Cameco signs agreement with United States Enrichment Corp.SASKATOON Saskatoon (săskət  n`), city (1991 pop. 186,058), S central Sask., Canada, on the South Saskatchewan River. , SK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--July 29, 1996--Cameco Corp. announced Monday it has entered into an agreement with the United States United States, officially United States of America, republic (2005 est. pop. 295,734,000), 3,539,227 sq mi (9,166,598 sq km), North America. The United States is the world's third largest country in population and the fourth largest country in area. Enrichment Corp. (USEC USEC MicrosecondUSEC United States Enrichment Corporation USEC United States East Coast USEC Unity Security Force (gaming) USEC Universal Services Echo Canceller USEC Umts Security USEC User Based Security Model ) to develop the technology and demonstrate the technical and economic feasibility of converting uranium into feedstock for the advanced uranium enrichment process being developed by USEC. Known as atomic vapor laser isotope separation AVLIS Is an acronym which stands for atomic vapor laser isotope separation and is a method by which specially tuned lasers are used to separate isotopes of uranium using selective ionization of hyperfine transitions. In the largest technology transfer in U.S. (AVLIS AVLIS Atomic Vapor Laser Isotope Separation ), the enrichment process uses laser technology to enrich uranium--a necessary step in the manufacture of fuel for most nuclear energy plants. Cameco's involvement will be through its fuel services division in Ontario. The Blind River refinery will provide high-purity uranium trioxide uranium trioxide n. A poisonous radioactive orange powder, UO3, used for uranium refining and as a coloring agent in ceramics. (UO3) as an intermediate product, while the tests for the development and demonstration phases of the feedstock production technology will be conducted at the Port Hope conversion facilities. "We are extremely pleased to launch a commercial relationship with the world's largest provider of enrichment services and to apply our specialized know-how to advance Cameco's integration in the nuclear fuel cycle Nuclear fuel cycle The nuclear fuel cycle typically involves the following steps: (1) finding and mining the uranium ore; (2) refining the uranium from other elements; (3) enriching the uranium-235 content to 3–5%; (4) fabricating fuel elements; (5) ," said Bernard Michel, Cameco's chair, president and chief executive officer. Cameco's processing plants currently produce refined UO3 and provide uranium hexafluoride Uranium hexafluoride (UF6), referred to as "hex" in industry, is a compound used in the uranium enrichment process that produces fuel for nuclear reactors and nuclear weapons. (UF6) as feedstock for existing enrichment plants which use gaseous diffusion Gaseous diffusion is a technology used to produce enriched uranium by forcing gaseous uranium hexafluoride, UF6, through semi-permeable membranes. This produces a slight separation between the molecules containing uranium-235 and uranium-238. or gas centrifuge The gas centrifuge is a hyper-centrifuge used to separate gases. Its most common use is to produce enriched uranium. For uranium enrichment it requires far less energy to achieve the same separation than the older gaseous diffusion process that it has mostly replaced. technologies. "We are delighted to welcome Cameco to the AVLIS team," said USEC president and chief executive officer William H. Timbers William Homer Timbers (September 5, 1915 - November 26, 1994) was a longtime federal judge in the United States. Timbers graduated from Dartmouth College and Yale Law School. , Jr. "Cameco brings a wealth of technical expertise as a major supplier of uranium refining and conversion services." Following completion of the approximately two-year AVLIS feedstock demonstration project, the partners will assess the feasibility of proceeding to the construction of a full-scale production facility. The feasibility study The analysis of a problem to determine if it can be solved effectively. The operational (will it work?), economical (costs and benefits) and technical (can it be built?) aspects are part of the study. Results of the study determine whether the solution should be implemented. will evaluate many factors including the plant location options and the regulatory approvals necessary to proceed with construction and commercial production operation. "If the demonstration phase is successful and USEC proceeds with commercial development of AVLIS, the Cameco/USEC partnership would produce AVLIS feedstock using UO3 from Blind River, consolidating Cameco's position in the uranium conversion sector," Michel said. Cameco, with its headquarters in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, is the world's largest publicly traded uranium company and a growing gold producer. It has uranium and gold mining operations in Saskatchewan, uranium processing facilities in Ontario and a gold mine under construction in Kyrgyzstan, Central Asia. USEC, a global nuclear energy company, produces and markets uranium enrichment services to 64 utilities that own and operate commercial nuclear plants in 14 countries, including the United States. With its headquarters in Bethesda, Md., USEC manages gaseous diffusion plants in Paducah, Kentucky Paducah is a city in McCracken County, Kentucky at the confluence of the Tennessee River and the Ohio River. The population was 26,307 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of McCracken County. and near Portsmouth, Ohio This article or section needs sources or references that appear in reliable, third-party publications. Alone, primary sources and sources affiliated with the subject of this article are not sufficient for an accurate encyclopedia article. and conducts AVLIS development and demonstration activities in Livermore, California Livermore is a city in Alameda County, California, United States. The population was 80,723 as of January 1, 2007.[2] Livermore is located in the San Francisco Bay Area. Livermore is a "major suburb" of the Bay Area. . USEC operations include approximately 5,000 people. USEC is a US government corporation in the process of privatizing. See the following Cameco and USEC fact sheets. CAMECO CORPORATION Overview World's Largest Publicly Traded Uranium Company And Growing Gold Producer Strength in uranium... Cameco operates and owns two-thirds of the world's two largest, high-grade uranium mines Uranium mining is presently carried out in more than 25 countries around the world. An estimated 100 or more uranium mines in different stages of development are reported. Major uranium mines are located in Canada, Australia and Kazakhstan that contribute more than half of world's uranium at Key Lake and Rabbit Lake Rabbit Lake can refer to:
Our future is secured by majority ownership in Cigar Lake and McArthur River, the two largest uranium projects under development in the world, located in northern Saskatchewan. Our share of reserves and resources from these deposits is more than 400 million pounds at an average grade about 100 times the world average. Commercial production is scheduled for 1999, subject to governmental approval following the environmental review process now in progress. Integrated value-added producer... Cameco has refining and conversion plants in Ontario. At Blind River, it operates the world's largest refinery which produces high-purity uranium trioxide (UO3). With the Port Hope conversion plants, Cameco is one of four western world commercial suppliers of uranium hexafluoride (UF6), which, after further processing, becomes the fuel used in most nuclear reactors. Cameco supplies about 20 percent of the western market for UF6. In addition, Cameco is the only commercial converter of natural uranium dioxide or UO2, the fuel used in the Canadian-built Candu reactor. International customer base... Our customers are utility companies located in 14 countries around the globe. They buy uranium from our mines or purchase refining and conversion services from our facilities in Ontario or both. Cameco supplies about 15 percent of nuclear reactors' uranium requirements in the western world. These nuclear plants generate electricity, providing one of the cleanest sources of energy available today. Diversity in gold... While uranium is Cameco's core business, the company also mines gold in Saskatchewan as well as operates and owns one-third of the Kumtor gold project located in Kyrgyzstan in Central Asia. Kumtor is expected to produce 500,000 ounces of gold annually beginning in 1997. Global Exploration... Cameco has an extensive exploration program for uranium and gold in Canada, the United States, Mexico, South America, Australia and Central Asia. Publicly traded... Cameco's is owned 90 percent by public shareholders and 10 percent by the government of Saskatchewan. The company's 53 million shares are traded on the Toronto, Montreal and New York stock exchanges New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) World's largest marketplace for securities. The exchange began as an informal meeting of 24 men in 1792 on what is now Wall Street in New York City. . For more Cameco information... Please contact the corporate relations department by phone 306/956-6400 or fax 306/956-6318. UNITED STATES ENRICHMENT CORPORATION The United States Enrichment Corporation, a subsidiary of USEC Inc. NYSE: USU, is a corporation that contracts with the United States Department of Energy to produce enriched uranium for use in nuclear power plants. The Energy Policy Act of 1992, a U.S. USEC Fact Sheet The United States Enrichment Corp. (USEC) is a government corporation that produces and markets uranium enrichment services to more than 64 utilities that own and operate commercial nuclear power plants in 14 countries, including the United States. With headquarters located in Bethesda, Maryland, USEC manages gaseous diffusion plants in Paducah, Kentucky and near Portsmouth, Ohio. USEC also conducts development and demonstration activities in Livermore, California, for Atomic Vapor Laser Isotope Separation (AVLIS)--a new uranium enrichment process. USEC, which had fiscal 1995 revenues of approximately $1.6 billion, serves about four-fifths of the domestic market and over one-third of the world market. Uranium enrichment accounts for about six percent of U.S. energy exports. Congress created USEC under the Energy Policy Act of 1992 (Public Law 102-486) to restructure the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) uranium enrichment program. USEC was established as a government corporation to compete more aggressively in the world marketplace; to ensure a continued, reliable domestic source of uranium enrichment services; to support U.S. National security objectives; and to implement the transition into a fully privatized commercial business. As set forth in the Act, USEC assumed operation of DOE's uranium enrichment program on July 1, 1993, and submitted a privatization privatization: see nationalization. privatization Transfer of government services or assets to the private sector. State-owned assets may be sold to private owners, or statutory restrictions on competition between privately and publicly owned plan to the President and Congress on June 30, 1995. The Act called for the creation of a Board of Directors, appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate. The Chairman of the Board, designated by the President, oversees the corporation. The Board, operating on a part-time basis, is responsible for setting the policies and objectives for USEC. It also is charged with making business decisions that maximize the value of USEC to the U.S. Treasury U.S. Treasury Created in 1798, the United States Department of the Treasury is the government (Cabinet) department responsible for issuing all Treasury bonds, notes and bills. Some of the government branches operating under the U.S. Treasury umbrella include the IRS, U.S. and with directing USEC in its transition into a private corporation. The Chairman of the Board is William J. Rainer. The other directors are Margaret Hornbeck Greene and Kneeland C. Youngblood, M.D. The Board appointed William H. Timbers, Jr. president and chief executive officer of USEC in March 1994. Prior to that, Mr. Timbers served as transition manager for the corporation, where he was responsible for start-up activities. President Clinton appointed him USEC transition manager in March 1993. Nuclear energy, which provides approximately 22 percent of the nation's electricity and 17 percent of worldwide electricity consumption, requires enriched uranium to fuel nuclear reactors. Following mining of the uranium, the ore is sent to a mill where it is chemically treated to extract uranium oxide (U3O8) commonly known as "yellowcake yel·low·cake n. The concentrated oxide of uranium formed in the milling of uranium ore. Noun 1. yellowcake - an impure mixture of uranium oxides obtained during the processing of uranium ore U308 ." Uranium oxide contains two primary isotopes: U-235 and U-238. The process of increasing the concentration of U-235 and decreasing U-238 is called enrichment, and it is performed in USEC's gaseous diffusion plants. To prepare the uranium for enrichment, the yellowcake is put through a number of chemical processes to produce uranium hexafluoride (UF6). After enrichment, the uranium is fabricated into reactor fuel by commercial fuel fabricators. CONTACT: Cameco Corp. Alice Wong, 306/956-6337, 306/956-6318 (FAX) or United States Enrichment Corp. Joe Tomkowicz, 301/564-3345, 301/564-3211 (FAX) |
|
||||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion