Click on the headline (link) for the full text.
Many more articles are available through the Energy Bulletin homepage
Uranium Depletion and Nuclear Power: Are We at Peak Uranium?
Miquel Torres, The Oil Drum
..Because Martin Sevior has portrayed the view of the nuclear industry, this post will explain what the other camp has to say. While I could address his post point by point, it would result in a very large article that nobody would read.
So I have opted to first answer just one point, Uranium production, which I chose both because it is most similar to the PO depletion theme, readers should be familiar with some of its challenges, and because a new study sheds new light on it. ..
The recently formed Energy Working Group has recently published a paper titled Uranium Resources And Nuclear Energy (pdf) I will now explain their work. All figures and quotations are taken from this paper.
This study uses the same data as the post by Martin Sevior. What he labels “Additional recovarable Uranium” is in reality “undiscovered resources prognosticated” and “undiscovered resources speculative”. ..
But as any Peak Oiler knows, ultimate reserve exhaustion is not the only important thing. Throughput is as important. Uranium production lends itself to a bottom-up approach to production forecasts probably better than oil. ..
(21 Mar 2007)
Lack of fuel may limit US nuclear renaissance
Reuters
Limited supplies of uranium fuel for nuclear power plants may thwart the renewed interest in nuclear energy in the United States and other nations, according to an industry expert at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Over the past 20 years, none of the nation’s utilities has ordered a new reactor and there has been little investment in new uranium mines or facilities to produce fuel for existing reactors due to safety concerns.
Instead, the industry has lived off commercial and government inventories, which are nearly gone. Uranium production worldwide meets only about 65 per cent of current reactor requirements.
“Just as large numbers of new reactors are being planned, we are only starting to emerge from 20 years of underinvestment in the production capacity for the nuclear fuel to operate them,” Dr Thomas Neff, a research affiliate at MIT’s Center for International Studies, said in a release.
Only a few years ago, uranium sold for $US10 ($NZ14.26) per pound. The current price is over $US90 a pound, according to the latest data from the Ux Consulting Co LLC, of Roswell, Georgia. Despite the higher prices, uranium year-on-year production actually declined in 2006 due to various problems at the mines. ..
(22 Mar 2007)
Russia, Kazakhstan to sign deal on uranium enrichment center
Staff, RIA Novosti
ANGARSK, March 21 (RIA Novosti) – Russia and Kazakhstan will sign an interstate agreement on an international uranium enrichment center in East Siberia in the near future, a senior nuclear official said Wednesday.
“The contract is ready, has been agreed, and we are completing the technical checks,” said Nikolai Spassky, deputy head of the Russian Federal Nuclear Power Agency. A delegation from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is visiting the Angarsk chemical plant, the site of a uranium enrichment center.
Last October, Russia and Kazakhstan, which holds 15% of the world’s uranium reserves, opened their first joint venture to enrich uranium in Angarsk, East Siberia. The venture, which was part of Moscow’s non-proliferation initiative to create a network of enrichment centers under the UN nuclear watchdog’s supervision, will also be responsible for the disposal of nuclear waste. ..
(21 Mar 2007)
Related: Buffett-Backed Nuclear Plan May Benefit Russian Plant.
Restrictions lifted at Swedish nuclear plant after bomb threat
Associated Press
STOCKHOLM, Sweden: A nuclear power plant north of Stockholm was partially evacuated because of a bomb threat Wednesday but police later lifted restrictions in the area after no explosives were found.
Bomb-sniffing dogs would continue to search the Forsmark nuclear plant on Thursday, but most of the officers sent to the scene were called back and roadblocks were lifted, police spokesman Christer Nordstrom said. ..
The reactors remained online. Forsmark, located about 100 kilometers (60 miles) north of Stockholm, had drawn criticism recently after reports of flaws in its safety controls. Its chief executive resigned in February, days after two of its three reactors were shut down because of possible technical problems.
(21 Mar 2007)
Regulators give Duke partial assurance on nuclear costs
John Downey, Charlotte Business Journal
The North Carolina Utilities Commission has issued an order that seeks to assure Duke Energy Corp. it can recover its planning costs for a proposed nuclear plant through future rate cases, whether or not the plant is built. ..
Duke plans to spend about $125 million this year on planning for the proposed William S. Lee plant in South Carolina. Duke sought specific assurances on whether the North Carolina share of those costs would be recovered in a timely manner. ..
(20 Mar 2007)
