Word: cameco
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Since uranium was discovered at McArthur River in 1988, its corporate owner, Cameco, based in Saskatoon, Sask., has spent $277 million to develop it. Considering that the price of uranium has languished below the cost of production for most of the intervening years, Cameco's investment might seem like a fool's wager--until you look at what is happening in the battered market for U3O8, the raw uranium that's refined and enriched for use in nuclear reactors...
Even as the debate over long-term storage of spent nuclear fuel raged during the 1990s, U.S. uranium consumption rose about 35% over the decade, to about 55 million lbs. in 2001. That makes Cameco's bet on McArthur River--and the firm's nearby mine, Cigar Lake, which could begin production around mid-decade--look a lot less foolish...
...bone, but a few hundred feet away, in a neighboring tunnel, a perpetual fine rain falls. The porous sandstone that encases the mine's ore zone is saturated, even in winter, with water melting from the frozen surface. To keep the water from pouring into the mining shafts, Cameco's engineers have pulled off a remarkable feat: using one of the world's largest refrigeration plants, they have literally frozen the ground immediately surrounding the mine. Within the ice curtain, the walls and floors stay...