NEI Nuclear Notes

  Speaking here is Cameco CEO Jerry Grandey: “In my view, uranium is not going to be a constraint, it's just a question of getting deposits that have been identified through the pipeline of permitting and licensing.” Uranium is not a infinite resource and will one day be exhausted. When that will happen has been a topic of discussion, but I’d never really seen a clearer explanation that concern about it might be overstated than is offered by Grandey: However, while some critics point to the production shortfall and say that the nuclear industry is just not sustainable, “the reality is that uranium is quite an abundant element”, he added. Exploration ground to a halt because of oversupply left over from the sixties and seventies, which means that no-one has been looking seriously for uranium until about five years ago. However, since exploration started up again, a number of additional deposits have been discovered, and studies show the world has at least 160 ...

For those of you who tend a bit more to the wonkish end of things, a new joint study from the OECD and IAEA on the world’s supply of uranium could make for some interesting reading.  The biennial OECD “ Red Book ” (officially known as Uranium 2009: Resources, Production and Demand ) on uranium supply was just released and it has some interesting tidbits on uranium mining and exploration that bode well for the health of the nuclear energy industry. …uranium resources, production and demand are all on the rise… Worldwide exploration and mine development expenditures have more than doubled since the publication of the previous edition…These expenditures have increased despite declining uranium market prices since mid-2007. It’s an odd thing for mining expenditures to increase as prices of a commodity drop. Usually as the value of a resource drops, there’s a pullback on production and exploration. After all, who wants to dig up a worthless rock? But with uranium, prices ar...

Stephen Dubner at the New York Times' Freakonomics blog explained some of the reasons for the high uranium spot prices seen over the past several years . Between 2004 and 2007, the spot price of uranium more than quadrupled, reaching more than $140 before falling off sharply in the past several months to less than $80. ... According to David Miller , C.O.O. of Strathmore Minerals, nuclear plants had, until recently, been living off a huge uranium stockpile from the 1980’s. That stockpile was created in anticipation of an onslaught of new U.S. nuclear plants that ended up never being built because of Jane Fonda political, regulatory, and public pressures. Now, says Miller, with that stockpile depleted, there’s a huge push for new uranium. What's great about this post is that George Bell (CEO and Chairman of UNOR Inc. ) jumped in on the comments : As the CEO of the Canadian uranium exploration company UNOR, Inc - 19.5% owned by the largest uranium producer in the world, Cameco ...

Work to reopen the Cigar Lake uranium mine after a flood last October continues. From a Cameco press release: The first phase of the remediation plan involves drilling holes down to the source of the inflow and to a nearby tunnel where reinforcement may be needed, pumping concrete through the drill holes, sealing off the inflow with grout and drilling dewatering holes. Subsequent phases include dewatering the mine, ground freezing in the area of the inflow, restoring underground areas and resumption of mine development. Regulatory approval is required for each phase of the remediation plan. Eleven of the 14 drill holes planned for reinforcing and sealing off the water inflow area are now complete. (See the diagram posted with this news release.) Concrete is required in two locations underground – one near the rock fall to seal off the inflow area and another in a nearby tunnel to provide reinforcement. More than 700 cubic metres of concrete have been poured through drill holes into ...