Mining

Proposal Ready for New Mining Law

Friday, October 10, 2008

Finnish municipalities are to be given the right to refuse permission for the establishment of uranium mines in their territory. A working group preparing changes to Finnish mining legislation proposes that prospecting for uranium would remain legal, but that actually setting up a mine would require the consent of the municipality where it is located.

Finland's current mining law is about 50 years old. The law needs updating, because the present version was drafted at a time when mining was practised mainly by state-run companies. Now most mining companies are foreign, global players.

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Finnish local councils may be given veto on uranium mines

Thursday, October 9, 2008

A Finnish government working group tasked with proposing amendments to the Mining Act said in a report Wednesday that local councils should have the right to veto uranium mines.

Mauri Pekkarinen, the economic affairs minister, said as he was handed the report that the veto right was justified.

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Chinese tourists in Kyrgyzstan buy nuclear waste as souvenir

Monday, September 15, 2008

BEIJING, September 15 (RIA Novosti) - Three Chinese tourists have bought a 274-kg (604-lb) piece of depleted uranium and brought it home from Kyrgyzstan as a souvenir, the China Daily newspaper reported Monday.

The three tourists from the city of Aksu in the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region bought "the glittering treasure" for $2,000 at a flea market in Kyrgyzstan, hoping to make money by reselling it in China.

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Parties against renewal of uranium mining

Thursday, September 11, 2008

Liberec, Sept 11 (CTK) - Representatives of the strongest six parties that will run in the regional elections in October Thursday unanimously rejected the idea of uranium mining being renewed in the Liberec region.

The discussion meeting today was organised by a local NGO to show politicians' position on the issue many locals worry about.

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Nuclear waste dumps threaten environment

Wednesday, September 10, 2008

MAILUU-SUU, 10 September 2008 (IRIN) - "I carry clean [drinking] water with my truck to the villages upstream almost on a daily basis. I was born here and I remember that in the past the road on this side of the river was closed to traffic. They say that was because of some mines and radioactive waste tailings," Bakyt told IRIN in Kairygach, about 10-15 minutes' drive from Mailuu-Suu.

There are some signs warning about radioactivity - meaning there are waste dumps located not far from the road and the river. Actual waste dumps are natural or artificial holes filled with the toxic waste and covered with soil as a protective cover.

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Lack of power and water cap Namibian uranium output

Friday, September 5, 2008

LONDON (Reuters) - A shortage of energy and water will cap future uranium mine expansion in Namibia, but the country hopes to ease the bottlenecks through desalination and a new coal-fired power plant, an industry body said on Wednesday.

The government has issued some 50 exclusive prospecting licenses for more uranium mining firms, but output of uranium is dependent on the availability of water.

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Areva applies to seek uranium in northern Finland

Monday, September 1, 2008

HELSINKI, Sept 1 (Reuters) - France's Areva submitted a claim to the Finnish government on Monday to search for uranium in northern Finland, the company said.

Areva Resources Finland said in a statement the exclusive, 5-year exploration claim was for a 108 sq km (41.7 square miles) parcel of land lying mostly in the municipality of Ranua in Lapland, 750 km north of Helsinki.

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Astana aims to become world's top uranium producer

Wednesday, August 6, 2008

Kazakhstan may have relinquished its arsenal of nuclear weapons after the collapse of the Soviet Union, but it is seeking to expand its role in a variety of atomic energy-related fields. The country hopes to outstrip rivals Canada and Australia next year to become the world’s biggest uranium producer.

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Uranium - blessing or curse?

Tuesday, October 9, 2007

DAKAR, 10 October 2007 (IRIN) - As the global demand for nuclear energy rises, analysts say the large amount of uranium in Niger is not a benefit to the country’s people but adds to the serious problems facing the region.

Niger, an impoverished country on the southern fringe of the Sahara desert, has one of the world’s largest reserves of uranium, the main source of nuclear fuel - but virtually nothing to show for it.

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Companies want to look green, but old habits persist

Sunday, March 4, 2007

While Hungarian citizens are getting more conscious about environmental issues and more interested in companies’ environmental record, an environmentally responsible image often remains an empty PR exercise, said Greenpeace spokesperson Szabina Mózes. “It looks interesting when we see an advertisement in which the Paks Nuclear Plant Zrt is photographed in a beautiful green environment, saying that this is ‘The energy of the future,’ but it’s hardly believable that nuclear energy is a clean solution.” Paks Nuclear Power Plant Zrt has also sponsored radio programs dedicated to environmental issues; positive action to be sure, Mózes opined, but such activities do not make nuclear energy environmentally friendly, nor do people believe they do. Mózes went on to say that such PR efforts may even result in a growing skepticism of consumers who have already learned not to believe in advertising.

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