Canada Sends First Consignment of Uranium to India
By PTI Published: 06th December 2015 01:56 AM Last Updated: 06th December 2015 01:56 AM
TORONTO: Canada has sent the first consignment of uranium to India that will help it in securing fuel for nuclear power reactors, official sources said today.
“The first lot of 250 tonnes of Canadian uranium has been received in India,” a senior government official said.
“The first shipment of uranium from Canada under a five-year contract signed in April has arrived in India. It marks Cameco’s first supply of uranium to India,” the sources said.
In April, Cameco signed a uranium supply contract with India after the nuclear cooperation agreement between Canada and India came into force in September 2013.
According to the Canadian government, the contract to supply 7.1 million pounds of uranium concentrate (about 2,730 tonnes uranium) to India’s Department of Atomic Energy was worth around CAD 350 million (USD 262 million).
The government of the Canadian province of Saskatchewan yesterday said the shipment consists of uranium mined and milled at Cameo’s McArthur River and Key Lake operations in northern Saskatchewan.
Saskatchewan premier Brad Wall said, “India has just received its first shipment of Saskatchewan uranium under the Canada-India nuclear cooperation agreement, and today we mark the economic milestone for our uranium mining industry and our province.”
India currently has 21 power reactors in operation, with another six under construction and scheduled to start up over the next four years. The country plans to increase its nuclear generating capacity from the current 5800 MWe to 27,500 MWe by 2032.
