Uranium 2010
Saskatoon, Canada
August 15-18 2010

The Third International Uranium Conference was held in Hotel Delta in Saskatoon in Canada on August 15 - 18, 2010 jointly with the 40th Annual Hydrometallurgy Meeting of the Metallurgical Society of the Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy, and Petroleum. The First Uranium Conference was held in 1982 and the Second in 2000. Nuclear has been recognized as one of the important energy sources to minimize the generation of greenhouse gases. The conference attracted 520 participants from 26 countries. The plenary session included the following presentations:

• “The Future is Uranium” by Gerald W. Grandey, Chief Executive Officer, Cameco Corporation
• “Areva’s Vision in Canada and the World” by Roger Alexander, President and Chief Executive Officer, AREVA Canada
• Address to Delegation by Zhou Zhenxing, Chairman, CGNPC Uranium Resources Company of China
• “Saskatchewan’s Vision for Uranium Supply and Nuclear Energy” by Bill Boyd, Minister of Energy and Resources, Saskatchewan
• “Uranium 2009: Resources, Production and Demand” by Robert Vance, Nuclear Energy Analyst, OECD Nuclear Energy Agency, Paris
• “The Role of Regulatory Organizations in Making the Future” by M. Binder, President, Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission
• “Uranium Industry” by Tammy Cook-Searson, President of Kitsaki Management Limited
• Address to Delegation by Galymzhan Pirmatov, Vice-President, Finance, National Atomic Company, Kazatomprom, Kazakhstan

In addition to the plenary lectures, 170 papers were presented in 25 sessions over three days as well as posters. The papers covered all areas of history, mining, metallurgy, human resources and education, fuel element manufacture, reactors, tailings managements, recovery of uranium from phosphate rock, and radiation safety. The conference was in six parallel sessions. The tours to the state-of-the-art mines and mills in Northern Saskatchewan were organized by Ken Gullen of Cameco as well as a short course on the uranium processing organized by Ron Molnar of MetNet H2O and Andrew Oliver of Cameco. The trade show added further strength to the conference. Brigitte Farah, and Ronona Saunders both of the Metallurgical Society of Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy, and Petroleum in Montreal managed the conference and the publications, respectively.

The two-volume proceedings with CDs were made available to the delegates. About 800 pages each, hard cover, 18.5 x 26 cm, published by the Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy, and Petroleum in Montreal, http://www.metsoc.org. ISBN volume 1: 1-894475-98-4 and volume 2: 1-894475-97-6. The topics were arranged in the following:

• Uranium Industry - Overview [7 Papers]
• Uranium Industry - Human Resources and Training [5 Papers]
• Deposit Geology & Mineralogy - Relevance to Mining and Processing [7 Papers]
• Uranium Mining - Overview [4 Papers]
• Uranium Mining - Challenges and Advances [12 Papers]
• Uranium Processing - Improvement to Operations [6 Papers]
• Uranium Processing - New Projects [7 Papers]
• Uranium Processing - General Processing [7 Papers]
• Uranium Processing - Leaching [8 Papers]
• Uranium Processing - Solvent Extraction [11 Papers]
• Uranium Processing - Ion Exchange [6 Papers]
• Uranium Refining and Conversion - Challenges and Advances [5 Papers]
• Uranium Fuel Manufacture [12 Papers]
• Reactors [4 Papers]
• Tailings Management - Challenges and Advances [6 Papers]
• Tailings - Chemistry and Characterization [9 Papers]
• Decommissioning [9 Papers]
• Radiation Safety and Advances [6 Papers]
• Regulatory Requirements and Expectations [8 Papers]
• Environmental and Safety Advances and Best Practices [10 Papers]
• Addendum [2 Papers]

Editors: Edmond K. Lam a Queen’s University graduate now with Cameco, John W. Rowson, formerly with Eldorado Nuclear in Uranium City now with AREVA, and Engin Özberk formerly with Sherritt International Corporation in Alberta now is vice president, Innovation and Technology Development of Cameco Corporation. The editors were also the conference organizers.

The conference provided an excellent opportunity for industry executives, representatives of universities and research institutes, design engineers, plant operators, regulators, policymakers, as well as metallurgical, environmental and health experts from all over the world to meet their colleagues, to discuss common interests and concerns, to renew friendship or form new lasting friendships.

The conference was strongly supported by Cameco, AREVA, Saskatchewan Ministry of Energy and Resources, Enterprise Saskatchewan, among others.

Fathi Habashi - Laval University, Quebec City, Canada, Fathi.Habaahai@arul.ulaval.ca