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Canada
- AREVA Resources Canada Inc. specializes in the mining and exploration of Canadian uranium deposits. The company acts as principal operator and partner. It has also successfully headed up the first complete rehabilitation and declassification procedure for a mining site following reserve depletion.
- AREVA is the operator at the McClean Lake site. The group is also a partner in the McArthur and Cigar Lake mines. These 2 deposits, exceptional due to their tonnage and the high content of their reserves, are currently considered the largest high-content deposits in the world.
Nuclear power currently supplies 15% of Canada's electricity, 40% of which is in Ontario.
Canada has 18 CANDU (heavy water) reactors in total, designed and developed by Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd. (AECL), with a production capacity of 12,600 MW (megawatt electrical), at 5 sites:
- Pickering, Darlington and Bruce (Ontario),
- Gentilly (Quebec),
- Point Lepreau (New Brunswick).
The Canadian nuclear industry directly and indirectly employs almost 66,000 people.
With close to 10,200 tons produced in 2009, Canada is ranked 2nd among the world’s uranium producers.
The Bruce Power reactors 1 and 2 are in the process of being refurbished and should be operational in 2010.The experts’ report ordered by the federal government recommends building a new reactor to produce radioisotopes so as to replace the NRU reactor, which started operation in 1957.
In Alberta, experts are researching the means to extract oil from bituminous sands in the Athabasca basin using nuclear power. And in all the provinces, a marked increase in investments in renewable energies has been recorded.
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AREVA'S ACTIVITIES IN CANADA
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Mining
Canadian uranium mines are AREVA’s first source of supply; they furnished 8,790 tons that represent 16% of the total quantity of uranium marketed by AREVA in 2011.
In Canada, uranium ore is extracted by AREVA two mining sites:- McClean Lake, operated by AREVA (70%), Denison Mines Inc. and OURD Canada Co. Ltd.,
- McArthur River, operated by Cameco Corporation, together with AREVA (30,2%).
- A third deposit, Cigar Lake, also operated by Cameco Corporation, is slated to enter production at the end of 2013. The deposit will be operated by Cameco. Cigar Lake is the world’s second largest high-grade uranium deposit, after McArthur River.
- Mining of the Midwest deposit, in which AREVA Resources Canada, its future operator, has a 69.16% stake. It is now on standby for economic reasons. Mining of the Caribou deposit, identified as a complement to that of Midwest, has also been postponed.
Finally, for several years AREVA has maintained a large-scale exploration initiative, in order to develop and diversify its long-term reserves.
- Shea Creek (51% stake), whose development is tied to technical assessments of the project’ s feasibility,
- Kiggavik (64.8% stake), for which an Environmental Impact Statement was submitted at the end of 2011.
All these sites are located around 600km north of Saskatoon, in the Athabasca Basin, Saskatchewan Province.
At each of the sites it operates and in all of its activities, the group is implementing environmental management systems that comply with the international ISO 14001 standard. The sites at McClean Lake and Cluff Lake (which was closed 5 years ago) obtained the corresponding certification in 2000 and 2004, respectively.
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Reactors & Services
Relying on global experience in a wide range of nuclear technologies, experts from AREVA Canada Ltd. provide engineering, maintenance and modernization services for existing CANDU plants. In 2009 for instance, AREVA Canada received an order from the Hydro-Quebec utility company to repair/reinstate the ventilation system in the nuclear containment structure at the Gentilly 2 plant. This is the second time a system of this type has been employed by AREVA on a CANDU type reactor.
Engineering projects also relate to electrical and mechanical design changes, as well as to optimizing plant operations. Other services include staffing solutions.
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AREVA a Significant Player in the Canadian Energy Market
