Progress update at our PLS property: Significant Basement Mineralization

If you haven’t seen today’s  press release our drilling program at PLS in the Athabasca Basin has been yielding some promising results. I encourage to read the release for the full technical update. You may also find it useful to refer to these updated maps.

Quite often it’s our flagship property, Waterbury Lake that gets all the limelight but if you’ve been following us closely you’ll know that PLS is shaping up to be a promising property. It’s well worth visiting the PLS project section  and of course please get in touch with any questions.

Our Pitchstone acquisition – what does this mean for Fission?

In my opinion the acquisition comes down to this - for $5.8 million in stock, we will  significantly expand our presence in the Athabasca Basin, formally establish JV relationships with key companies including Rio Tinto and acquire $1.5 million in cash and. In addition, we will acquire 8.2M lbs of Inferred U3O8 in the Hornby Bay region along with the granite-hosted Dome property in Namibia.

Fission is one of the leading juniors in the Athabasca Basin. Our flagship property Waterbury Lake is located there, immediately adjacent to the RoughRider claim that Rio Tinto beat off Cameco to acquire. So is our PLS claim – a very strong property which we recently extended. In other words, we already have a solid presence in the region and this agreement will make it stronger still.

This matters because the Athabasca Basin in the world’s leading source of uranium, accounting for nearly 20% of world supply last year. Any and all serious uranium producers need to be there, and recent announcements from China regarding Canadian mining companies (see my earlier post) make it plain that the Athabasca is the place to be. This is why we’ve been so aggressive with our exploration and why this agreement matters.

In conclusion: my opinion is that a greater presence in the world’s top uranium district, JV ties with leading uranium players such as Rio, additional strong and promising properties and increased cash dramatically increases our profile in the Basin and our potential as a uranium junior.

You can read the press release about the agreement here. As always, if you have questions don’t hesitate to get in contact with us.

The start of the restarts

If you’ve been following the news recently, you’ll have noticed that Japan is getting close to restarting some of its nuclear reactors. Units No. 3 and No. 4 at the Ohi nuclear power plant in western Japan have been declared safe by the Japanese government after a series of stress tests developed to test the reactors’ tolerance of large earthquakes and tsunamis.

Some of the news in recent weeks has suggested the Japanese government is ‘rushing’ to restart reactors in order to avoid a total shutdown of the country’s nuclear energy generation. After Fukushima the government ordered reactors shut down for stress tests – some immediately and others during scheduled downtime for maintenance. The theory presented by some in the Media is that with no reactors running, Japan will have proved it doesn’t need nuclear energy.

Let’s consider that thought in the light of two figures. 300,000 and $123m. Put into context that’s 300,000 additional barrels of oil every day and $123 million dollars per day. Both figures are estimates of the cost Japan is paying in order to survive without its fleet of nuclear reactors. The government has rightly ensured a lengthy period of testing and consultation for each reactor. Indeed, safety testing is an integral part of all areas of the energy industry including coal and gas (a fact that some commentators neglect to reference when discussing nuclear energy). In my opinion the government is looking to restart not for some sort of political point scoring but because it is time to re-engage its policy of clean and economical energy – something that Japan desperately needs.

No nuclear plant restarts could mean an extra 300,000 barrels of oil every day for Japan

For anyone thinking that Japan is coping just fine without nuclear energy, an article on Bloomberg today underlines just what the cost is shaping up to be. When I say cost, I’m not just talking about the huge number of dollars being sucked away on alternative sources of energy (see my March 8th blog post on that very topic). No, I also mean the environmental cost. 300,000 additional barrels of oil every single day.

Nuclear energy is clean energy. Not just my opinion – just read the various comments from governments around the world, including the US. The need to reduce omissions is just one of the drivers behind nuclear energy and it’s an important one. Japan has rightly demanded that its energy companies conducted a series of stress tests for each of their reactors since Fukushima and, as reactors  pass these tests, failure to restart them will continue to exact a heavy toll on the country.

You can read the full Bloomberg article here.

US nuclear energy strategy moves up a gear – another two reactors approved

Those of you following the recent comments from President Obama (read one of my earlier blog posts if you haven’t) will already know that the US is in the process of implementing an ongoing energy strategy in which nuclear energy plays an integral role.

Last week, US Federal regulators approved a proposal to build another two nuclear reactors. This is the second such approval in two months bringing the total number up to four reactors.

Why is this important? Well in my opinion it confirms the fact that the approvals of a few months ago are not isolated. The US already meets 20% of its energy needs with nuclear power stations and the recent approvals show that the next wave of nuclear reactor construction is underway in the US.

It also shows that alternative forms of energy – including the so-called glut of natural gas – have made no impact on the part that nuclear power will play in the future energy plans of the US.

You can check out the press release from Westinghouse here.

Fission video with highlights from our CEO

If you haven't checked it out yet, here's some video coverage we put together about Fission with CEO highlights. It's also worth checking the great 3D animation of our J-Zone which you can find by visiting our YouTube channel here. As always, any questions: give us a shout.

$6.3 million for next gen nuclear energy research

The UK’s Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) has awarded £4 million (approx. $6.33 million) for a New Nuclear Build and Manufacturing (NNUMAN) program to ensure the UK’s future nuclear power supply.

The program will be run jointly by the universities of Manchester and Sheffield and will not only drive progress in manufacturing and nuclear technology but will also be used to train the next generation of nuclear manufacturing scientists and engineers.

This funding comes after a recent joint announcement by the UK and France to increase cooperation on nuclear energy and, in my opinion, is a reminder of how important the UK considers nuclear power to its long-term energy strategy.

You can find more info on the NNUMAN program here.

Dev Randhawa

US support for nuclear energy strong one year after Fukushima

The majority of Americans not only favor nuclear power as an energy source but also continue to view nuclear power plants as safe. This is the conclusion of Gallop's annual Environment survey, which has been running since 1994. The level of support is virtually unchanged since prior to the Fukushim event.

You can see the full poll results and analysis here.

Dev Randhawa