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SA uranium industry might pick up 0 COMMENTS | ADD A COMMENT PRINT EMAIL | By: Megan Wait 2nd April 2010 TEXT SIZE Text Smaller Disabled Text Bigger Since the early 1980s, the search for alternative energy has resulted in the demand for triuranium octa- oxide (U3O8) increasing significantly and has, in some years, also resulted in demand exceeding production. In 2009, the global uranium industry supplied some 50 000 t of U3O8, the World Nuclear Association reports. In South Africa, uranium production has generally been a by-product of gold or copper mining. Today, the country produces over 600 t/y of U3O8 from uranium slurries trucked in from a number of South African gold mines and diversified miner Rio Tinto’s Palabora copper mine. Significant uranium developments in South Africa include projects such as uranium-miner Rand Uranium’s Randfontein mine, gold-miner AngloGold Ashanti’s Vaal river uranium project and Canada-based First Uranium’s Buffelsfontein mine. Randfontein Rand Uranium reports that it plans to reopen part of the Randfontein mine, which produced uranium in the 1980s. It has identified a Joint Ore Reserve Committee-compliant resource of some 41 000 t of uranium in tailings and underground. The company also says that it will invest R3,5-billion in the construction of a new uranium- processing plant, located near its Cooke operations. The announcement of the construction of the processing plant followed the successful completion of the feasibility studies in December last year. The plant will have the capacity to treat 450 000 t/m of uranium-containing ores, with a yearly treatment capacity of 5,4-million tons. The uranium plant will receive and process ore recovered from the Cooke tailings dam, which contains 83-million tons of uranium ore and is expected to operate for nearly 17 years. Vaal River Uranium AngloGold Ashanti originally intended to build a second new uranium recovery plant for processing the Kopanang mine ore. However, the project has been reconstituted into an upgrade and expansion of the existing uranium recovery plant to service all three of AngloGold Ashanti’s mines, which include uranium-bearing properties and operations in a single plant. The upgrade and expansion of the plant will increase production from the current 1,2-million pounds to 1,4-million pounds a year, to about 1,8-million pounds a year in future. Buffelsfontein First Uranium is building a larger $260-million processing plant, known as the Mine Waste Solutions (MWS) plant at its Buffelsfontein mine, which has 25 000 t of uranium as estimated reserves in old mine tailings. The provincial government approved the construction of the MWS plant in July 2009; how- ever, the company experienced some difficulties as the North West provincial government had “unexpectedly” withdrawn its environmental authorisation (EA) pending the resolution of an appeal under the National Environmental Management Act. This has since been resolved and the key environmental approval has been reinstated. Nuclear Industry Development in South Africa Currently, the South African nuclear indus- try is in disarray. Before 2006, there had been no intention to build further power stations, such as the Koeberg nuclear power generation plant, in the Western Cape province, but government announced in early 2006 that it was considering building a further pressurised water reactor (PWR) nuclear plant, possibly at Koeberg, to boost electricity supplies in the Cape province. Early in 2007, government parastatal Eskom’s board approved a plan to double generating capacity to 80 GW by 2025, including the construction of 20 gigawatt-electricity (GWe) of new nuclear capacity, so that the nuclear contribution to power generation would rise from 5% to more than 25% and coal’s contribution would fall from 87% to below 70%. The new programme would start with up to 4 GWe of PWR capacity to be built from 2010, with the first unit to be commissioned in 2016. The environmental assessment process for the so-called ‘Nuclear-1’ project considered five sites, and the selection of the reactor technology was to follow in 2008. Nuclear reactor company Areva, of France, and Westinghouse, of the US, offered to build the full 20 GWe – with either a further ten large Areva units or 17 Westinghouse AP1000 PWR units to be built by 2025. However, in December 2008, Eskom announced that it would not proceed with either of the bids from Areva and Westing-house, owing to a lack of finance, and the government confirmed a delay of several years. It is hoped that this programme to acquire new PWRs will be reactivated this year. French power generation and railway equipment manufacturer and services company Alstom reports that it will be bidding for work on the PWR, aiming to supply its Arabelle steam turbine. The turbine is designed to cover the generation range of 1 000 MW to 2 000 MW. In the meantime, South Africa is continuing the development of its pebble-bed modular reactor (PBMR) project for a smaller, modular fourth-generation reactor. In February 2010, the reactor building company, the Pebble-Bed Modular Reactor Company, announced that it had signed an agreement with Japan’s Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) to “explore cooperation between the two companies to enable the construction of the first PBMR reactor” and to conduct research and development (R&D) activities for the 200-MW design. Last year, the company experienced a slight delay in the construction of the plant, as the company planned modifications to the PBMR design from a direct cycle, gas-turbine concept intended for electricity generation to an indirect, steam turbine concept that can generate electricity or be used for process heat purposes. Originally, the company planned to develop a dedicated electricity-generating PBMR unit, but instead opted for developing a dual- role reactor. The aim was to create a system which could service both the electricity and process heat markets. Further, the announcement stated that the latest design “was aimed at steam pro- cess heat applications operating at 720 °C, which provides the basis for penetrating the nuclear heat market as a viable alternative for carbon-burning, high-emission heat sources”. MHI had been involved in the project since 2001, having completed the basic design and R&D of the helium-driven turbo generator system and core barrel assembly, the significant components of the 400-MW direct- cycle design. However, the PBMR project has effectively been cancelled as government has significantly cut spending and diverted funds to other projects, such as Eskom’s new build programmes. Edited by: Shannon De Ryhove |
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| Autor (Datum des Eintrages): | stargold123 (02.04.10 02:09:59) |
| Beitrag: | 81 von 150 (ID:39267674) |
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