Cameco Annual Report 2011

Conversion and fuel manufacturing

We control about 25% of world UF6 conversion capacity.

Port Hope conversion services

Port Hope is the only uranium conversion facility in Canada and the only commercial 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 $101.7 million (pending regulatory approval)

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 $19.5 million (pending regulatory approval)

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 million kgU as UO3 to UF6
Licensed capacity 6.0 million kgU as UF6 per year

2011 update

Production

Fuel services produced 14.7 million kgU in 2011, slightly lower than our plan at the beginning of the year and 5% lower than 2010. In the third quarter, we reduced our production due to unfavourable market conditions for UF6 conversion.

Port Hope conversion facility cleanup and modernization (Vision 2010)

We submitted the draft environmental impact statement for review by the regulators in December 2010 and have continued work on the environmental assessment.

Community outreach

We continued to strengthen our community outreach program in Port Hope by:

  • holding a series of community forums
  • making presentations to municipal council
  • reaching out using community newsletters, newspaper advertising, public displays, open houses and a website dedicated to the Port Hope community

Public opinion research shows we have strong local support.

Springfields toll milling agreement

Based on the unfavourable market conditions for UF6 conversion, we have discontinued discussions to extend our toll conversion contract with SFL beyond 2016. We remain fully committed to the current contract. 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 lowered our production target for 2012 to between 13 million and 14 million kgU due to the unfavourable market conditions for UF6 conversion.

Port Hope conversion facility cleanup and modernization (Vision 2010)

In 2012, we expect to continue with the environmental assessment process for this project.

Managing our risks

We manage the risks listed here.