Coal-fired power stations which burn coal to make electricity produce a large proportion of the world’s energy.
Heightened environmental and health concerns about the emissions from these plants has resulted in the worldwide search to identify alternative clean technologies to meet growing power requirements. In China as elsewhere, it is recognised that nuclear power offers a cost-effective and clean method of producing electricity.
World Finance has recognized a unique program to resolve two key issues facing the China energy industry with its 2010 Best Clean Technology-Asia Award. Sparton Energy Inc.(SEI), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Sparton Resources Inc (SRI-V) of Canada, has developed an Environmental Remediation System which may economically remove uranium from radioactive coal ash and other forms of waste. Coal ash, produced by a number of China’s coal-fired power plants which use high uranium coal as fuel, has produced large volumes of radioactive ash containing potentially commercial quantities of uranium. Any uranium produced by reprocessing this ash will remediate an environmental problem and provide clean fuel for the developing nuclear power industry in that country. Other forms or radioactive waste available for this program include waste from phosphate fertilizer production and from primary uranium mining operations.
More than 700 million tonnes of ash and other waste are produced annually from PRC thermal power stations. Certain types of coal contain trace amounts of uranium and other metals and when burned to produce electricity, these metals are concentrated in waste ash, in some cases in commercially extractable quantities. In the case of uranium these amounts can be similar to the content of uranium in lower grade primary uranium deposits. With high radioactivity levels, some of these waste deposits are unsuitable for recycling into building materials, and must be stockpiled or buried in landfills as hazardous waste.
More than 2.7bn tonnes of waste ash are reported to be in stored in China. Not all or this is radioactive, but Sparton has identified a significant number of anomalously radioactive ash deposits and initiated a testing program to evaluate their potential for economic recovery of uranium. Because coal-fired power plants are located near urban populations, radioactive waste can represent environmental and health hazards to the local communities.
Working in China for the last eight years, Sparton and its President, Lee Barker, recognised the opportunity to recover uranium from waste coal ash and other types of secondary uranium sources such as phosphate rock or mine waste. Mr Barker was familiar with many similar projects that had been successfully developed historically in North America and Europe prior to the collapse of the uranium market in the early 1980’s.
China has the world’s largest nuclear power station development programs underway and the largest demand for new uranium fuel to support these installations. While exploration, development and ownership of primary uranium resources in China is prohibited for foreign companies, the recovery of uranium from secondary and waste sources by foreigners is in fact encouraged by the central government.
Following a series of negotiations with representatives of the China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC), SEI developed a joint research program and subsequent joint venture with a CNNC subsidiary company to advance the program. A state-owned agency, CNNC and its subsidiary groups are responsible for all issues related to radioactive material including permitting, engineering design, exploration, production, marketing, etc. Permitting for SEI’s programs is simpler due to the environmental benefits of waste cleanup and there is strong overall governmental support at all levels for the environmental remediation aspects of this work.
SEI has also obtained several unique patents in China for the technology for extraction of uranium from various forms of waste. The process flow sheets were developed with the assistance of Lyntek Inc., a US-based process engineering company with very successful track record of international project development for several of the world’s major uranium producers. Initial lab work indicates that uranium extraction rates from secondary sources are similar to those reported for various ISL (in situ leach) uranium mining projects currently proposed or in production.
SEI plans to install its first operation at Lincang in southwest Yunnan Province. Waste coal ash in this area contains over 0.03 percent uranium oxide, and laboratory testing has shown the uranium can be extracted successfully with over 70 percent recovery and at estimated costs ranging from $44 to $77 per kilogram. Even at today’s spot uranium price of about $90 per kg of U3O8, profits should be achievable. As well, CNNC is currently paying a small premium over world spot uranium prices to domestic uranium producers to encourage internal production. Coincidentally, the Lincang area is one of two sites in China where uranium was historically recovered from local coal ash. As world uranium pricing and demand collapsed in the early 1980’s a similar situation took place in China, and this operation was closed along with several others recovering uranium from secondary sources.
The uranium content of the Lincang material varies from 0.015 percent to over 0.40 percent uranium, averaging approximately 0.035 percent uranium oxide. Based on positive initial results from the Lincang ash testing, the company is currently proceeding to the pilot plant and final feasibility stage. In November 2008, SEI’s local subsidiary signed an agreement with the Number 4 Nuclear Engineering Institute of CNNC to build a pilot plant at Lincang to do bulk uranium leaching tests on a minimum of 500 tonnes of radioactive ash, with the ongoing completion of a feasibility study and final planning for construction of a commercial U3O8 production plant.
Among the many benefits of producing uranium from secondary sources such as waste ash, phosphate or mine waste is the fact that the source material is located in readily accessible areas with power, water, infrastructure, and a labour pool and does not have to be mined. Capital costs are much smaller and the operations become focused on process engineering and materials handling as opposed to mining and extraction of raw material. An added benefit which may have commercial implications is that the cleaned non radioactive residue can be recycled back into the cement, building material or filler industry. The environmental cleanup implications are obvious.
Timing is also an important issue in developing secondary uranium sources. The historical average lead-time from discovery to production for a conventional uranium deposit is 10-14 years. However, after the identification of a uranium bearing waste deposit and its evaluation and testing, production can be underway in less than three years. The average range of capital investment required for these types of projects can be estimated (depending on scale) at from $10 to $75m dollars which is considerably lower than that reported for many new low grade uranium mining projects such as Areva’s Trekoppje operations in Namibia, with estimated costs in the order of $700m.
This contrarian approach to process uranium from current radioactive waste and secondary sources isn’t new.
Worldwide, previous operations that recovered uranium from coal ash and phosphate rock were mostly discontinued when nuclear power fell out of favour in the early 1980s. China previously had four secondary uranium production facilities, two extracting U3O8 from coal ash processing and two from phosphate fertilizer production. There was also one operation using direct coal leaching. In the 1960’s through until 1995, over three million pounds of U3O8 was produced in the US from coal ash along with over 45 million pounds of U3O8 from high uranium phosphate rock, much of which went into military programs. Others were active across Europe and the Soviet Union including programs in Kyrgestan and the Ukraine, some of which may still be operational.
Sparton is reactivating a sector that can provide an opportunity to economically source fuel for the nuclear industry while also resolving environmental issues and provide useable products for recycling. The Company is confident that many additional opportunities will become available for similar new developments in the future. Radioactive waste deposits of all types are present in many countries and will become economically viable sources for future nuclear fuel production.
