uranium news

First Uranium warns finances may have been compromised Eric Lam, Financial Post  February 02, 2010 – “…….the unexpected loss of an environmental permit last month, while warning the delays have compromised the company’s finances.

The environmental authorization was for a new tailings storage facility, part of an existing tailings recovery project in the North West province of South Africa………….

Toronto-based First Uranium warned that construction delays as a result of this setback have “disrupted” financing opportunities which, if not obtained, would “severely compromise the company’s financial position.”………

First Uranium is also scaling back production from its tailings recovery project in March, to maximize its tailings capacity. The move will result in lower revenues and increase financing needs, the company warned.

The Department of Agriculture, Conservation, Environment and Rural Development, a provincial ministry, withdrew First Uranium’s environmental authorization to build a tailings storage facility in late January. The facility is supposed to be part of a larger tailings recovery project.

Tailings are waste by-products produced while refining ore. As the process produces a slurry of fine mineral particles suspended in water, tailings present a serious environmental issue for many mining operations.

First Uranium warns finances may have been compromised

Energy Resources Shares Fall After Drop in Uranium Oxide Output By James PatonJan. 13 (Bloomberg) – Energy Resources of Australia Ltd., the uranium producer controlled by Rio Tinto Group, fell the most in 2 1/2 months after saying fourth-quarter output dropped 30 percent as it processed lower grades of ore.Energy Resources fell as much as 4.2 percent to A$21.96 in Sydney trading, the biggest decline since Oct. 29, and was at A$22.22 at 11:01 a.m. local time. The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 dropped 0.9 percent……………
Lower grades of ore were extracted in the three months ended Dec. 31, and the amount of material mined dropped 22 percent from a year earlier, Energy Resources said. Grades of ore extracted in the first half of this year are also expected to be lower, it said.

Energy Resources Shares Fall After Drop in Uranium Oxide Output – Bloomberg.com

Meltdown, USA: Nuclear Drive Trumps Safety Risks and High Cost 06 January 2010 by: Art Levine, t r u t h o u t | News Analysis“……..Nuclear energy is not clean energy. One need only look at the environmental destruction caused by uranium mining. In his book ‘Wollaston: People Resisting Genocide’, Miles Goldstick details the damage brought to the lives of the people living around the uranium mines in Canada’s Saskatchewan province. The accumulation of radioactive isotopes in edible plants. The lead, arsenic, uranium and radium found downstream from the mines. The spills that J.A. Keily, then Vice President of Production and Engineering for Gulf Minerals Rabbit Lake, described in 1980 as “probably too numerous to count.” These are stories found wherever uranium mining takes place. The ruined lives, the contamination, the cover-ups, and the deception. And that’s before we even consider what happens to the waste produced by generating nuclear energy.

As for ‘nuclear is non-emitting’, it takes just five seconds to Google for ‘nuclear power’ and ‘emissions’ to show that statement for the ridiculous falsehood that it is. 

The full lifecycle of a plant, from mining uranium through building a plant and shipping to “decommissioning” a facility, generates extensive greenhouse gases that essentially outweigh any carbon reductions at the plant itself. Moreover, when compared to quickly built renewables such as wind “farms,” as Rocky Mountain Institute Chairman Amory Lovins told Truthout, “Building nuclear plants retards climate protection. It’s so expensive and so slow, it save much less energy than renewables.” As he’s pointed out in his challenge to pro-nuclear economic myths and in his blunt analysis, “Forget Nuclear”:

t r u t h o u t | Meltdown, USA: Nuclear Drive Trumps Safety Risks and High Cost

Meltdown, USA: Nuclear Drive Trumps Safety Risks and High Cost 06 January 2010 by: Art Levine, t r u t h o u t | News Analysis “……as Dr. Caldicott and other experts have noted, “Large amounts of the now-banned chlorofluorocarbon gas (CFC) are emitted during the enrichment of uranium. CFC gas is not only 10,000 to 20,000 times more efficient as an atmospheric heat trapper (‘greenhouse gas’) than CO2, but it is a classic ‘pollutant’ and a potent destroyer of the ozone layer.”

In fact, it is the mining of uranium, followed by its “enrichment” – using carbon-polluting, complex ultracentrifuges or gaseous diffusion processes – to separate it into fissionable U-235 isotopes that are the dark truths about nuclear power hidden among the greenery of the industry’s propaganda.

As Greenpeace pointed out: Nuclear fuel production – the mining, milling and enriching of uranium – is one of the nuclear industry’s dirty secrets. Very little attention is paid to it by industry propagandists and pro-nuclear politicians and for very good reason. It’s dirty, dangerous, incredibly damaging to the environment and endangers the health of those people unfortunate enough to live close to uranium mines.

To hear some supporters of nuclear energy talk, you’d think the whole process of generating electricity begins with the throwing of a reactor’s “on” switch. But there’s a long story before we even get that far. It’s also a long, sad story that often goes untold in the wider media. Pick any uranium mine around the world and it will invariably be surrounded by stories of pollution, contamination and the exploitation of local communities. Niger, Namibia, Brazil, Canada, Kazakhstan. And Australia. The country’s “Environment Minister Peter Garrett has formally approved the new Four Mile uranium mine in South Australia, saying it poses no environmental risks.” The article goes on to chronicle ten major spills of radioactive materials in Australia in the last decade at that mine.

t r u t h o u t | Meltdown, USA: Nuclear Drive Trumps Safety Risks and High Cost

Utah Burying Depleted Uranium Before Safety Review « Therearenosunglasses’s Weblog SALT LAKE CITY, Jan. 3 (UPI) — Three trainloads of depleted uranium will be buried at a storage site in Utah before experts complete a safety review concerning the issue, experts say.

The depleted uranium coming from a government nuclear weapons cleanup site inSouth Carolina could arrive at the EnergySolutions Inc. disposal site in Tooele County in six weeks. The state Radiation Control Board expects to take another year in their review of engineering standards needed to contain any radiation hazards posed by storing the atomic waste, The Salt Lake Tribune reported Saturday.

Utah Burying Depleted Uranium Before Safety Review « Therearenosunglasses’s Weblog

Interior to halt uranium mining at Grand Canyon  Political blog January 4, 2010 Interior Secretary Ken Salazar will announce Monday that his department is temporarily barring the filing of new uranium mining claims on about 1 million acres near the Grand Canyon, an Obama administration official said.

The announcement comes ahead of Tuesday’s congressional hearing on a bill to set aside more than 1 million acres of federal lands north and south of the canyon. The bill’s sponsor, Democratic U.S. Rep. Raul Grijalva of Arizona, and environmental groups had been looking to Salazar for temporary protections at the Grand Canyon while the legislation is pending.

The land is being “segregated” for two years so that the department can study whether it should be permanently withdrawn from mining activity, said the official, who requested anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to speak publicly on the matter.A coalition of environmental groups sued, and the U.S. Bureau of Land Management later rescinded Congress’ right to withdraw lands from mining and other activities in emergencies………..

Conservationists contend mining leaves the Grand Canyon vulnerable to environmental damage and that no new operations should be proposed when the old mining sites haven’t been cleaned up.

Former Grand Canyon National Park Superintendent Rob Arnberger said he would welcome any protection that Salazar offers, but permanent withdrawal is the goal.

Interior to halt uranium mining at Grand Canyon | Political blog

Radioactive waterfront home to be razed Sydney Morning Herald BEN CUBBY ENVIRONMENTDecember 28, 2009 NEW plans to clean up the site of a former uranium smelter in Hunters Hill mean a four-storey waterfront mansion the NSW Government has repeatedly declared safe will be demolished.

In addition, 3000 cubic metres of radioactive earth will be dug out of two neighbouring properties and another 500 cubic metres are likely to be scraped from the harbour floor in front of the site at 11 Nelson Parade, subject to more tests by the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation.

A secretive tendering process for removing the earth, in which bidders were forbidden from visiting the site or talking to neighbours, is under way. No environmental assessment or planning approval has been granted yet. The Herald understands the tests show elevated background radiation levels that in some cases exceed health guidelines, reinforcing results from independent tests last year by a private company, Australian Radiation Services. These showed that in some spots contamination was 350 times normal levels……………

The house was bought back from private owners for $3.4 million in an out-of-court settlement, after the Government said for six months that it was safe.

The clean-up plans are another climbdown for the Government, which maintained for years that the street was safe. Six people who lived in affected properties in the street are known to have died from cancer, ………….

NSW Liberal MP Michael Richardson, who has campaigned for years for a thorough clean-up, said the secrecy of the tendering process was alarming. “I understand the sensitivity of this issue but the people of NSW are entitled to know the full story,” he said.

The documents classify the soil as ”restricted solid waste” but Mr Richardson said some of it should be classified as hazardous waste, which poses a problem for disposal………………

The site was home to a uranium smelter owned by Radium Hill Company from 1908 to 1915. Uranium ore from South Australia was processed for export to Europe for cancer treatments

Radioactive waterfront home in Hunters Hill to be razed

Russia sees 2010 uranium deals with U.S. utilities

MOSCOW, Dec 25 (Reuters) by Dmitry Solovyov; Editing by Mike Nesbit- Russia’s state uranium trader Techsnabexport (Tenex) will sign next year at least three deals worth around $1 billion to supply uranium directly to U.S. utilities, Russia’s state nuclear firm Rosatom said on Friday.

Russia has long sought direct deals with U.S. utilities.

Analysts say this would be more profitable for Moscow than the current programme set up in 1993 and aimed to encourage a nation still rebuilding after the Cold War to extract and use fuel from dismantled warheads………….

Without taking into account the “Megatons to Megawatts” programme, Russia’s portfolio of foreign orders for five-year supplies of uranium now stands at more than $8 billion, AtomEnergoProm said.

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin ordered the government this week to allocate 14.2 billion roubles ($470.2 million) to Rosatom, which would allow Russia to boost its position on the world nuclear energy market through acquisitions of uranium deposits abroad.

Russia sees 2010 uranium deals with U.S. utilities