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Kazakhstan's uranium production will hit 13,500 metric tons in 2009, or up 58% from last year, making the ex-Soviet state the world's leading uranium producer, Kazatomprom said on Tuesday. "Consolidated revenue from the sale of Kazatomprom's output in 2009 will exceed last year's level by 53%," the country's nuclear holding company said in a statement. Kazatomprom earlier said it expected to receive a net income of 49 billion tenge ($326.6 million) in 2009. The company is currently developing areas like natural uranium conversion and enrichment, fuel production for reactors, and the creation and operation of small and medium-sized reactors. Kazatomprom is the national operator for the import and export of uranium, rare metals, nuclear fuel for power plants, special equipment and duel-purpose materials. The company is wholly owned by the government of Kazakhstan.

Kazakhstan's uranium production will hit 13,500 metric tons in 2009, or up 58% from last year, making the ex-Soviet state the world's leading uranium producer, Kazatomprom said on Tuesday. "Consolidated revenue from the sale of Kazatomprom's output in 2009 will exceed last year's level by 53%," the country's nuclear holding company said in a statement. Kazatomprom earlier said it expected to receive a net income of 49 billion tenge ($326.6 million) in 2009. The company is currently developing areas like natural uranium conversion and enrichment, fuel production for reactors, and the creation and operation of small and medium-sized reactors. Kazatomprom is the national operator for the import and export of uranium, rare metals, nuclear fuel for power plants, special equipment and duel-purpose materials. The company is wholly owned by the government of Kazakhstan.

The plan addresses the department's excess inventory of highly enriched uranium, depleted uranium, natural uranium and low-enriched uranium. That includes 67.6 metric tons of surplus HEU (stored at Y-12 in Oak Ridge) that currently is unallocated for any purpose. In a statement released by DOE, Assistant Secretary for Nuclear Energy Dennis Spurgeon said, "The plan will promote an efficient disposition approach that seeks to limit adverse material impacts on the domestic uranium mining, conversion and enrichment industries while maximizing the return to the U.S. government on sales of this valuable uranium."

Cameco Corp., the world's largest uranium producer, is suspending uranium-processing temporarily at a plant in Canada because of a dispute over supplies of hydrofluoric acid used in the production of nuclear fuel. Output of uranium hexafluoride at its Port Hope, Ontario, plant will be halted until the second half of next year because of "unreliable and expensive deliveries" of hydrofluoric acid, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan-based Cameco said today in a statement. The acid is used in uranium oxide's conversion into uranium hexafluoride, or UF6, a critical step in the fuel-making process.

"Uranium emissions that possibly exceeded the action level at Cameco's Port Hope Conversion Facility has the federal nuclear regulator asking for more emissions information from the company. According to a Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC) media release, the CNSC feels further improvements to Cameco's uranium dioxide (UO2) plant in-house stack sampling system and preventative maintenance program are needed after uranium emissions at the plant on June 29 potentially exceeded the action level. Based on a Cameco report, the CNSC determined the UO2 plant uranium emission rate was 7.21 gU/h (grams of uranium emissions per hour). Although this rate is well below the licensed limit of 150 gU/h, it is above the plant's action level of 7 gU/h."

"Gov. Gary Herbert is scheduled to meet Monday with the U.S. Department of Energy to discuss upcoming shipments of depleted uranium. The governor's office isn't saying much about what Herbert plans to talk about in Washington, D.C. with Inés Triay, the DOE's assistant secretary for environmental management. But the meeting comes just after the DOE's two-month deadline passed for the state to finalize its strategy for beefing up the EnergySolutions landfill in Tooele County for more depleted uranium. "The discussion [Monday] will focus on the status of the first shipment, which has already arrived in Utah but is being held in temporary storage, and the future of any future shipments of depleted uranium to Utah," said Angie Welling, spokeswoman for the Republican governor. During a Dec. 17 phone conversation, Herbert and the DOE agreed that a trainload of depleted uranium from the government cleanup at Savannah River, S.C., would come to Utah but not be buried for two months. "

Work to design and construct a uranium production and conversion plant will start in Yakutia, Russia's Far East in 2009, the head of a local mining company said on Tuesday. "Pre-design work initiated by Rosatom [Russia's nuclear power corporation], which has a 100% stake in the plant, is being carried out, and investment feasibility study to run until March 2009 has started," said Alexander Morozkin, general director of the Elkon mining plant. The plant will annually process up to 5,000 tons of uranium ore, priced at within $80 per kg. The average world price of 1 kg of uranium is between $170 and $250. The plant will also produce gold and silver, and molybdenum has also been discovered at the Elkon deposit.

Resumes UF6 production at Ontario plant * Had expected to resume output in third quarter * No change to fuel services production outlook TORONTO, June 17 (Reuters) - Cameco Corp (CCO.TO) said on Wednesday it has restarted production of uranium hexafluoride (UF6) at its Port Hope, Ontario, nuclear fuel conversion facility, slightly ahead of schedule. The uranium producer suspended production of UF6 -- used in the uranium enrichment process -- last December after failing to come to terms with its main supplier of hydrofluoric acid, which is needed to produce UF6.

The University of Wisconsin Research Reactor and Neutron Radiography Reactor at INL have been converted from the use of highly enriched uranium (HEU) to low enriched uranium (LEU) fuel. The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) has now converted or verified the shutdown of a total of 67 HEU research reactors around the world. The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), in cooperation with Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), the University of Wisconsin, the Idaho National Laboratory (INL), and the Department of Energy's Office of Nuclear Energy recently completed the conversion of the two research reactors through NNSA's Global Threat Reduction Initiative (GTRI).

The University of Wisconsin Research Reactor and Neutron Radiography Reactor at INL have been converted from the use of highly enriched uranium (HEU) to low enriched uranium (LEU) fuel. The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) has now converted or verified the shutdown of a total of 67 HEU research reactors around the world. The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), in cooperation with Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), the University of Wisconsin, the Idaho National Laboratory (INL), and the Department of Energy's Office of Nuclear Energy recently completed the conversion of the two research reactors through NNSA's Global Threat Reduction Initiative (GTRI).

HEATHGATE Resources wants to build a uranium conversion plant at its Beverley mine to add greater value to the raw material it mines at the site. Heathgate president David Williams said it was time to consider conversion, which is the stage before uranium is enriched in preparation for use as a nuclear fuel. "You are still not into the contentious stage. Why couldn't we do a conversion in Australia?" Mr Williams says in an interview in today's SA Weekend magazine. "Why couldn't we do that value add in Australia? "I think that will be an interesting debate to go forward. Are we simply going to stay as an exporter of the raw material or are we going to do a bit more?"

The U.S. Department of Energy is now looking for a company to operate two depleted uranium hexafluoride conversion facilities in Portsmouth and Paducah, Kentucky. The estimated value of the five-year contracts is $350 to $450 million. The company would oversee conversion of D-O-E's inventory of depleted uranium to a more stable chemical form acceptable for transportation, reuse, or disposal. This inventory is the so-called legacy waste from uranium enrichment that started as part of atomic bomb development by the Manhattan Project during World War Two.

"Notice of Intent To Prepare an Environmental Impact Statement for the Proposed International Isotopes Uranium Processing Facility AGENCY: Nuclear Regulatory Commission. ACTION: Notice of Intent. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- SUMMARY: International Isotopes Fluorine Products, Inc. (IIFP), a wholly owned subsidiary of International Isotopes, Inc. (INIS), submitted a license application, which included an Environmental Report (ER) on December 30, 2009, that proposes the construction, operation, and decommissioning of a fluorine extraction and depleted uranium de- conversion facility to be located near Hobbs in Lea County, New Mexico. The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), in accordance with the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and its regulations in 10 Code of Federal Regulations Part 51, announces its intent to prepare an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) evaluating this proposed action. The EIS will examine the potential environmental impacts of the proposed INIS facility. DATES: NRC invites public comments on the appropriate scope of issues to be considered in the EIS. The public scoping process required by NEPA begins with publication of this Notice of Intent. Written comments submitted by mail should be postmarked by no later than August 30, 2010 to ensure consideration. Comments mailed after that date will be considered to the extent practical. "

The Department of Energy's Office of Environmental anagement (EM) manages approximately 700,000 metric tons of depleted uranium hexafluoride at the gaseous diffusion plants located near Paducah, Kentucky. and Portsmouth, Ohio. It plans to convert the depleted uranium hexafluoride to a stable material. The conversion process will produce approximately 55 1,000 metric tons of depleted uranium oxide - a relatively stable form that can be handled and disposed of by direct burial or, potentially, used in various materials or products. Over a period of about 13 years, the Department has conducted research which established that the oxide could possibly be used in catalysts, semiconductors, nuclear repository applications and radiation shielding products.

The suspension of uranium hexafluoride (UF6) production at Cameco Corp.'s Port Hope, Ont., conversion facility will result in layoffs at the plant but will not affect its uranium production in Saskatchewan, the company says. Cameco Corp. announced Friday it has temporarily suspended UF6 production at Port Hope due to a contract dispute with its hydrofluoric acid (HF) supplier. The Saskatoon-based company, one of the world's largest uranium producers, says the dispute has resulted in unreliable and expensive deliveries of HF.

"Mexico is saying it will work with the United States and Canada to convert its highly enriched uranium reactor, removing the potential bomb-making materials. The agreement is being announced at the 47-nation Nuclear Security Summit called by President Barack Obama to refocus world attention on the dangers of nuclear materials reaching terrorist hands. The move is a step toward Mexico's conversion to a reactor that operates on low enriched uranium, a lesser danger for weapons use."

Local residents used a public meeting to ask how dangerous a highly enriched uranium gas would be if it escaped from a proposed East Tennessee processing line. During a question-and-answer meeting on Thursday, officials from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission said the quantities of uranium hexaflouride proposed to be processed in the new facility at Nuclear Fuel Services are so small as to not pose a serious hazard.

"EnergySolutions Inc., as the managing partner for Uranium Disposition Services (UDS), marked the commencement of the initial operation of the DUF6 Conversion Facility at the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant. EnergySolutions, working closely with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), took control of the project in 2007 to manage the operational reviews and construction, completing the project within budget and ahead of schedule. Working closely with AREVA NP Inc. and Burns and Roe Enterprises, the work involved managing the operational reviews and construction. The facilities will be used to convert DOE inventory of depleted uranium hexafluoride (DUF6) into a stable form for beneficial use, re-use and/or disposal."

The Department of Energy (DOE) last week released a request for proposals (RFP) for a contractor to perform Depleted Uranium Hexafluoride (DUF6) Operations at the two DUF6 conversion facilities at Piketon and Paducah, Kentucky. The procurement will be for a single contractor to be awarded two cost-plus-award-fee contracts. The contract period will be for five years with a total estimated cost for the two contracts of $350-450 million. These facilities will convert DOE's inventory of DUF6, located at the Portsmouth and Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plants, into a stable chemical form that will be acceptable for transportation, reuse or disposal. The contractor will also provide cylinder surveillance and maintenance of the DUF6, low-enrichment uranium hexafluoride (UF6) and natural assay UF6 as well as empty the cylinders that store the DUF6 in a safe and environmentally acceptable manner. The contracts are expected to be awarded in 2010

Canada's Cameco Corporation and Kazatomprom of Kazakhstan have announced the formation of a new joint-owned company, Ulba Conversion LLP, to move forward with development work on a 12,000 tonne uranium hexafluoride conversion facility in Kazakhstan.

International Isotopes Inc. has selected a site in Lea County, New Mexico, for the construction of International Isotopes' depleted uranium de-conversion and fluorine extraction processing facility. According to a release, International Isotopes had narrowed its site selection to Eastern Idaho, Andrews County, Texas, and Lea County, New Mexico. The New Mexico location is about 15 miles west of Hobbs, NM. INIS announced its plans to construct the de-conversion facility in 2008 and has since been working on site selection, plant design, and licensing.