All posts tagged: uranium

BWXT and ORNL partner to advance US uranium enrichment

BWXT and ORNL partner to advance US uranium enrichment

Published by skeptic

BWX Technologies and Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) have formalised a partnership aimed at strengthening domestic uranium enrichment capability for defence purposes. The organisations recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) outlining cooperation on the Domestic Uranium Enrichment Centrifuge Experiment, commonly known as DUECE. The initiative supports a broader effort by the Department of Energy to rebuild a reliable domestic supply of enriched uranium that can be used in national security missions. Federal officials have identified this capability as a priority as the United States seeks to reduce dependence on foreign enrichment services for sensitive defence-related materials. The agreement formalises the collaboration that has been developing around the DUECE project and establishes a framework for further research, engineering development, and the eventual deployment of the enrichment system. Commenting on the partnership, Stephen Streiffer, ORNL laboratory director, said: “This MOU solidifies our shared commitment to the DOE’s vital defence priorities by combining ORNL’s innovative centrifuge designs with BWXT’s proven industrial expertise. “Together, we’re restoring a capability the US hasn’t had since 2013 to enable a secure …

ASP Isotopes Jump On “Material Progress Toward Commercial Uranium Enrichment”

ASP Isotopes Jump On “Material Progress Toward Commercial Uranium Enrichment”

Published by Jenni Sidey

Just days after we covered the story on Quantum Leap Energy’s non-binding MOU with a major U.S. nuclear utility, Canaccord Genuity analyst George Gianarikas reiterated his buy rating on the beaten down ASP Isotopes, with an $11 price target citing “material progress” toward commercial uranium enrichment on two continents. On February 23, QLE inked a Pre-Implementation Services Contract with South Africa’s Necsa to site, design, build, and operate an enrichment facility at the Pelindaba complex. The deal gives QLE access to existing nuclear infrastructure, utilities, and a joint oversight committee. Gianarikas says it’s the clearest signal yet that licensed HALEU production in South Africa is moving from lab to market readiness. The March 6 MOU we highlighted last week adds the U.S. piece: the unnamed utility will potentially help stand up domestic HALEU and LEU+ enrichment, conversion, and deconversion capacity while discussing offtake and financing. That’s critical ahead of the 2028 Russian uranium import ban we’ve repeatedly flagged as the biggest catalyst for non-adversarial supply chains. The report also spotlights accelerating LEU+ adoption by conventional …

Esper: Sending special forces to find enriched uranium in Iran would be ‘very perilous’ mission

Esper: Sending special forces to find enriched uranium in Iran would be ‘very perilous’ mission

Published by Sam Flores

Former Defense Secretary Mark Esper said late Monday that any U.S. military mission to secure Iran’s stockpile of highly enriched uranium would be “very perilous.” President Trump has reportedly expressed serious interest in deploying a small contingent of U.S. troops inside Iran to secure some 900 pounds of the nuclear material at a later stage… Source link

India and Canada strike ‘landmark’ uranium supply deal

India and Canada strike ‘landmark’ uranium supply deal

Published by Sam Flores

India and Canada on Monday reached a string of agreements, including on critical mineral cooperation and a “landmark” uranium supply deal for nuclear power, the countries’ leaders said in New Delhi. The pacts, which also covered technology and promoting the use of renewable energy, were announced after Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Canadian counterpart Mark Carney hailed a fresh start in the relationship between their nations. “Our ties have seen a new energy, mutual trust, and positivity,” Modi said. Ties effectively collapsed in 2023 after Ottawa accused New Delhi of orchestrating a deadly campaign against Sikh activists in Canada, accusations India rejected. Read moreCanadian PM Mark Carney heads to India to boost trade and repair ties Carney’s visit – his first to India since taking office last year – is not only aimed to reset strained ties, but also to push efforts to diversify trade beyond the United States. “There has been more engagement between the Canadian and Indian governments in the last year than there has been in more than two decades combined,” Carney said …

On Gold, Oil, & Uranium

On Gold, Oil, & Uranium

Published by Jenni Sidey

LIVE NOW: https://t.co/vkouSL7UhD — zerohedge (@zerohedge) February 25, 2026 Billionaire natural resources investor Rick Rule, legendary short-seller Bill Fleckenstein, and veteran oil trader Erik Townsend join ZeroHedge this evening at 7PM ET to give their outlooks on three key commodities sectors: Gold, Oil, and Uranium. Gold and silver have, of course, exploded in price over the last 52 weeks with gold’s price almost doubling and reaching a high of over $5500. Silver’s price more than tripled at one point and now sits ($87.50) just under 3X where it sat in February of last year ($32.93). Given the fast and intense rise, Rule recently reduced his silver position though remains long mining stocks. Time to Rotate into Oil? Oil on the other hand is down YoY, making it perhaps the most attractive commodity due to it being relatively cheap. Oil stocks are Rule’s number one investment position due to what he says is decades of massive underinvestment, a thesis he will expand upon this evening. Lastly, uranium mining stocks have seen a meteoric rise rivaling that of …

Georgia Arrests Two Foreigners Trying to Purchase Uranium

Georgia Arrests Two Foreigners Trying to Purchase Uranium

Published by Sam Flores

TBILISI, Feb 19 (Reuters) – Georgia has ⁠detained ⁠two people who attempted ⁠to purchase $3 million worth of uranium and ​a cache of a radioactive isotope found in nuclear weapons testing ‌programmes, the national security ‌service said on Thursday. Two foreign nationals from unspecified ⁠countries were ⁠arrested in the city of Kutaisi, the State Security ​Service said in a statement. “They were planning to illegally purchase nuclear material uranium and radioactive substance Cesium 137 for $3 million and ​illegally transport it to the territory of another country,” ⁠it said. It ⁠said other foreigners had ⁠been ​arriving in Georgia in recent weeks with the aim of ​purchasing and transporting ⁠the nuclear and radioactive materials, without elaborating further. The statement did not specify the quantity of materials the individuals were attempting to procure. There were no details on the ⁠substances’ origin or potential destination. Cesium 137 is a radioactive isotope present ⁠primarily in the aftermath of nuclear weapons testing and nuclear power plant accidents such as the Chernobyl disaster in then-Soviet Ukraine in 1986. The security of …

Iran Says It Could Dilute Enriched Uranium if All Sanctions Are Lifted

Iran Says It Could Dilute Enriched Uranium if All Sanctions Are Lifted

Published by Sam Flores

DUBAI, Feb 9 (Reuters) – Iran could agree to dilute its most highly enriched ‌uranium ​in exchange for all financial sanctions being ‌lifted, its atomic chief said on Monday, one of the most direct indications so far ​of its position at talks with Washington. U.S. and Iranian diplomats held talks through Omani mediators in Oman last week in an effort to revive ‍diplomacy, after U.S. President Donald Trump positioned ​a naval flotilla in the region raising fears of new military action. The talks follow a crackdown on anti-government demonstrations in Iran last ​month when thousands ⁠of people were killed, the biggest domestic unrest since the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Trump joined an Israeli bombing campaign last year and hit Iranian nuclear sites. He also threatened last month to intervene militarily during the protests but ultimately held off. Washington has demanded Iran relinquish its stockpile – estimated last year by the UN nuclear agency at more than 440 kg – of uranium enriched to up ‌to 60% fissile purity, a small step away from the 90% that …

Russia Offers To Remove All Enriched Uranium From Iran

Russia Offers To Remove All Enriched Uranium From Iran

Published by Jenni Sidey

On potential upcoming US-Iran talks, the two sides can’t agree on scope – with Washington wanting to go beyond just the nuclear sphere and into the question of Tehran putting limits on its ballistic missile arsenal. The Iranians have given a firm no on this, and so the talks look doomed to fail. But Russia is now offering – or at least reiterating – a potentially huge overture. “Moscow is willing to take what remains of Iran’s enriched uranium,” Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has said Wednesday. “At the same time, it is important to note that the aforementioned stockpiles belong to Iran. Their presence in no way contradicts Tehran’s obligations under the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons,” Zakharova stressed in a  fresh press briefing, as quoted by Kommersant. This explanation backs the longtime insistence by Iranian leadership that its nuclear development is only for peaceful domestic energy, and not for weapons. “Tehran has full rights to the material, including deciding whether to remove it from Iranian territory and where to export it,”  Zakharova …

France is still trading uranium with Russia, nearly four years after Ukraine invasion

France is still trading uranium with Russia, nearly four years after Ukraine invasion

Published by Sam Flores

Cylinders of uranium from Russia are unloaded at the Port of Dunkerque, northern France, March 20, 2023. SAMEER AL-DOUMY/AFP Since the start of the war in Ukraine in February 2022, the Russian energy sector has been broadly targeted by 19 rounds of European sanctions. Coal, oil and gas have all been affected. However, the nuclear industry has been completely spared and remains the exception. In Brussels, discussions about potential sanctions, initially planned for June 2025, were postponed. At a time when France is described as one of the main countries opposing a full ban on Russian nuclear deliveries, a report published on Wednesday, January 28, by the anti-nuclear NGO Greenpeace once again underscored that the trading of uranium, the fuel for nuclear power plants, continues between Paris and Moscow, shrouded in opacity. The links between France and Russia on this issue have been extensively documented in recent years. Ships from Saint Petersburg or Ust-Luga, on the Russian Baltic coast, regularly continue to dock at the Port of Dunkerque, northern France, carrying containers filled with uranium …

LIS Technologies Launches .4 Billion Laser Uranium Enrichment Project In Tennessee

LIS Technologies Launches $1.4 Billion Laser Uranium Enrichment Project In Tennessee

Published by Jenni Sidey

LIS Technologies announced a $1.4 billion uranium enrichment project in Oakridge, Tennessee at the former iconic K-25 site, which until 1987 was a massive gaseous diffusion facility built for the Manhattan Project to enrich uranium-235 for atomic bombs. The company will set up shop on the 206-acre on Duct Island, which will be renamed to LIST Island. Following the renaming of the 206-acre Duct Island to LIST Island and its redevelopment to house the Company’s commercial laser-based uranium enrichment headquarters, Oak Ridge, TN is expected to become the site of the world’s first US-origin commercial laser uranium enrichment facility, supporting U.S. utilities, next-generation reactor developers, and national defense requirements while helping to reestablish a resilient domestic nuclear fuel supply chain. “Tennessee continues to lead the nation in advancing American energy independence, which is why innovative companies like LIS Technologies recognize our efforts through projects like this,” said Tennessee Governor Bill Lee. “By creating the Nuclear Energy Fund, we have uniquely positioned our state at the forefront of cutting-edge R&D, and I look forward to the positive …