In the global war for energy supremacy, Russia has won another victory over the United States.
This time, the battleground has been South Africa, where Russia's state-owned nuclear power company, Rosatom, has just signed an agreement to build eight new reactors. Once all of them are operational, South Africa's nuclear capacity will increase more than sixfold - from 1.8 gigawatts (GW) to 11.4 GW over the next 15 years.
This means that Russia will help develop the entirety of South Africa's nuclear energy sector, including financing and training.
And just as importantly, South Africa will be using Russia's nuclear fuel.
Rosatom has been busy signing these types of deals with other foreign countries as well—Finland, Turkey, Ukraine, even the United Kingdom—which guarantees that Russia will be able to keep a stranglehold on these countries' nuclear industries.
The strategy is clear: Rosatom is aiming to become the world's largest supplier of uranium in the coming years.
Remember what we said about the ongoing "Putinization" of Europe's oil and gas; how Russia is planning to leverage its control over Europe's energy to gain political and economic benefits?
The same thing is happening in uranium, except the stakes are even higher—because Putin is now looking to dominate the global nuclear market.
Russia and the former Soviet nations (colloquially called "the -stans") already control nearly half of the world's uranium supply:
Similarly, they hold more than half of the world's capacity for uranium enrichment, a necessary part of fuel fabrication:
Note that the United States only controls 3% of global uranium supply—and less than 15% of the enrichment capacity, despite the fact that it's the largest consumer of uranium in the world.
While nuclear energy powers one out of every five homes in America, the US currently imports more than 90% of the uranium required for its nuclear reactors.
So what happens when one day Rosatom says "Nyet" to the American utilities? You can be sure that they'll be scrambling to find any source of uranium they can get their hands on.
And they'll pay far more than the current spot price of US$34.50/lb. You should know that the price of uranium accounts for just 3% of the total costs of a nuclear power plant, so whether the utilities pay $100 or even $200 per pound of yellowcake is irrelevant, as long as they can keep the reactors running and the lights on in America.
As the US and other countries scramble to get out from under Putin's heavy thumb, for the right uranium producers outside of Russia's sphere of influence, this will be a bonanza for the history books.
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He can have it!
It's probably THE most crime-ridden country on earth.
Ever been to Detroit?
I'd take Southern Africa over a lot of US cities anyday.
Does South Africa actually pay its bills? It is time to break the DeBeers cartel on diamonds - I thought Russia was going to do this.
Also when the next nuclear power mishap occurs, it won't have GE written all over it.
Win Win for us.
Kazahkstan 36%!? Now Boris is understand why friend from Astana is suffer complaint of anal bleeding.
+100 Boris
Laughing very hard!
"It's nukular." - Homer Simpson
"It's nukular." - George W. Bush
There, fixed it for you.
"It's nukular." - Shrub
There, fixed it for you.
Remember, we agreed to the financialization of the worlds economy to leverage our foundation of wealth, still workin fer ya aint it?
Boris, you're too sensitive
If America can pass it's unfunded liabilities and debt on other people (future generations and current) don't see why any other country can't be exempt. That's the cornerstone of keynesianism isn't it?
Who cares if Russia "conquers" South Africa. I don't want the U.S. meddling in or "conquering" every country on Earth. I want the U.S. to mind its own damn business.
But your 1 metre wide refrigerators, your 2 t heavy oversized cars, your 25 litres toilet flushing tanks, your snacking of chicken filet just for fun, your way of life to buy and throw things away makes it necessary to plunder the resources of other countries.
So if Russia controls and directs more torwards other countries, how do you think will the multicultural paradise in your cities develop, once the people at WalMart can no longer keep the lights on over night and the flat heated to wear t-shirts during winter, while sitting in front of the brainwashing machine and feeding their fat bodies with flesh from other creatures?
That's the only way you're ever going to get radical action......when the Free Shit Army no longer gets their stuff. The middle class will never rise up. Even now they're going silently into the night.
The U.S. could not have done this deal with South Africa. We have no nuclear technology left. We sold it all to Mitsubishi.
You don't like American technologies at Fukushima?
One thing in common between SA and Detroit, hmmm, I rather not state the obvious on second thought.
"One thing in common between SA and Detroit, hmmm, I rather not state the obvious on second thought."
I can tell ya the difference, POTUS Ob-droner was born in the latter.
I think you meant the former.
Somethin like that.
High percentage of hunter-gatherers?
Clearly you've never been to South Africa. Not exactly safe, especially if you're white.
Most dangerous job in the world?
Boer farmer.
You're both right. Now what do SA and Detroit havein common?
To add insult to injury. Who made them "THE most crime-ridden" place on earth?
Certainly wasn't Russia!
"Flow like the blood of Abraham through the Jews and the Arabs
Broken apart like a woman's heart, abused in a marriage
The brink of holy war, bottled up, like a miscarriage
Embedded correspondents don't tell the source of the tension
And they refuse to even mention, European intervention
Or the massacres in Jenin, the innocent screams
U.S. manufactured missles, and M-16's
Weapon contracts and corrupted American dreams
Media censorship, blocking out the video screens
A continent of oil kingdoms, bought for a bargain
Democracy is just a word, when the people are starvin'
The average citizen, made to be, blind to the reason
A desert full of genocide, where the bodies are freezin'
And the world doesn't believe that you fightin' for freedom
Cause you fucked the Middle East, and gave birth to a demon"
http://youtu.be/8YHq-SevTcQ
Revolutionary artist.
British oppresive colonists.
Boers were never British. Look east.
SA is so bad that my company moved our West Africa HQ to Angola. Think about that one.
At least your company had the chance to move. In Detroit they go broke.
January homocide rate
http://m.theatlanticcities.com/politics/2013/01/gun-violence-us-cities-c...
http://www.numbeo.com/crime/compare_cities.jsp?country1=United+States&ci...
Not far off.
When as a whole you look at US cities compared to SA it's not that bad considering it's slightly expected in SA.
Yet how can all this crime happen in 'the land of opportunity and the greatest country on earth'?
And that ain't South Africa.
Oh yeah?
I'd ask you what your business is, but if it's an American company you already answered my question.
The only way out for the U.S.A. and back to it's better days of glory is when it gets it's military along with the three letter agencies out of everyone elses rear ends.
You can't make business with someone who's economic condition and currency is worthless and who threatens you when you don't do what it wants and when it wants it!
Ah, yes, seeking refuge in the placid bosom of Angola...
Ho Li Fuk! Must have got even worse since I was last there about 5 years ago. And it was bad then. I closed down our SA branch because of BEE. Totally unworkable.
If Putin loved Pussy Riot, wait till he gets a load of this..... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AIXUgtNC4Kc
That really comes across as some sort of warning.
nah, the most crime ridden country is the one that has invaded sovereign nations for decades and has started illegal wars bases on false premises. Also, have you ever travelled much around the world? I bet you have not, your judgement on South Africa is wrong. Try visiting Brazil or any other South American country. Then you have central Africa of course.
Oh, there is a comment in here which states that a company moved its HQ from South Africa to Angola? Yes, probably because in Angola you can bribe to your heart's delight and get away with it. Sure, bribery exists in SA but Angola takes the cake. I know ;)
Get your facts straight and inform yourself ;)
first off humans are violent under the facade of nice. people fuck over people. not only that, people will kill you. imagine that. someone killing you for a pair of shoes. but hey in africa you can pull out a knife and say enough fucker, but here in merica i can pull out a 45 and end it now(fuckerZ).
Russian deal with SA will never go through, as we reluctantly take note of the continued / neverending disaster called Fukushima
Thorium....
Thorium. Exactly. Bet the Japanese wish they had it in the GE melted down reactors.
< Thorium!!!!
< Fukushima, Chernobyl???? No thanks.
???
Missing a sarc tag?
The Japanese most likely wish that there hadn't been any Thorium in the reactors that melted down...
There wasn't any Thorium in those reactors. Why are you worried about Thorium?
If you use thorium in a boiling water reactor, it isn't really any safer. The dust might be worse than uranium, though not nearly as bad as plutonium.
Thorium Fluoride Salt Reactor is not produce weapon grade fissile material. Is of no interest to global super power.
Boris clearly not aware of Operation Teapot and U-233....
So why is there not a single operational reactor designed for the Thorium fuel cycle despite billions in R&D?
http://www.independentaustralia.net/environment/environment-display/dont-believe-thorium-nuclear-reactor-hype,4919
Correctamundo, there are too many useless R&D programs out there today, needing more money or to off load their remaining junk just to pay the bills.
India is working towards one.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/India%27s_three_stage_nuclear_power_programme
Aimming for some time after 2050, after fast breeder reactors. I have seen other reports that they are trying to use Thorium now, to subsidize uranium, in boiling water reactors.
So, there WAS an operational reactor, back in the'50s-ish. But I think they thought more billions could be spent developing the stuff we got(Oh, and fizzle material like Boris said).
It was an Uranium design running the Thorium cycle, fueling Operation Tea Pot was one of the reasons...
It was less than sucessful in performance, i.e. a suboptimal design for power generation...
Going by the mentality of those who pay for the R&D, it was most likely suboptimal for enriching weapons-grade materials.
Twenty years ago it was twenty years away. It's still twenty years away. Twenty years from now it'll still be twenty years away.
The problem is that not enough people are high on hopium, praying to the great God of Technology.
What's this about enriching uranium? I thought that was illegal? I guess it's like anything else..... It's only illegal to certain groups of people.
It's only illegal if you don't have nukes. The more nukes you have, the more peace you are allowed to spread around.
Democracy Bytchez!
enemy within
Ban the periodic table !
GE has been working on a laser method to enrich uranium for years now. If it works out the rate at which uranium can be enriched will skyrocket and the cost of enrichment will drop.
All those expensive centrifuges could become surplus junk a lot faster than the Russians and Iranians could believe.
that's why they call it en rich ing
Now if Rosatom can only help TEPCO with the Daiichi clean up they will have "four more" they can put on their list.
Yes, but we have fracking and are the new Saudi Arabia! Anyone really believe that on?
Really sucks when Russia adopts free enterprise Russian style and goes to work on the international markets for heavy energy and industrial processes. They don't flip big Mac's. They Fund, engineer, build and fuel nuclear pwoer stations while Wall-Street Bankers strip mine America for every dime of wealth they can get. And we look up to them as our great capitalist wealth producers. We are so fucked! Wonder why Putin will not let much of corporate America into Russia? Why should he, when Russians can develop their own economy? Putin has more sense in his finger nails than Obama and Bush have in their pea brains.
I follow you except on your use of the word 'capitalism'
Having traveled abroad all my life, its always been clear to me that RUSSIA/CHINA were capitalist and that USA was a socialist ( fascism ) corporate state.
Hell yes, everything in the USA was strip mined long ago for everything.
The ONLY problem with your analysis is the NOTION that WHEN if ever was the USA 'capitalist', oligarch? ok I can deal, or Kleptocracy, or penal-colony... but Capitalist? Fucking when?
It's obvious by now you have difficulty determining right from wrong, don't quit your day job though, we still need the bots to believe they have some value somewhere. It's crapitalizm alright, it's called crony crapitalizm.
Ditto.
And that's why we're going to continue seeing the "train" heading Eastward and not looking back.
To make matters worse this is all by design. It doesn't have to end for us this way -but it will.
Jack - Goldman has a large office in Moscow.
So does Citi.
funny how russia is looking like merica and russia is looking like merica. wonder how they are programing the kids in russia. look out for the fascists! Fascists over there invading the mideast!
and the sad thing is it is true. fascist merica invades sudan spreading fascism. where next?
FF movement(failed Fascism) FFF Fuckerz
I would imagine that like the Chinese, the Russians will be paying in dollars, or at least bonds.
I feel all schadenfreude inside.
"The building inspector came today and asked what the guillotine in my backyard was for. So I showed him who it was for."
"The building inspector came today and asked what the guillotine in my backyard was for. So I showed him who it was for."
On that note. FEMA may have an additional job for you housing your gear in a Big White tent.
They're getting ready. Or is it Obamacare 2.0?!
They've tried everything else as a warm up. And if you're a psychopath and mass killing isn't a problem for you as we've seen it done repeatedly, bringing back the old tried and true methods have obvious advantages.
Let's just hope people within the CDC and FEMA are brave enough to step forward and circumvent any possibility of that ever happening.
Snowden can answer these arguments.
Russians may have uranium but we have largest reserves of natural gas. In the future natural gas powered hydrogen fuel cells will power homes. LNG may well be one of our largest import products for the US in the not to distant future. Down arrows expected, happens every time I mention fuel cells.
fuel cells are not an energy source and take energy. Russia is the world's second largest producer of NG. And they have plenty of oil
DJ Read it again, didn't say fuel cells were energy source, natural gas is energy source to power fuel cells. We also have large oil reserves, so? Be sure to catch the coming out party for hydrogen powered Toyotas at the Tokyo show this month. Toyota, Honda and Kia will be selling these vehicles to consumer market in 2015.
http://www.techradar.com/us/news/car-tech/is-hydrogen-really-the-future-of-car-fuels--1213081
DJ Did you notice under the picture of the hydro Toyota that it said "Toyota is betting big on the future of hydrogen powered cars" ? Toyota has commited big time to the installing of fueling stations and just so you know, hydro cars can also use NATURAL GAS for energy source. My post above was aimed at the individual using natural gas to power hydro fuel cell to generate electricity for the individuals home. Why would we want to keep a toxic source like nuclear?
don't get me wrong, we absolutely need to develop transportable energy and long term energy sources (natural gas is not one) but we are very late on the draw. Unfortunately, most experts agree, hydrogen fuel cells still have a long way to go.
just another penny stock for the dreamers; oh maybe we can fund it with taxpayer money. calling "O"!
Calling Al G.! let the markets work, oh yea right, this is fascist merica land of manipulation. hey try a carbon tax for your green ass goverment wizbang and call all your buds to line your pockets. hey, almost as eaasy as printing the shit...
We have moar coal than we can imagine, but Bath House has locked it up to use only for Xmas presents.
***
(Yawn) "G'mornin' Reggie."
"Hummpff.)
"Ah, what can I do to screw the USA over today.....?"
"Make everyone get up early."
run the weather alerts sirens accross merica in the inner city-good one lake!
wake-up and get a clue what middle class mericans used to do...
first potassium and now uranium
Nuclear power is a crime against humanity and the planet. No safe disposal of waste in reality and deadly for thousands/millions of years.
Fucking great idea.
Doesn't South Africa have uranium?
That lets them pay for the deal.
they produce about 1/5th of the world's supply
Selous National Park in tanzania has a lot of Uranium, hence the new China project to dig it up and export it together with the ivory of the killed elephants.
what a winderful world
lol, came across this blogger who doesn't seem to like Casey and particularly this Marin Katusa. He's got a few posts out there.
http://incakolanews.blogspot.com/2010/11/marin-katusas-scams-and-other-c...
I don't know how factual it is or why/how he chose to target...
From above link, ZHers will need to check further the IKN "accusation":
Casey himself is a good speaker and writer. But some of his investments were less than stellar. Martin Katusa-he aint no Casey
The US import numbers are probably skewed because as due to nuclear arms reduction treaties with the Russians, uranium from excess Russian warheads is dimilitarized and burned in US reactors.
Yeah but we have free health care.
and soon, it will go nuclear
I guess Australia can send its ore to Iran for enrichment and then everyone would be happy.
psst. iran is invited to the next card game.
No effemenati to accuse zh'ers of a Putin bromance?
must lie down.
If we had a third peichart showing quantity of radioactive mass leaking out of reactors, then Russia and Japan eat up the whole pie.
Nothing is owned unless property law is applied, and enforced without fear or favor, particularly without thieving political grabbers. There is the fatal flaw in your assumptions, Casey, selling your book.
I wouldn't buy it.
The most serious nuke problems have been operator caused, just saying.
Russia expands its influence in world energy supplies. Meanwhile American hippies protest nuclear power. And coal. And oil. And any other reliable form of energy. Third world status here we come!
Hungary just signed another deal with Rosatom, to expand its nuclear power plant:
http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/01/14/russia-hungary-idUSL6N0KO28L20140114
Uranium is big, big business. In the meanwhile someone posed a new theory on why the PanAm flight 103 was downed over Lockerbie: http://www.theecologist.org/News/news_analysis/2224221/flight_103_it_was...
Thanks Joe A for link.
It's my very first to read some background story about the Lockerbie bombing of PanAm flight 103... and it seems a pretty solid one, yeah, it's said to be a work of 25 years study(!!!)... all the time the media just trumpeting that it's an arbitrary terrurizt work ran amok of the late Gaddhafi, until today!
Flight 103: it was the Uranium | The Ecologist
Mystery continues to surround the 1988 downing of Panam Flight 103 at Lockerbie - who did it, how, and why? After 25 years study of the topic Patrick Haseldine reveals the shocking truth.
United Nations Assistant Secretary-General and Commissioner for Namibia, Bernt Carlsson, was Lockerbie's highest profile victim, yet the authorities and the media never mention him. Why?
Nevertheless, Rössing managed to delay the implementation of restrictions which could have put it out of business. And - in the end - that delay sufficed: apartheid South Africa and other negotiating parties signed an independence accord on 22nd December 1988.
It was on his way to the signing of the agreement at UN headquarters in New York, that UN Commissioner for Namibia Bernt Carlsson became the highest profile victim of the Pan Am Flight 103 crash at Lockerbie on 21st December 1988.
[...] United Nations InquiryIn November 2013, I created this e-petition calling upon HM Government (Foreign and Commonwealth Office) to: "Support a United Nations Inquiry into the deaths of UN Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjöld and UN Assistant Secretary-General Bernt Carlsson" Dag Hammarskjöld was Secretary-General of the United Nations from 1953 to 1961. On the night of 17-18 September 1961, in the course of a UN mission to try to bring peace to the former Belgian Congo, Hammarskjöld's Swedish-owned and crewed plane crashed near Ndola airport in the British protectorate of Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia). All the passengers and crew died. It now appears that his plane was shot down in order to protect western mining interests in Belgian Congo's mineral rich Katanga province, to this day a major source of cobalt, copper, tin and diamonds - not to mention radium and uranium. On 9 September 2013, the London-based Hammarskjöld Commission reported that there was "significant new evidence" about the plane crash that killed United Nations Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjöld and recommended that the adjourned 1962 UN Inquiry should now be reopened. UN Assistant Secretary-General Bernt Carlsson was the highest profile victim on Pan Am Flight 103 which was sabotaged over Lockerbie on 21 December 1988. Source: http://www.theecologist.org/News/news_analysis/2224221/flight_103_it_was...
Fear not, we have Adolf Barry Hitler:
yesterday:
"Obama continued: ”And I can use that pen to sign executive orders and take executive actions...(CBS)"
He has abandoned the Reichstag and will rule by EO. He will lead us to victory over the manly Putin.
Russia only controls 5% of the world's uranium. That's a 5% nyet, which is worthless at best. Kazakhastan is NOT Russia, and Russia has no influence over them. Kazakhastan isn't about to stop stripping its own countryside of all the natural resources it can get its hands on, strictly for monetary reasons. What's more is the world's supply of uranium enrichment isn't a natural resource rather a process repeated in any country with the technology.
Putin riding Barry up the ass once again.
Barry is Putin's kitchen bitch.
Barry: More Snickerdoodles. Sir?
Putin: Yes, just leave on table and get back in kitchen....also hike skirt up more when visitors come.
Barry: Yesah, I bees goin' now den.
This is why commercially viable LENR is such a threat.