Irelands Uranium Deposits and Energy Security

Sponge Bob

whether we 'go Nuclear ' or not it happens that ireland has a number of promising Uranium prospects in Donegal (especially) Carlow and Galway and elsewhere in the south east , see page 131 of this large pdf

During the last global Uranium price peak in the late 1970s there was considerable interest in these deposits as you can see here


Its only a matter of time, albeit after the next election , before Noel Dempseys department is asked for a licencing round by the international metals industry. The metals industry is particularly flush at the moment too .

The production of uranium, taken in conjunction with its use in power generation whether here or elsewhere, could be used in a complex swap mechanism to offset our Kyoto fines as there is a carbon reduction to be got out of it _somewhere_ !

The fact that the ESB, as recently as 1977, was looking at 90% Nuclear electricity and 10% hydro....together with the possibility of security of supply from our own Uranium ...once it has been processed by Sellafield on our behalf, is very very tempting once again.

Heres a blasht from the Dáil in 1981 . Once can see from here and from here that prices for the material (it is quoted per pound and per kilo variously not per tonne ) are now approaching where they were in the late 1970's. Especially



which image is taken from Here

Also remember that if Dempsey is kind enough to issue long term licences , the deposits if proven can be booked into reserves by big metal producing companies without their actually having to mine them .....during our lifetimes anyway .

silverharp

There will be a shortage of uranium in the next few years as only 60% of Uranium used is mined, the rest comes from old nukes. Believe they will want the ore sooner rather then later. it will be hard to placate the nimbys though, if it's difficult to build a wind farm....

Akrasia

but we all know what will happen.Some multinational will offer to take this dirty radioactive pollution off out hands for free, and our government will just give it all away.... Much like what happened with our gas reserves

Lemming

Akrasia wrote:

but we all know what will happen.Some multinational will offer to take this dirty radioactive pollution off out hands

Umm ..... would you care to elaborate on how something that is naturally occuring in nature is "dirty pollution"?

Sponge Bob

Akrasia wrote:

but we all know what will happen.Some multinational will offer to take this dirty radioactive pollution off out hands for free, and our government will just give it all away.... Much like what happened with our gas reserves

Precisely. It will be too good an offer to refuse and thats without even taking it out of the ground.

If you do not take it out of the ground there is no pollution really... is there ??? ...but there will be some exploratory drilling to prove the reserves.

Akrasia

Lemming wrote:

Umm ..... would you care to elaborate on how something that is naturally occuring in nature is "dirty pollution"?

well, i was being sarcastic. It reminds me of a joke, that George Bush wants to clean up the ecological disaster waiting to happen in alaska by taking all that dirty polluting oil out of the ground.