Nuclear power and the fuel cycle

2: Reprocessing is approximately $600 per kg with $400 for disposal of resultant wastete
Source: World Nuclear Association

2 Mining

Australia has three operating mines at the present time, Ranger, Olympic Dam and Beverly. These and a group of some 10 exploration and development prospects account for probably more than 23 per cent of the world's reserves. Australia sells about 7,000 tonnes of yellowcake a year with a value of some US$800 million.

Growing world demand for uranium is creating a substantial opportunity for Australia. Demand for uranium is expected to remain strong. Electricity demand is increasing twice as fast as overall energy use and is likely to rise 76 per cent to 2030. The Asian region is projected to more than double it needs by 2030. Nuclear power generation provided about 14 per cent of world electricity demand in 2007 and despite the events at Fukushima the building of new nuclear power generators will continue.

An often heard claim is that with limited uranium resources there is a limited supply life of 50 years so nuclear reactors are merely a short term source of energy. However there has been very little recent exploration for uranium given the present resources and political constraints. There will be a limit to the resource but there are very substantial global reserves. For the right price uranium can even be recovered from sea water.

There is of course the development of breeder reactors and talk of a thorium based nuclear fuel that would substantially extend any resource limitations.

Mining uranium has important environmental benefits that extend beyond mitigating carbon emissions. An important comparison in exporting energy is that shipping 7,000 tonnes of yellowcake is the energy equivalent of shipping 140 million tonnes of thermal coal. Australia's present thermal coal exports are around 100 million tonnes requiring. This requires between 3,000 and 4,000 voyages of bulk carriers through environmental sensitive regions, such as the Great Barrier Reef. Export coal also has an environmental impact through the provision of harbours and railways. Enhancing uranium exports is an environmentally preferable means of addressing growing global demand for energy.

3. Conversion and Enrichment

The conversion of yellowcake to uranium hexafluoride is a small value adding step and plants are located in countries that have enrichment plants.

The development of enrichment plants has evolved with technological advances that have improved the energy efficiency of the process. The first plants were energy intensive and used gaseous diffusion to enrich the uranium. It has been estimated that seven per cent of the US electricity demand was from enrichment plants at the height of the cold war when 90 per cent U-235 was required not the reactor grades of 3-4 percent for power generation. The development of centrifuge separation dropped the energy demand dramatically. Most plants use centrifuge technology but diffusion plants still operate in France and the USA.

Laser separation should offer a further reduction in energy needs. This approach may result in a highly profitable business if prices are set by the use of diffusion or centrifuge technologies. Global Laser Enrichment uses the technology developed by Silex Systems of Australia and licensed exclusively to the General Electric Company (GE) in 2006. GE, Hitachi (Japan) and Cameco (Canada) are all investors in Global Laser Enrichment. The technology is moving through development stages and a commercial production facility is being designed in order to obtain an operating licence. This might be granted as early as January 2012.

The lack of interest shown by the larger Australian mining and energy companies is no doubt due to the absence of an enabling regulatory regime. Thus a pioneering Australian technological breakthrough could not be developed in this country. As a consequence, a business opportunity has been lost where the technology should have delivered a major cost advantage over existing operations.