Despite mounting public outcry over security of nuclear plants, India’s trust in the nuclear energy option is official now. But by its own admission, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) had said late last year that the development of the nuclear energy globally had been lacklustre. A few months before the Japan shock, in his yearly report submitted in September last year to the Board of Governors, General Conference, IAEA director general Yukiya Amano admit to the rather lacklustre presentation of nuclear energy globally. He said, “The split of nuclear energy grew from just below 0.5% in 1970 to above 7% in the 1990s and declined to 5.7% by 2008.”
Further, he pointed out, “Over the past two years the payment of nuclear generation to world electricity manufacture has declined from 15% to less than 14%, mainly due to a rise in total electricity generation worldwide without an amplify of nuclear generation.” The IAEA director general’s report further evidenced the lack of any particular growth pattern in usage of nuclear energy worldwide. “In western Europe, nuclear produce electricity accounts for almost 27% of total electricity. In North America and Eastern Europe, it just about 18%, whereas in Africa and Latin America it is 2.1% and 2.4%, respectively. In the Far East, nuclear energy accounts for 10% of electricity making; in the Middle East and South Asia it accounts for 1%,” he conceded.
On the critical issue of training and human development, the reports admit to shortage of experienced personnel to man nuclear energy plants. It predictable that in 2009 all nuclear power plants in operation worldwide continued to employ more than 250,000 people. “About three quarters of all reactors in process today are over 20 years old, and one quarter is over 30 years old. The generation that make and operate these plants has either before retired or will soon. Many of the organizations that are licensed to function these plants also have projects underway or under thought to build new units, and are facing shortages of knowledgeable personnel and loss of knowledge as they look to replace retiring staff for their existing fleet while at the similar time staffing new projects,” the report cautioned.
China's voracious appetite for development has been the savior of many commodity markets over the last few years, and currently it's coming to the rescue of another mineral: uranium. While much of the world questions the upcoming of nuclear energy following Japan's earthquake and tsunami, China is pushing ahead with plans to enlarge its nuclear generating capacity to a level that will make it the world's fourth biggest consumer of uranium this year behind the U.S., Japan and France. China's dramatic pace of nuclear-plant creation is set to more than make up for the postquake drop in Japanese uranium demand and will easily soak up any surplus production from new mines coming on stream.
The price of uranium, the ore used to fuel nuclear power plants, had been experiencing something of a renaissance since high oil and gas prices plus environmental concerns over pollution from traditional fossil fuels like coal sparked a revitalization of the nuclear sector. Before the earthquake crippled Japan's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear complex, spot uranium was deal at around $73 a pound, and analysts were organize to upgrade their price forecasts for this year and next. But the post Fukushima closure of more than a sector of Japan's nuclear reactors cut spot prices by 30% in a week to around $50 a pound, and questions over the future of the sector have been passionately debated ever since.
Not so in China. Warren Edney, senior mining forecaster at UBS, said China plans to increase its 13 operable reactors with an extra 110 by 2018, with 27 already under construction. Nuclear power presently makes up less than 2% of China's generation. The reactors require to be built to meet the country's 12th Five Year Plan's aim on emissions and power generation. The aim is to increase the percentage of electricity produced by nuclear power to 6% by 2020. There are 62 nuclear reactors in creation globally, of which only 3% are from Group of Seven countries. State-run projects like those in China maintain to be pushed through, whatever the backdrop, while privately run projects can fight from access to capital and can be swayed by negative public opinion and lobbying.
“Zimbabwe has rich uranium reserves, but is faced with lack of funds and does not possess the technical knowledge and equipment wanted for extracting rich uranium ores,” Mumbengegwi told ISNA in an interview published on Wednesday. “If we can work together on uranium mining, it will get better the economic situation of both countries,” he said. The Zimbabwean official also said that the two countries can have collaboration in the energy sector, particularly in construction of oil refineries. He went on to say that Zimbabwe is willing to buy fuel from Iran.
Elsewhere in his remarks, the Zimbabwean foreign minister said it is the best time for the Iranian companies to spend in Zimbabwe, adding when a country’s economy is in a bad condition, it is the best time for making investment in that country because investors will receive many incentives. Commenting on the structure of the United Nations, Mumbengegwi said that the power is intense in the UN Security Council and the members of the council are empowered to make each decision they wish. It is not fair and more power should be move to the General Assembly which has 194 members, he said, proposing that the number of the UN Security Council should be enlarged to 26 countries. He added that the imposition of sanctions on countries should also be accepted by the General Assembly.
On the UN sanctions on Iran and Zimbabwe, he said impressive sanctions on these countries are not accidental. “The Western governments treat the governments that do not allow their dominance in this way and impose sanctions on them,” he said. “The Western governments are skilled at fabricate cause to justify their actions,” he stated, adding each unbiased observer can testify that Zimbabwe is one of the mainly democratic countries in Africa and the human rights are never violated in the country. On Iran’s nuclear program, the Zimbabwean envoy said the Western countries have formed a brouhaha over Iran’s nuclear issue, but according to the international rules all countries have the right to utilize the nuclear energy for peaceful applications.
There are sufficient known uranium resources in the world that the supply of the metal will not be a constraint to the continued development of the nuclear energy industry, Cameco Corporation CEO Jerry Grandey said in Toronto on Tuesday. Speaking at a bilateral mining forum hosted by the Canada India Foundation, Grandey also said that Cameco is still looking to sign uranium supply agreement with Indian customers, but commented that the longer time taken by Canada to sign a nuclear cooperation agreement (NCA) with India meant that competitors from other countries previously had their feet in the door.
Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Indian leader Manmohan Singh sign a civil NCA in June, opening the way for the send abroad of nuclear technology, equipment and uranium to the fast-growing Asian nation. Canada was the eighth nation to sign such a deal with India since 2008, when the nuclear supplier Group lifted a 34-year ban on nuclear cooperation with India. “But frankly, it's a very forceful environment and Canada was a little bit slow in getting to a nuclear cooperation agreement,” Grandey commented.
“And we found that even though we were quite involved in bringing this NCA to fruition, that our competitors in France and Russia and Kazakhstan were well ahead of Canada in our capability to do nuclear trade.” Grandey said he is still hopeful that Cameco and Canada will connect in positive bilateral trade on uranium supply to India, which he sees as “step one”. “But, more importantly, we know that the Indian nuclear community needs to broaden its supply base to many other countries,” he added. There are still excessive levels of red tape bureaucracy that want to be dealt with in India to get possible partnerships and joint ventures moving though, Grandey commented.
The International Atomic Energy Agency is mulling several plans under which states would be offer with low-enriched uranium (LEU) for their civilian nuclear programs if their supply is cut and they can show a perfect non-proliferation record. U.S. President Barack Obama has backed the decades old idea but some developing states have voiced misgivings that it may border their right to set up sovereign atomic energy programs. An IAEA plan support by former Director-General Mohamed ElBaradei proposes buying 60-80 tons of LEU using $150 million in member donations and offering it to states at market prices.
The U.S has contributed $50 million to the plan. "Taken together with pledges from the Nuclear Threat Initiative and other member states, $150 million has been promise for this purpose," U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu told the IAEA annual general conference. "This offer has been extended some times and presents member states with an excellent opportunity to realize one of the founding objectives of the IAEA. These resources will be at risk if we do not achieve a decision soon."
Chu said countries should push for a resolution approving an execution plan at the next IAEA governing board meeting in December. "It is now time to move beyond general discussion and discuss of fuel bank principles," he said at the Vienna meeting. The fuel bank is seen by the U.N. nuclear agency as a way to meet demand from some 60 nations, several in the conflict-ridden Middle East, for technical help in launching atomic energy without spreading the risk of proliferation. Iran's disputed enrichment program, which the West fears is aimed at increasing atom bombs, has also helped the idea up the agenda as well after decades on the political back-burner.
Energy experts warn that a sharp shortage of uranium is going to hit the nuclear energy industry. Dr Yogi Goswami, co-director of the Clean Energy Research Centre at the University of Florida warns that “the confirmed reserves of uranium will last less than 30 years.” Current nuclear plants use around 67,000 tonnes of high-grade uranium per year. With present uranium deposit in the planet having been predictable at 4-5 million tones, this means the present resources would last 42 years. But if there is going to be a stepping up of nuclear energy plants, as seem to be the case, then the likelihood is that that the time distance is going to be considerably reduced. Dr Goswami who is the discoverer of the a new thermodynamic cycle for solar thermal power now called the Goswami Thermodynamic cycle, says, “by 2050, all confirmed and undiscovered reserves of uranium will be over.”
“Other choice for producing uranium will be available. For example, three parts per billion of sea water is uranium but the costs of improving this uranium are so high that it is unlikely to prove an unviable option,” he said. Dr Goswami agreed that atomic fuel was boundless if a government went in for breeder reactors. But from the 400 nuclear reactors being used in the world, “I do not know of a single government using them at present.” Dr Goswami also articulated his scepticism at the thermal breeder reactor technology based on thorium. At present, India is the only country currently pursues this because of its substantial thorium reserves.
His views were second by Dr Lee Stefankos, a professor of electrical engineering and director of the dirt free Energy Research Centre at the University of South Florida. Dr Stefanakos, who has been transport out research in the areas of solar thermal energy change, photovoltaic systems and hydrogen. Dr Stefankos also feel that nuclear energy is not one of the major producers of energy. With the shrinking uranium reserves, Dr Stefankos believes solar energy provide a safer and in the long run, a much cheaper different. An Indian scientist pointed out, “India is investing thousands of crores in increasing a nuclear energy program even though they were warn that high grade uranium is as much a dwindling reserve as are coal and gas resources.
Israel has said that the fuelling of Iran's first nuclear reactor is "totally unacceptable" and urged better world pressure to force Tehran to stop any further uranium enrichment. Iranian engineers apparently began loading fuel into the country's first nuclear power plant with the help of Russia on Saturday, mark a milestone in Tehran's development of what it insist is a peaceful nuclear energy program. "It is completely unacceptable that a country that so blatantly violates international treaties should enjoy the fruits of using nuclear energy," Fox News quoted Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Yossi Levy, as saying in a report. "The international community should enlarge pressure to force Iran to abide by international decisions and cease its enrichment activities and its building of reactors," Levy added.
Iran has insisted that it would continue to enrich uranium despite a caution from the White House last week, which said that the Bushehr progress underscore that Iran does not need its own enrichment capability if its intentions, as it states, are for a peaceful nuclear program. arlier, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs had said, "If the Iranians are genuine in a peaceful program, their needs can be met without undertaking its personal enrichment program, which call into question its motives." However, Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki has said that Iran wants the uranium to supply future power reactors. "The country's large scale need to energy is clear and that is the reason why we want to produce the required fuel ourselves," Mottaki added. (ANI)
N.C., officials from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the government agency accountable for overseeing the country’s nuclear energy activities, are slated to present a statement laying out the environmental impacts of a planned uranium enrichment facility, a key step in approving the facility’s license. While NRC staff will spend almost five hours in Ballroom 5 of the Warwick Center at the University of North Carolina going over the details of their report, it is what they will not converse that has arms control advocates worried.
Advocates are focusing their notice on the proposed General Electric Hitachi uranium enrichment plant in Wilmington to shine a spotlight on what they see as a systemic flaw at the NRC: The commission does not behavior broad assessments of the proliferation concerns associated with licensing projects. The proposed ability would, if successful, use laser technology for the first time to enrich uranium to power commercial nuclear reactors. Arms control advocate say that commercialization of the technology in the United States could lead other countries to follow suit, raising concerns about the technology lessening into the wrong hands.
Countries like Iran and South Korea have worked in the past to expand laser enrichment programs, and the experts fear successful commercialization of the technology in the United States would prove the technology’s feasibility and lead them to redouble their efforts. There are a number of lasting questions surrounding the technology. Arms control advocates say it is unclear just how easy it would be to make highly enriched uranium, which is used to make nuclear weapons, with the technology.
France supports Jordan’s right to enrich uranium as outline in the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, the top French diplomat in Amman said on Tuesday. During a press gathering yesterday to mark Bastille Day, observed on July 14, French Ambassador in Amman Corinne Breuz said France respects Jordan’s right to civilian nuclear energy as outlined in different international treaties and conventions.
"There is no reason for Jordan not to build its own nuclear reactor," she said in answer to a question, adding that Paris respects Jordan’s promise to various international conventions and International Atomic Energy Agency regulations. France, which has signed a nuclear cooperation agreement with the Kingdom, is support Jordan’s nuclear power programme in some areas, Breuz pointed out.
The representative referred to French Prime Minister Francois Fillon’s visit to the Kingdom in February, which culminated in the signing of a uranium mining agreement concrete the way for an open-pit uranium mine to be constructed in the central area by French firm AREVA and the Jordanian-French Uranium Mining Company. The firm is operating within a 1,400-square-kilometre allowance area in the central region, encompassing Swaqa, Khan Azzabib, Wadi Maghar and Attarat, and is predictable to commence uranium mining as early as 2012.
Nuclear energy is forever a highly emotive word which attracts a multiplicity of views nationally and internationally, said Dr Wotan Swiegers, director of the newly-established Uranium Institute, a training and information centre. “Public interpretation is, however, often based on perceptions rather than facts, and those perceptions sometimes relate to views bent by events a few decades ago. In this regard effective communication and distribution of information amongst stakeholder and involved parties is vital for the uranium industry,” Swiggers said.
According to Swiegers, the Uranium Institute is steadily working towards achieving its goal of ensuring that Namibia’s uranium is mined and milled in a answerable and safe manner. “The uranium industry is dedicated to work with other stakeholders to implement a sustainable development framework where a balance is found between economic growth, social responsibility and the protection of the environment.”
The Economist had a sneak preview of the Uranium Information Centre which was sponsored by AREVA Resources Namibia and other uranium mines. It boasts of the latest display technology and is en suite with interactive technology such as a touch screen, internet facilities and displays which can easily be updated to keep up with latest information. A spread of information is displayed ranging from the general such as energy and uses of uranium to the more exact such as the location of the different mines in the Erongo region, the rock formation and leaching processes.
Rio Tinto CEO Tom Albanese, who is now visiting Namibia, has expressed optimism about the uranium-mining sector after 2020, due to improved interest in nuclear energy generation. This is notwithstanding concerns over the use of nuclear power – such as nuclear safety, nuclear waste storage, and nuclear explosion which he said must be strictly managed for uranium demand to reach its full potential.
Rio Tinto, which owns 69 percent of Rössing Uranium Limited, is also the foremost international mining company. Albanese said the renewed interest in Namibia’s uranium will probably only interpret into significant new demand at the end of this decade, while prices would remain for a while at present levels. Notwithstanding, he said, Rio Tinto’s investment in uranium and Rossing will be extended term and “forward looking”.
Rossing’s lifespan is predictable to go beyond 2023 “and beyond”, and has made significant contributions to the national economy. “However optimistic we may be about the upswing, just keep in mind it will only take another Chernobyl or 3 Mile Island to set the industry back another two decades,” cautioned Albenese. Mining in Namibia has added N$3.6 billion to national fixed investment, and with the expected opening of latest uranium mines and the reopening of copper mines, fixed asset is likely to further grow and economic activities increase.
