Canada and the USA last week reaffirmed their commitment to strengthening supply chains for critical minerals including uranium in their first working group meetings since finalising a bilateral collaboration agreement earlier this year.

A joint venture has been formed between Ultra Safe Nuclear Corporation and Ontario Power Generation to build, own and operate the proposed Micro Modular Reactor project at the Chalk River Laboratories site. The joint venture - the Global First Power Limited Partnership - is owned equally by OPG and USNC-Power, the Canadian subsidiary of USNC.

Unit 2 of Ontario Power Generation's Darlington nuclear power plant has been reconnected to the grid at 100% full power, marking the official completion of the first refurbishment of the site's four Candu units.

The Canadian Radioactive Waste Management Organisation will focus its activities in South Bruce, Ontario on safety and protecting the environment, the organisation said last week in an update to local stakeholders. The NWMO is planning to begin field studies later this year at the potential repository site to determine whether it meets the project's safety requirements.

Bruce Power will be carrying out a second harvest of cobalt-60, which is used to sterilise medical equipment, as part of the company's COVID-19 response, CEO Mike Rencheck said yesterday. An initiative launched three weeks ago to leverage Ontario's nuclear supply chain in the response to the COVID-19 pandemic is already delivering results, he said.

Canadian uranium producer Cameco will next week resume production at its Port Hope Conversion Facility's uranium hexafluoride plant and its Blind River Refinery in Ontario. The Cigar Lake uranium mine in northern Saskatchewan, in which it holds a majority stake, will remain in care and maintenance.

Production figures issued by Cameco and Kazatomprom for the first quarter of 2020 show a slight decrease on the same period last year, while those announced by the US Energy Information Administration show an 86% year-on-year fall from US facilities. This follows a year when US uranium production was the lowest on record.

Bruce Power yesterday launched an initiative to leverage the supply chain developed for the Bruce Life Extension Programme to assist in the province's fight against the coronavirus and to help the economic recovery. The Bruce Power Retooling and Economic Recovery Council will include all of Bruce Power’s Ontario-based suppliers and will focus on the continued retooling of the supply chain to meet frontline COVID-19 needs.
 

Canadian Nuclear Laboratories has entered into a collaboration agreement with UK-based Moltex Energy. Funded through CNL's Canadian Nuclear Research Initiative, the agreement includes work to support aspects of Moltex Energy’s nuclear fuel development programme for its Stable Salt Reactor, a 300 MWe small modular reactor design.

The Cigar Lake uranium mine in northern Saskatchewan is to remain in care and maintenance for an "indeterminate period" as the effects of the global COVID-19 pandemic persist, Cameco announced yesterday at the same time as it withdrew its 2020 Outlook. Orano has also extended the suspension of production at its McClean Lake mill, where Cigar Lake ore is processed.

Unit 2 at Ontario Power Generation's Darlington nuclear power plant has achieved first criticality after a refurbishment that has taken over three years to complete, including disassembling and rebuilding the reactor. The unit is expected to return to full service this Spring.

Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power has signed a contract with Canadian nuclear engineering firm Kinectrics to provide decommissioning engineering support, building on a memorandum of understanding on the dismantling of nuclear power plants they signed in August 2019. The contract will see Korean nuclear power plant decommissioning personnel dispatched overseas for the first time.