Posted by | politics, Sweden, Uranium | Leave a comment

Area on endangered list, due to possibility of uranium mining

Uranium puts Southside on endangered list  GoDanRiver.com  January 27, 2012 Southside landed on the Southern Environmental Law Center’s fourth annual Top 10 Endangered Places in the Southeast list because of proposed uranium mining and pressure to lift Virginia’s uranium moratorium.

Many of the areas on SELC’s top 10 list are endangered by pressure to undercut environmental protections and to lower the hurdles for potentially destructive projects, …..

January 28, 2012 Posted by | environment, Uranium, USA | Leave a comment

Member of Parliament warns that uranium mining could be a resource curse for Tanzania

Committee wants to see contracts for uranium , By Sylivester Ernest,The Citizen, Tanzania, 26 Jan 12, Dar es Salaam. A Parliamentary committee yesterday ordered the Ministry of Energy and Minerals to furnish it with contracts it signed with two companies to explore uranium in the country.

According to the chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on Energy and Minerals, Mr January Makamba, the aim was to make sure that the contracts entered between the government and Mantra Resources Ltd (Mantra) of South Africa and Uranex would benefit the country’s economy and environment.

He told reporters after the committee met with officials of the ministry that uranium exploration was a very delicate issue worldwide and his committee wanted to ensure the mineral did not turn out to be a curse for the country.

“We want to make sure that the environment and the country’s security are looked at…uranium is among the most sought after minerals, and we must take precautions,” the Bumbuli MP said.

Records show that the government agreed with Mantra, under the company’s flagship Mkuju River Project, to explore the existence of uranium in southern Tanzania.The firm has confirmed the presence of multiple thick zones of sandstone-hosted uranium mineralisation at shallow wells in the Nyota Prospect.An inferred mineral resource of 35.9 million pounds (U3O8) is estimated for the prospect.

This initial resource estimate is based on drilling that covers only a small part of the total area of prospecting, and a potential exists to substantially grow the resource base with ongoing work. On the other hand, Uranex is working at Bahi area for Dodoma and Manyoni projects with an estimated 6.7 million pounds.Tanzania is believed to have about 53.9 million pounds of uranium oxide deposits. http://thecitizen.co.tz/news/-/19265-committee-wants-to-see-contracts-for-uranium

January 27, 2012 Posted by | AFRICA, Uranium | Leave a comment

Uranium mining and radioactive water pollution

The truly frightening part is the sentence that reads, ” Covering tailings material with water during operations …”  Where do they imagine all that water will end up?  It’s water containing not only radioactive material, but a host of other toxins as well?  And how do they know for certain that an earthquake could not crack that containment cell open like an egg or that a hurricane would not dump enough water on Coles Hill to cause those cells to become so saturated that they leak their contents into the groundwater surrounding them?

Uranium risks far outweigh benefits AltaVista Journal, Jesse Andrews, 25 Jan 12,   Virginia Uranium Inc.’s most recent propaganda release, “We’re committed to protecting water quality.”   Why does VUI feel the need to continue to explain itself if in fact uranium mining would be as safe and innocuous as they claim?  If uranium mining had ever been safe anywhere, which it has not, they wouldn’t feel such a desperate need to explain just how safe their mine would be.

What they have presented is a pretty drawing of a disaster waiting to happen. A containment cell constructed just like your local landfill, only instead of household garbage, it contains radioactive waste.  A nice concept, but one whose reliability over the course of 1,000 years is indeed doubtful. Continue reading →

January 26, 2012 Posted by | Uranium, USA, water | 3 Comments

A decision with vision – ban on uranium minng near Grand Canyon

the 20-year ban is supported by an unprecedented coalition of tribal leaders; hunting, fishing, ranching and conservation groups; municipal water suppliers; wildlife advocates; and nearly 300,000 individuals who commented favorably on the proposed moratorium. Chambers of commerce, community leaders and elected officials are also among those mainstream voices speaking out against a handful of politicians now defending industrialists’ demand to exploit our treasured landscape.

At risk are the Grand Canyon’s watersheds. These interconnected surface and groundwater systems extend many miles beyond the park’s boundary.

Uranium-mining ban was a grand decision, The Arizona Republic,  by Roger Clark – Jan. 22, 2012   Arizonans and all Americans won a major victory on Jan. 9 when Interior Secretary Ken Salazar signed a “record of decision” for a 20-year ban on new uranium claims on 1.1 million acres of public land surrounding Grand Canyon National Park.

The decision reduces the risk of permanent harm to wildlife, water, our economy and sites sacred to Havasupai and all native people in ourregion. It also best serves our nation’s interests. Continue reading →

January 25, 2012 Posted by | environment, Uranium, USA | Leave a comment

Cameco uranium company talks big, but future is doubtful

Uranium miners still waiting on that rebound, TIM KILADZE, Globe and Mail , January 24, 2012 When stocks of uranium miners plummeted after last March’s traumatizing Japanese earthquake, some people expected a rebound once the market’s initial shocks and fears subsided.

They’re still waiting.

Close to a year after the earthquake, shares of Cameco Corp. (CCO-T23.54-0.25-1.05%) are still down 40 per cent and smaller rivals are faring just as badly, with Denison Mines (DML-T1.89-0.12-5.97%) down about 50 per cent. The death knell apparently came when Germany declared a retreat from nuclear energy.

Are these miners doomed for good? Depends on who you ask. Investors are clearly too scared to go near the industry, considering the stocks have moved very little since their initial free fall. (Check out a stock chart for the past year.
Quite scary.) But the companies themselves keep saying that everyone has it wrong.

Cameco chief financial officer Grant Isaac repeated this view when he sat down at CIBC World Market’s Whistler conference last week….. there’s still a major problem. Even if Cameco is bullish over the next decade, its consumers, particularly utilities, like to secure long-term supply contracts, and Cameco can’t talk long-term contracts when they would have to lock-in at today’s prices.

So for now, Cameco is touting plans to increase production. Mr. Isaac said Cameco is sitting on 1 billion pounds of reserves and resources, and the firm wants to bump production from 2 per cent of this a year to 4 per cent.

On this front, investors are cautious. Much of this growth centres on developing the second shaft of Cameco’s Cigar Lake project in northern Saskatchewan, and it’s been plagued with problems…..
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-investor/investment-ideas/streetwise/uranium-miners-still-waiting-on-that-rebound/article2313513/

January 25, 2012 Posted by | business and costs, Canada, Uranium | Leave a comment

Virginia citizens want permanent ban on uranium mining

Virginia Conservation Network works on a broad range of environmental issues all across the state, but never have I seen such an issue galvanize people like the prospect of uranium mining,” said director Nathan Lott. ”Black and white, urban and rural, Republican and Democrat – Virginians agree that mining is just too risky.”

Citizens expressed deep concerns about the potential contamination of water sources in the Roanoke River watershed

Citizens pack General Assembly offices to voice opposition to uranium mining,Star Tribune,  January 23, 2012   RICHMOND – Citizens from across the state converged in the Capitol Monday to call on their elected representatives in the General Assembly to keep Virginia’s 30-year ban on uranium mining.

Following significant warnings from the National Academy of Sciences, the ban will now remain in place for 2012. Citizens are seeking to make that victory permanent.

To highlight their message, they offered legislators “yellowcake” cupcakes with the message: “These yellow cakes are not harmful – but making uranium yellowcake and leaving behind radioactive waste in Virginia is. Protect our health, our
heritage and our future. Keep the Ban on Uranium Mining in Virginia.” Also, the Keep the Ban Coalition announced that over the last year, more than 10,000 citizens have signed an online petition or sent emails to Virginia legislators urging them to keep the ban, and 102 organizations and government entities – from the cities of Virginia Beach, Norfolk and Roanoke to the state chapter of the NAACP and Halifax County Chamber of Commerce – have either passed a resolution or taken other action expressing deep concerns about impacts that would result from lifting the ban.
“Virginia Conservation Network works on a broad range of environmental issues all across the state, but never have I seen such an issue galvanize people like the prospect of uranium mining,” said director
Nathan Lott. ”Black and white, urban and rural, Republican and Democrat – Virginians agree that mining is just too risky.”
Citizens expressed deep concerns about the potential contamination of water sources in the Roanoke River watershed Continue reading →

January 24, 2012 Posted by | opposition to nuclear, Uranium, USA | Leave a comment

Small modular nuclear reactors” – is this REALLY “a way for USA to regain leadership in nuclear”

from a strictly commercial perspective, there is no reason to use nuclear power at all. The capital costs are enormous and the operations and maintenance costs are very high, to say nothing liability insurance.

daviddelosangeles  comments on  Feds To Finance Small Nuclear Reactor Designs, Ucilia Wang, Forbes, 21 Jan 12,   “The key question is would that there need to be a certain minimum number of these [small nuclear] reactors in service for a civilian nuclear power system based on these smaller reactors to operate successfully. This is true for mining, processing, research, and waste disposal. It is not clear that that “critical mass” of reactors could be developed in the current environment.

The decision of the Federal government in the 1950′s to subsidize the creation of the civilian nuclear power industry (e.g. The Price-Anderson Act) was made because nuclear power was not commercially viable but the military needed a nuclear power industry (naval powered submarines – and later aircraft carriers- and nuclear warheads for the air force).

The military alone could achieve the necessary critical mass. A federally subsidized commercial nuclear power industry was the answer. Continue reading →

January 21, 2012 Posted by | spinbuster, Uranium, USA | Leave a comment

Virginia’s uranium lobbyists should stop pressurising legislators

Uranium lobbyists need to back off  Star Tribune, Phillip Lovelace January 18, 2012 The National Academy of Sciences said Virginia faces steep hurdles. I say the uranium industry and the lobbyists they have hired should stop pressuring our legislators and go with the timeframe the National Academy of Sciences has contracted with the state of Virginia to do public education until May.
The National Academy of Sciences recommended site-specific studies. Continue reading →

January 19, 2012 Posted by | general, Uranium | Leave a comment

Nuclear fuel plant unable to get loan guarantee

‘Crunch time’ at troubled nuclear fuel plant Washington Post By Steven Mufson,   January 13 U.S. Enrichment Corp., which produces fuel for nuclear power plants, is having its own sort of meltdown.

Disillusioned investors have wiped out 95 percent of the company’s market value since 2007. Standard & Poor’s has saddled it with a dismal CCC-plus credit rating. Continue reading →

January 14, 2012 Posted by | business and costs, Uranium, USA | Leave a comment

An “under-performing investment” – Cameco uranium company

Cameco (CCJ) Downgraded by Zacks Investment Research to “Underperform”, Localised USA, Jan 10th, 2012 Cameco (NYSE: CCJ) was downgraded by equities research analysts at Zacks Investment Research from a “neutral” rating to an “underperform” rating in a research note issued to investors on Tuesday.

Cameco Corporation (Cameco) is a Canada-based company. The Company and its subsidiaries are primarily engaged in the exploration for and the development, mining, refining, conversion and fabrication of uranium for sale as fuel for generating electricity in nuclear power reactors in Canada and other countries. Cameco has three reportable segments: uranium, fuel services and electricity.

The company has a 31.6% interest in Bruce Power L.P. (BPLP). Cameco’s uranium joint venture interests are comprised of McArthur River, Rabbit Lake, Cree Extension Millenium, Moon Lake, Dawn Lake, Read Lake and Virgin River. Cameco’s projects include Kintyre Uranium Exploration Project (Kintyre) and GoviEx Uranium (GoviEx). Kintyre project is located in the East Pilbara region of Western Australia. Cameco holds 12% interest in GoviEx. Its wholly owned subsidiary is Global Laser Enrichment LLC (GLE).

January 11, 2012 Posted by | business and costs, Canada, Uranium | Leave a comment

Iran enriching uranium at underground site

UN nuclear agency confirms Iranian uranium enrichment at bunker, increasing nuke fears, Washington Post, 8 Jan 12 VIENNA — The U.N. nuclear agency on Monday confirmed that Iran has begun enriching uranium at an underground bunker to a level that can be upgraded more quickly for use in a nuclear weapon than the nation’s main enriched stockpile….. http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle-east/diplomats-confirm-new-iranian-uranium-enrichment-say-work-increases-nuke-fears/2012/01/09/gIQAZFN1kP_story.html

January 10, 2012 Posted by | Iran, Uranium | Leave a comment

Depleted uranium has wreaked havoc on health in Iraq

The US and UK militaries have sent mixed signals about the effects of depleted uranium, but Iraqi doctors like Alwachi and Alani, and along with researchers, blame the increasing cancer and birth defect rates on the weapon.

Abdulhaq Al-Ani, author of Uranium in Iraq, has been researching the effects of depleted uranium on Iraqis since 1991. He told Al Jazeera he personally measured radiation levels in the city of Kerbala, as well as in Basra, and his Geiger counter was “screaming” because “the indicator went beyond the range”.

Fallujah babies: Under a new kind of siege, Doctors and residents blame US weapons for catastrophic levels of birth defects in Fallujah’s newborns, Al Jazeera, Dahr Jamail   06 Jan 2012  Fallujah, Iraq – While the US military has formally withdrawn from Iraq, doctors and residents of Fallujah are blaming weapons like depleted uranium and white phosphorous used during two devastating US attacks on Fallujah in 2004 for what are being described as “catastrophic” levels of birth defects and abnormalities.

Dr Samira Alani, a paediatric specialist at Fallujah General Hospital, has taken a personal interest in investigating an explosion of congenital abnormalities that have mushroomed in the wake of the US sieges since 2005. ”We have all kinds of defects now, ranging from congenital heart disease to severe physical abnormalities, both in numbers you cannot imagine,” Alani told Al Jazeera at her office in the hospital, while showing countless photos of shocking birth defects.

As of December 21, Alani, who has worked at the hospital since 1997, told Al Jazeera she had personally logged 677 cases of birth defects since October 2009. Just eight days later when Al Jazeera visited the city on December 29, that number had already risen to 699. Continue reading →

January 7, 2012 Posted by | depleted uranium, Iraq, Uranium | Leave a comment

New uranium mining banned near Grand Canyon

U.S. to Ban New Uranium Mining Near Grand Canyon, NYT, 6 Jan 12, By JOHN M. BRODER Interior Secretary Ken Salazar is expected to announce on Monday that he has approved a 20-year moratorium on new uranium mining claims in a million-acre buffer zone around the Grand Canyon.

The decision, which has been under consideration for nearly two years, would allow a small number of existing uranium and other hard rock mining operations in the region to continue while barring the new claims. In 2009 Mr. Salazar suspended new uranium claims on public lands surrounding the Grand Canyon for two years, overturning a Bush administration policy that encouraged thousands of new claims when the price of uranium soared in 2006 and 2007.

Many of the stakeholders are foreign interests, including Rosatom, Russia’s state atomic energy corporation.

The Interior Department took public comment and prepared an environmental impact statement before deciding to extend the moratorium for another 20 years…. http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/01/06/u-s-to-ban-new-uranium-mining-near-grand-canyon/

January 7, 2012 Posted by | politics, Uranium, USA | Leave a comment

Uranium mining in Africa on a downward spiral

The signals of a troubled uranium sector are manifest. On Tuesday Areva wrote down the performance of its African mines, including Trekkopje and suspended further development.

Fukushima still haunts uranium producers, The Southern Times, South Africa, 30 Dec 11 International prices of uranium, the major feedstock in nuclear reactors, have remained flat; averaging US$53 per pound as the market struggles to shrug off the effects of Japan’s nuclear crisis earlier this year.

Market analysts are warning that shrinking order books, a flat spot price and production cutbacks – largely attributable to the Fukushima disaster – will haunt uranium producers well into 2012.

A sluggish US economy and sovereign debt problems in advanced economies will continue to severely impact the uranium spot price. Global uranium stocks have significantly underperformed during 2011 and analysts attribute this to the diminishing appetite for nuclear energy after the horror of Fukushima.  Continue reading →

January 6, 2012 Posted by | business and costs, South Africa, Uranium | Leave a comment

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