GE-Hitachi forms uranium enrichment partnership AP Friday June 20, 12:00 pm ET GE-Hitachi, Canadian co. form partnership to commercially enrich uranium for nuclear plants HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) -- GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy and a Canadian uranium producer have formed a joint venture to commercially enrich uranium for nuclear power plants.Cameco Corp., based in Saskatchewan, will invest $123.8 million to acquire a 24 percent stake in the venture, Global Laser Enrichment. General Electric will hold 51 percent and Hitachi will own 25 percent. Global Laser Enrichment is expected to achieve commercial production by 2013. Fairfield-based General Electric Co. and Tokyo-based Hitachi Ltd. launched a joint nuclear business in July 2007 to capitalize on rising demand for electricity and increasing concerns about carbon dioxide emissions from coal-fired plants. Uranium producer joins GE-Hitachi joint venture: Financial News - Yahoo! Finance
Actually, Canadian uranium companies, should I say Crown Corporations, have had a long history in the development of nuclear weapons. A surprising amount of uranium for Little Boy came from Canada. The gaseous diffusion method of enrichment, resulting in uranium hexaflouride, was invented at McGill University. Indeed, many important advances in processing plutonium occured in Canada, not the US Canada's Role in the Atomic Bomb Programs of the US, UK, France & India
Not nuclear bombs. Nuclear power. A sign that big corporations see nuclear power as increasingly important in the future--as it probably has to be. The corporations are ahead of the politicians on alternative energy and reduced carbon. Their survival depends on it.
Not now. In the 1960's Canada had a handful, built in the US, for defense purposes. They were returned in the early 1970's Of course, Canada helped develop and build a lot of thermonuclear weapons. Oddly enough, a lot of Canadians are unaware of that, or prefer not to know of it I personally like the CANDU reactor design. It doesn't require such highly enriched uranium like other designs, it's automatically a "breeder" reactor and extremely efficient. CANDU Reactors After the initial uranium fuel cycle, the CANDU can run on thorium, which is far more plentiful and cheaper than uranium. Of course, being a breeder reactor, there is a lot of plutonium involved. Yes, some of that plutonium ended up in American, British, and French nuclear weapons A group of Canadian scientists involved with the CANDU program started the Canadian Coalition for Nuclear Responsibility. Their website is interesting reading to say the least. The Canadian Coalition for Nuclear Responsibility I have no doubt that nuclear power is needed to meet future energy needs. As folks demand more gadgets, and more comfort, and refuse to take any responsibility to moderate their energy consumption, we have no choice but to build more nuclear power plants
