In dismal uranium market, Rio Tinto cuts back, slashes jobsby Christina MacPherson |
Namibia’s Roessing uranium mine to slash jobs Global Post, 1 Mar 13, The Roessing uranium mine in Namibia, a unit of British mining giant Rio Tinto, said Friday it plans to cut 17 percent of its workforce due to slowing demand for nuclear fuel…. As with many other uranium producers, Roessing is buckling under low metal prices and reduced demand, the company’s managing director Chris Salisbury told reporters.
“Since the Japanese tsunami in 2011, uranium demand has remained depressed and the uranium price has fallen by more than 36 percent,” he said.
Japan shut down its nuclear power plants after the tsunami destroyed the Fukushima nuclear plant, and a number of other countries including Germany have also signalled they plan to reduce or phase out their facilities.
“With the utility sector in Japan essentially shutdown, there is little prospect of a turnaround in the near term,” he added.
Mini Nuclear Reactors Earn Golden Fleece Award For Government Waste Clean Technica, February 28, 2013 Jeremy Bloom Are mini nuclear reactors the future of high-end energy development — or a wasteful government boondoggle?
USA taxpayers being ripped off again, for small nuclear reactors boondoggle
by Christina MacPhersonMini Nuclear Reactors Earn Golden Fleece Award For Government Waste Clean Technica, February 28, 2013 Jeremy Bloom Are mini nuclear reactors the future of high-end energy development — or a wasteful government boondoggle?
While it may or may not be great that profitable companies like Babcock & Wilcox and Toshiba are researching these mini or even micro reactors (don’t worry, they won’t fit in a suitcase, or even in your basement), the group Taxpayers for Common Sense (TCS) has dinged the program as its recipient of the 2013 Golden Fleece Award, for sucking down potentially half a billion dollars in taxpayer money.
“The nation is two days away from the across-the-board budget cuts known as sequestration,” notes Ryan Alexander, president of TCS. “But at the same time we are hearing the Department of Energy and the nuclear industry evangelizing about the benefits of small modular reactors. In reality, we cannot afford to pile more market-distorting subsidies to profitable companies on top of the billions of dollars we already gave away.”
http://nuclear-news.net/2013/03/02/usa-taxpayers-being-ripped-off-again-for-small-nuclear-reactors-boondoggle/
“The nation is two days away from the across-the-board budget cuts known as sequestration,” notes Ryan Alexander, president of TCS. “But at the same time we are hearing the Department of Energy and the nuclear industry evangelizing about the benefits of small modular reactors. In reality, we cannot afford to pile more market-distorting subsidies to profitable companies on top of the billions of dollars we already gave away.”
http://nuclear-news.net/2013/03/02/usa-taxpayers-being-ripped-off-again-for-small-nuclear-reactors-boondoggle/
SYS-CON Media (press release) - Mar 1, 2013
WAYNESBORO, VA -- (Marketwire) -- 03/01/13 -- Virginia's Nuclear Energy Consortium (NEC), signed into law this week by Gov. McDonnell, intends to make the state a hub for research and development of safe and available nuclear power. The Consortium ...
Published on Mar 1, 2013
Let’s Hope Jeremy Rifkin is Right (with the Exception of building MORE nuclear power plants)! BUT, the NEXT QUESTION IS: WHAT THE HELL are we going to DO with all the current fuel they have accumulated Thus FAR? There IS NO SAFE PLACE TO STORE THE WASTE! There Never Has Been! ***see below link***Q&A with Jeremy Rifkin on nuclear power
Wermuth Asset Management, 5th Annual Investors Event
Question: What would be your view on nuclear energy? [...]
Jeremy Rifkin*: [...] Frankly, I think from a business perspective, it’s over. I think it’s over. Let me explain why. There may be a lot of ideological issues, but from a business perspective here’s the situation [...]
*CNN: “Internationally renowned economist”; Forbes: “Economist and energy visionary [...] advisor to the European Union and to heads of state around the world.”
http://enenews.com/
For economic reasons, USA’s nuclear power may simply disappearby Christina MacPherson |
current market forces challenge the economic viability of existing nuclear power plants, with new reactors representing an extremely unattractive investment prospect.
Allowing existing reactors to simply run out their licensed lifetimes in the current scenario, nuclear power may simply disappear
US May Face Inevitable Nuclear Power Exit Science Daily, Mar. 1, 2013 — In a 2012 report, the Obama administration announced that it was "jumpstarting" the nuclear industry. Because of the industry's long history of permitting problems, cost overruns, and construction delays, financial markets have been wary of backing new nuclear construction for decades.
The supposed "nuclear renaissance" ballyhooed in the first decade of this century never materialized. And then came Fukushima, a disaster that pushed countries around the world to ask: Should nuclear power be part of the energy future? In the third and final issue in a series focused on nuclear exits, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, published by SAGE, turns its attention to the United States and looks at whether the country's business-as-usual approach may yet lead to a nuclear phase-out for economic reasons
Uranium mill clean-up advisory group meets in Canon City
Posted: Feb 28, 2013 10:06 PM by Tony Spehar - tspehar@koaa.com
A community advisory group tasked with providing input into the clean-up of a former uranium mill outside of Canon City met for the first time on Thursday.The group of around twenty community members will act as a voice for those living near the site of the Cotter Corporation mill. The site holds around 15-million tons of radioactive tailings and was declared a superfund environmental disaster site in 1984 after contamination was found in groundwater.
http://www.koaa.com/news/uranium-mill-clean-up-advisory-group-meets-in-canon-city/
| Paying the price for uranium mining in Colorado - Blogs - Denver Post Paying the price for uranium mining in Colorado | eLetters — The Denver Post : eLetters features The Denver Post's letters to the editor on select articles. blogs.denverpost.com/eletters/ | ||
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