People invested in Uranium Companies should be careful.
China is in the process of building 27 new nuclear
reactors; however, in the aftermath of the recent nuclear
catastrophe, caused by the earthquake, they have
halted all approvals for nuclear development.
Investors may make money on the short term, but not
on the long term. There is allot of uncertainty in the uranium
market. There is talk of 'nuclear catastrophe' in the papers,
like the New York Times.
Since the nuclear scare in Japan, people are hoarding supplies
from stores. The stores only put out a certain amount each day.
This is hurting those that need the supplies the most. Stricken
areas have shortages of food and water.
There is widespread fear of nuclear energy, its spurned from fear
of the unknown, information overload. The world is full of it.
Fear sells papers, a catastrophe happens and the newspapers are
all over it in a minute. Reporters make up information that they
don't have to make up their columns, and embellish the facts.
It happens all the time.
The German chancellor, Angela Merkel has recently ordered the
shutdown of 7 of its oldest nuclear plants.
People need to take what they read from the papers with a grain of
salt. Uranium is mined in 3 ways, Open Pit, Underground Mining, and
Insitu Recover (isr).
Recovered ore from above or under ground, the ore is sent to a
milling facility where it is crushed, and
processed for solution extraction in a contained and controlled
solution. With Insitu Recover, in North America, a solution
similar to carbonated water is pumped into the ground to disolve the
uranium which is highly soluble. It is the preferred method of uranium
mining. This reduces water needs, and is the safest method of mining.
The uranium is dried into a yellow powder called yellow cake and is shipped
to a conversion plate to become uranium hexofloride gas, enriched to fuel
grade material, coverted back to powder, and pressed into pellets.
The pellets are inserted into rods, assembled in fuel bundles. Several
hundred bundles make up a core. In the core fusion occurs and creates,
this creates heat, and in turn powers a turbine and generates electricity.
Spent fuel is radio active and requires long term care.
One of the methods to store the spent fuel is underground storage.
The U.S. currently stores about 345 000 spent Nuclear Fuel Rods in
pools of 360 gallons of water, and kept at a constant temperature.
The pools are filling up, and they are planning to store them
in concrete castes that are welded shut, and are leak proof, designed to
last for hundreds of years. Currently, the U.S. has no other
plans to store the radioactive material.
Where did most of the demand for uranium come from? Allot of it came from
U.S.’s and the USSR’s amassing nuclear warheads. Demand plummeted after
the fallout of the Cold War, and the incidents at Three Mile Island
and Chernobyl.
In 2003 the green energy movement started to get media and government attention.
Nuclear Power Plants generate zero emissions. Nuclear Energy was back,
but there were very few mines in production. It takes
nine years to develop a nuclear mine.
What about meltdowns? What about proper storage of spent fuel rods? Are they
crazy? Nobody thinks things through.
Look at what has happened here. Do you see a pattern?
I do. I own shares in a company called DBA Telecom. They kept themselves alive by
becoming a uranium mining company called Energy Fuels. My shares were consolidated, and became valueless.
At the moment the future of uranium is unknown. Until scientists, and
engineers understand how to make the process of using uranium to
power our homes, and business's safer, we need to be wary of buying
into the uranium sector.
