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Conversion & Fuel Manufacturing

North America map showing location of Port Hope conversion facility

Port Hope conversion services

Port Hope is the only uranium conversion facility in Canada and a supplier of UO2 for Canadian-made CANDU reactors.

Location Ontario, Canada
Ownership 100%
End product UF6, UO2
ISO certification ISO 14001 certified
Licensed capacity 12.5 million kgU as UF6 per year
2.8 million kgU as UO2 per year
Estimated decommissioning cost $102 million

Cameco Fuel Manufacturing Inc. (CFM)

CFM produces fuel bundles and reactor components for CANDU reactors.

Location Ontario, Canada
Ownership 100%
End product CANDU fuel bundles and components
ISO certification ISO 9001 certified, ISO 14001 certified
Licensed capacity 1.2 million kgU as UO2 as finished bundles
Estimated decommissioning cost $20 million

Springfields Fuels Ltd. (SFL)

SFL is the newest conversion facility in the world. We contract almost all of its capacity through a toll-processing agreement to 2016.

Location Lancashire, UK
Toll-processing agreement Annual conversion of 5.0 million kgU as UO3 to UF6
Licensed capacity 6.0 million kgU as UF6 per year

2013 update

Production

Fuel services produced 14.9 million kgU, slightly higher than our plan at the beginning of the year and 5% higher than 2012 when we reduced production in response to weak market conditions.

Labour relations

In July, unionized employees at our Port Hope conversion facility accepted new three-year collective agreements, which include a 6% wage increase over the term of the agreements.

Port Hope conversion facility cleanup and modernization (Vision in Motion, formerly Vision 2010)

In December 2012, we received a positive decision on the environmental assessment for the project from Canada’s Environment Minister. In 2013, we began the licensing process with the CNSC, which is required to advance the project. The process will continue in 2014.

Springfields toll milling agreement

Based on the current weak market for UF6 conversion, we do not anticipate an extension of our toll conversion contract with SFL beyond 2016. If market conditions improve over the next few years, we would consider resuming our discussions to extend the contract.

Planning for the future

Production

We have decreased our production target for 2014 to between 13 million and 14 million kgU in response to weak market conditions.

Managing our risks

We also manage the risks listed here.