Dr Gavin M Mudd Environmental Engineering

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Dr Gavin M MuddEnvironmental Engineering

• Sustainability Aspects of Uranium Mining
• February 2007

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The Eternal Nuclear Debate
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Uranium Mining

• Re-invigoration of the nuclear debate has seen
  spirited exchanges over the life cycle
  assessments of nuclear energy versus other energy
  systems
• A central aim of these studies is to quantify the
  unit CO2 emissions for nuclear vs others
• Although it is generally accepted that as ore
  grade declines, emissions will increase there
  are numerous aspects to this, eg.
• resources, ore grade type, energy/water costs
  etc.

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Outline From Here

• Data Sources and Methodology
• Analysis of Sustainability Metrics
• Results Global Uranium Production
• Results Global Uranium Resources
• Results Energy Water Consumption
• Results Greenhouse Emissions
• Discussion Deficiencies, Future Work
• Summary

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Data Sources Methodology

• Surprisingly, data is readily available for
  production for many countries, eg.
• mining periodicals (CNRC, USBM, OECD-IAEA, )
• papers, company annual and technical reports, etc
• Resources data compiled (mostly) from company
  annual and technical reports
• Energy-Water-CO2 data is sourced from company
  social/environmental/ sustainability reports
• Sust. data is converted to unit efficiency

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Analysis of Sustainability Metrics

• Some key issues for sustainability include energy
  and water consumption and greenhouse emissions
• The eco-efficiency of various uranium mines is
  compared using the unit consumption (/emission)
  per uranium oxide produced relative to ore grade
  
• kL water / t U3O8 t CO2 / t U3O8
• GJ energy / t U3O8

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Uranium Ore Grade by Country
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Global Uranium Production Trends
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Uranium Resources v Time
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Uranium Deposits Size, Grade
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Energy Water v Ore Grade
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Greenhouse Emissions
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Discussion Future Work

• Uranium Resources Finite or Not ?
• clear evidence that exploration over time has
  continued to sustain economic resources
• ore grades by country are mostly declining
• despite rich Canadian ores, global average ore
  grade has not increased
• future production will come from lower grade ores
• Sustainability Metrics
• unit energy/water/CO2 have been quantified,
  showing clear sensitivity to ore grade
• however, still need to do complete I/O LCA

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Summary Conclusions

• Key issues underpinning the contested
  sustainability of nuclear power, centred on
  various aspects of uranium mining
• Over time, resources have been maintained but
  grades are mostly decling
• Sustainability metrics such as energy, water
  CO2 are sensitive to ore grade, and resource
  intensity increases as grade declines
• More work needed to do complete LCA