New U.S. Nuclear Build Continues Unabated After Fukushima

Published on Wednesday April 13 2011
FAIRFIELD COUNTY (WACH) -- It's full speed ahead at the V.C. Summer Nuclear Station near Jenkinsville, where two units are under development.

In the wake of Japan's nuclear disaster, SCE&G invited the media to tour the facility on Tuesday. Officials stressed its current unit and the two in pre-construction are designed to withstand natural disasters.

“Not only is a tsunami unlikely,” says SCE&G’s COO Steve Byrne, “the kind of earthquakes they experienced in Japan is also unlikely to happen here in South Carolina.”

There are no active fault lines in the vicinity of the utility's nuclear plant and even so, it's built to survive the largest earthquake the region could experience, according to Byrne.

Alan Torres oversees construction at the plant and adds the design of the units is substantially safer than the one in Japan.

"The AP1000 is specifically designed to shut itself down in the event of an emergency or accident condition without the need of outside electricity,” Torres says.

SCE&G expects to have its two units completed within eight years.

Right now, the state receives about 55 percent of its power from nuclear plants. Officials anticipate that number to go up and the need for coal and natural gas to go down with the addition of the two units.

Byrne believes it will be a positive change for the utility.

“Whether customers necessarily recognize that now or not,” says Byrne, “it will prevent spikes in fuel prices.”

The total cost of the project is estimated to be around $9.8 billion.

Although it won’t be until 2016 before the first of the two units go online, the state’s economy is already getting a boost, more than half of SCE&G workforce for this project are coming from within South Carolina.

Energy Resources (ERA) Forced To Purchase 4,000,000 Lbs Of Uranium After Mine Disruption

Published on Tuesday April 12 2011

* ERA says will need to buy up to 4,000,000 Lbs of Uranium after rains hit Mine.

* Cuts 2011 production guidance by more than one-third

* Sees H1 loss of between $30-$50 million (Recasts, adds details)

SYDNEY, April 12 (Reuters) - Australian uranium miner Energy Resources Australia (ERA) is being forced to buy uranium on the global market to meet its sales commitments as problems persist at its Ranger mine in northern Australia, the company said.

Heavy rains have flooded the mine pit and led to the suspension of processing of uranium oxide, sending output tumbling 42 percent in the March quarter. Processing is likely to remain stalled until at least late July, the miner said on Tuesday.

ERA, controlled by Rio Tinto , said it would need to buy as much as 2,100 tonnes of uranium oxide from third parties to meet its sales commitments of 4,500 tonnes this year.

It also forecast a first-half loss of between $30 million and $50 million, and said it was reviewing mine operations.

"In light of this continued suspension, which has occurred immediately after a very challenging 2010, a comprehensive business review of ERA's current operations and future projects is well underway," the company said.

"The review will assess priorities, processes and future expenditure."

ERA expects to mine only around 2,400 tonnes in 2011, well below earlier guidance of near 3,800 tonnes. (Reporting by James Regan; Editing by Mark Bendeich)

Possible Major Impact To Uranium Prices - ERA Possible Closure Of Ranger Uranium Mine

Published on Friday April 8 2011

Mining companies continue to be at odds with traditional Aboriginal land owners, this time in the world-heritage listed section of the Kakadu National Park in the Northern Territory.

Earlier this week, an Aboriginal elder in the Kimberly slammed environmentalists who called for a rejection of a gas project on the coast , and further in land in Western Australia, the Yindjibarndi people remain locked in a battle over land near Karratha with Fortescue Metals’ Andrew ‘Twiggy’ Forrest.

 

Energy Resources Australia (ERA) currently produces about 10 per cent of the world’s uranium, but the Mirrar people who own the section of the Kakadu National Park that includes the company’s Ranger mine wants to stop mining there.

The mining company suspended operations in January due to the wet weather, with the mine’s tailings dam near capacity.

It has operated on a lease inside Kakadu for 30 years, and joins other companies fighting battles over land rights.

The ABC is reporting that just days prior to ERA’s annual general meeting, a scientist previously employed by the company revealed contaminated water leaking from the mine into nearby waterways is a possibility.

His comments mean the mine will most likely remain closed for the rest of the year.

During a public forum in Darwin last night Mirarr woman Yvonne Margarula, the senior traditional owner of the mine site said the Indigenous community remains opposed to mining, and pointed towards the risk of unsatisfactory water management and possible downstream environmental damage as part of the reason they are against ERA continuing at Ranger.

"We still say no - no more mining," she said.

An industrial chemist who worked for ERA and is now employed by the Mirarr people told the forum the company would not be able to safely treat the contaminated water stored at Ranger by the time the mining lease expires in 10 years.

"They have facilities to remediate water through chemical water processing, ends up with micro-filtration and osmosis, and it is top-shelf stuff, but it can only do a couple of megalitres a day - and they have got 10 gigalitres," he told the audience.

"We are terrified that this is going to ruin our country."

An announcement to confirm whether the mining suspension will continue is expected from ERA on Tuesday and Kyle thinks the mine will remain closed more than three months.

"The facts are that the pit has already got a big mob of water in it and I can't see Ranger getting started again this year."

Traditional owners are also against ERA’s planned use of an acid-leaching process to increase production and the construction of a new exploratory mine shaft and are calling for Ranger to be shut permanently prior to the annual general meeting scheduled for next.

Earlier in the week ERA chief executive Rob Atkinson said the company is making changes to improve the management of contaminated water from its Ranger mine.

"I mean you go through a wet season like we have done - it does cause you to think, to assess, to work out how you can do things better, safer," he said.

U.K. Says Nuclear Plants Will Move Ahead During Study on Safety

Published on Wednesday April 6 2011

The U.K. government will allow work on building new nuclear power plants to progress as it conducts a study of the disaster at an atomic facility in Japan, the minister in charge of climate change said.

There will be no “material delay” in the U.K.’s plan to allow new nuclear generators at eight sites, Climate Change Minister Greg Barker said in an interview in New York. The report, he said, is due to be handed to ministers next month.

Barker’s remarks were aimed at assuaging concerns that Britain’s reactor-building program would be held up while the nuclear regulator studies the accident in Japan, caused when an earthquake and tsunami interrupted power to cooling pumps at a Tokyo Electric Power Co. facility. The U.K. estimates it needs investment of 200 billion pounds ($320 billion) to replace aging generators including nuclear plants by 2010.

“We’re not proposing to build in an earthquake zone, and we’re not proposing to build somewhere prone to tsunamis, but we will be looking to see what can be taken from that terrible crisis,” Barker, a Conservative member of Parliament in the coalition government, said.

E.ON AG (EOAN), EDF SA (EDF) and RWE AG (RWE) are among the companies bidding for work replacing Britain’s aging atomic power stations. Germany halted nuclear stations and said it would review whether it should continue with building more, and China and India also are studying what they should change as a result of the accident in Japan.

Safety Report

Britain’s Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg fanned concerns about a delay last week, when he told reporters that the new plants may never be built because of raising costs associated with new safety standards.

Energy Secretary Chris Huhne’s last month asked Mike Weightman, the country’s chief nuclear inspector, to determine what the U.K. can learn about the accident in Japan. Barker dismissed the idea that the report would make any conclusions that would hold up work. 

“We aren’t expecting any surprises and are equally determined to learn any lessons that are applicable in the U.K.,” Barker said. “There’s no change to our timetable.”

It’s too soon to tell if the incident at the Fukushima power plant will affect global emissions targets, he said. “But it will drive an even greater sense of the need to save energy to reduce dependency,” he said. Energy efficiency will be the technology that receives the greatest boost from the disaster at Fukushima, he said.

“We don’t see in the U.K. a need for any major departure from our strategy as a result of Fukushima. Safety remains our paramount concern but we see no reason today to divert from our published plans,” he said.

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