Weekly Reports |Jun 26 2018Following a recent burst of activity, volatility in the uranium market has waned once more.-Volume reasonable but volatility diminished-Uncertainty persists-New age reactor completes testingBy Greg PeelVolume in the uranium spot markets was a bit lower last week than the week before but not unreasonable, with 1.3mlbs U3O8 equivalent changing hands in eight transactions,...Read More
China National Nuclear Corporation subsidiary CNLA and Orano Projects, a subsidiary of French nuclear company Orano, have agreed on preparatory works for a Chinese plant to process and recycle used nuclear fuel, Orano announced today. Orano is also reported to be planning investments in its French uranium conversion facility.Prime Minister Edouard Philippe arriving in Shenzhen on 22 June (Image: F...Read More
The US Senate has approved a proposal for a USD15 million pilot programme to recycle used naval nuclear fuel for use as fuel in advanced nuclear reactors. The proposal - an amendment to the fiscal 2019 Energy and Water Appropriations Bill - was adopted by the full Senate by 87 votes to 9.Low-enriched uranium (LEU) fuel used in today's nuclear power plants typically contains less than 5% of fissile...Read More
The start of power generation by two AP1000 reactors under construction in China moved a step closer yesterday with first criticality being achieved at Sanmen 1 and the loading of fuel beginning at Haiyang 1. Both units are expected to start up by the end of this year, becoming the first operating AP1000 reactors.Sanmen units 1 and 2 (Image: Westinghouse)Unit 1 of the Sanmen nuclear power plant in...Read More
CENTENNIAL, Colo., June 22, 2018 - Westwater Resources, Inc. ("Westwater," or the "Company") (Nasdaq: WWR), an energy materials development company, announced today that it received notification from the Generate Directorate of Mining Affairs, a department of the Turkish Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources, that the mining and exploration licenses for WWR's Temrezli and Sefaatli projects have...Read More
The UK's Office for Nuclear Regulation (ONR) has published its annual report highlighting the extent of its regulatory activities. These included more than 1000 inspections, design acceptance confirmation for a new reactor, ongoing modernisation of its regulations, and its participation in the first European topical peer review on ageing management of nuclear power plants.The more than 1000 inspec...Read More
The United States has twice as many operating mines owned by publicly-traded companies than any other country, according to data from Mining Intelligence.As of this month there are 845 operating mines in the U.S., giving it 20% of the world's total.Russia is second with 408. Canada ranked eighth with just 167 operating mines.Mines considered in the survey had the following criteria:Mines are owned...Read More
GE Power's Steam Power and EDF Energy have reached a key project milestone with the start of manufacturing of the first rotor of the Arabelle steam turbine at GE's Belfort, France, centre of excellence for the Hinkley Point C project in England. The contract, awarded in May 2016, is on track to have its first 1770 MWe EPR reactor unit completed by 2025, GE said today.An Arabelle steam turbine roto...Read More
Foratom, the European nuclear trade body, has called on the European Commission and other EU institutions to recognise and reward the long-term operation (LTO) of nuclear power reactors in their role to help Europe meet its climate targets.There are 126 operational power reactors in 14 EU Member States, providing more than one-quarter of the bloc's total electricity production. In its Communicatio...Read More
The US Department of Energy's (DOE's) Office of Nuclear Energy has awarded nearly USD64 million to 89 projects for nuclear energy research, facility access and crosscutting technology and infrastructure development. The funds will be provided to DOE national laboratories, industry and 39 US universities in 29 states.The awards provide funding for nuclear energy-related research through three DOE n...Read More
Unit 4 of Kyushu Electric Power Company's Genkai nuclear power plant in Saga Prefecture today became the ninth Japanese reactor to resume power generation. The 1180 MWe pressurised water reactor is expected to re-enter commercial operation in mid-July.The four-unit Genkai plant (Image: Kyushu)The utility began the process of extracting the control rods from the reactor on 16 June. Kyushu announced...Read More
Weekly Reports |Jun 19 2018The US regulator has criticised the president's directive that would see electricity providers forced to buy nuclear power.-US regulator criticises Trump-Korean reactor to shut down early-Spot price wanes as demand subsidesBy Greg PeelThe story in the US so far...US legacy nuclear plants are closing down or threatening to close down as they cannot compete with gas-fired...Read More
Belgium's nuclear power plant operator Electrabel has revised the timetable for scheduled maintenance outages at three of its reactors to check for degradation of concrete in the ceilings of buildings housing back-up safety-related equipment. The extended outages will cost the company some EUR250 million (USD290 million).The Tihange plant (Image: Electrabel)During a planned outage at Doel unit 3,...Read More
Big mining blastedMining and metals investors were offloading the sector's big names on Friday over fears of the impact of a trade war between the US and China, which is responsible for nearly half the world's industrial metal demand and two-thirds of the world's seaborne trade in steelmaking raw materials.Copper fell nearly 3% to $3.13 a pound or $6,900 a tonne, pushing the bellwether metal back...Read More
This first gram of yellowcake was produced from uranium captured from seawater with modified yarn. Chien Wai and colleagues at LCW Supercritical Technologies produced the yellowcake, a powdered form of uranium used to produce fuel for nuclear power production.?EUR?Credit: LCW Supercritical TechnologiesSEQUIM, Wash. - For the first time, researchers at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and LCW...Read More
SEQUIM, Wash. - For the first time, researchers at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and LCW Supercritical Technologies have created five grams of yellowcake - a powdered form of uranium used to produce fuel for nuclear power production - using acrylic fibers to extract it from seawater."This is a significant milestone," said Gary Gill, a researcher at PNNL, a Department of Energy nationa...Read More
Researchers have successfully used acrylic fibres to extract uranium from seawater in a trial conducted at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL). The team say the technology, which uses inexpensive material, could be competitive with the costs of land-based uranium mining.Yellowcake produced from uranium captured from seawater using LCW's modified yarn (Image: LCW)The material was develope...Read More
Regular electricity generation at the Olkiluoto 3 EPR in Finland is now expected to begin in September 2019 as commissioning tests will take longer than planned, Finnish utility Teollisuuden Voima Oyj (TVO) announced yesterday. According to the previous schedule provided by plant supplier the Areva-Siemens consortium, production was planned to start next May.The Olkiluoto EPR, pictured in August 2...Read More
Adem Tumerkan June 14, 2018 Category: Research "Either you're a contrarian, or you're the victim - you choose. . ."I heard Rick Rule - the famed resource investor – say these words once. And it made a huge impact in my investing life.What this simple sentence meant to me was that you must be skeptical of what the crowd is doing. And above all, never follow the crowd into stocks.Being contr...Read More
CENTENNIAL, Colo., June 14, 2018 - Westwater Resources, Inc. ("Westwater," or the "Company") (Nasdaq: WWR), an energy materials development company, announced today that it has strengthened its balance sheet, completing a registered direct offering with Aspire Capital Fund, LLC ("Aspire") whereby Aspire purchased a combination of 8,686,291 common shares and pre-funded common stock purchase warrant...Read More