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Not All Yellowcake is Yellow
Added: (Thu Mar 30 2006)
SARASOTA, Fla., March 30, 2006, (Pressbox) �
Uranium oxide, the processed material used to fuel nuclear reactors is often called �yellowcake.� About 20 percent of the electricity you use each day is generated by a nuclear power plant. Your utility buys yellowcake from an enrichment plant that keeps your lights on and your computer humming. But not all of it is actually yellow, according to Patrick Drummond, plant superintendent of Wyoming�s Smith Ranch, where uranium is mined. �Some of it is yellow; some of it is green or dark green. Some of it is black,� Drummond told StockInterview.com editors, who recently visited Cameco�s Power Resources� facilities, near Douglas, Wyoming.
�The color is a function of how we dry it, not how we process it,� Drummond told StockInterview. �There is a definite correlation between drying temperatures of yellowcake and color.� It also depends upon what chemicals you use while processing. �At Smith Ranch, we make uranium peroxide,� explained Drummond. �We complex uranium with hydrogen peroxide to make our product.� Apparently, you can also make different types of yellowcake, he added. �You can make uranium diuranate, a complex made with ammonia.� Yellowcake can also be made with other chemicals. It may be yellow and it may not.
The interview with knowledgeable uranium expert, Patrick Drummond can be found on the internet news website, StockInterview.com, in part five of the Wyoming Series: The New Face of Wyoming�s Uranium Mining.
http://www.stockinterview.com/wyoming5.html
Contact:
Julie Ickes
Editor, StockInterview.com
Tel: (941) 929-1640
Email: editor@stockinterview.com
http://www.stockinterview.com
(Source: StockInterview.com)