By Leslie Misson
Cameco is a Canadian corporation that supplies uranium-based fuel for nuclear power reactors. In 2008, yellowcake uranium taken by British and US forces during their 2003 invasion of Iraq was shipped via Montreal to a Cameco plant in Port Hope, Ontario.
Some diehard supporters of the discredited Anglo-American claim that Saddam Hussein’s regime possessed weapons of mass destruction (WMD) saw the arrival of Iraqi yellowcake in Canada as evidence that Saddam’s regime had, indeed, possessed WMD. Yellowcake, however, is not weapons-grade – Saddam’s regime lacked the capacity to refine yellowcake up to weapons-grade levels.
Prior to the expansion of war between Russia and NATO-backed Ukrainian forces in 2022, Russia supplied uranium-based fuels to nuclear power reactors in Ukraine and in various EU countries. In order to weaken the Russian economy, some NATO states and the NATO-backed Ukrainian regime stopped importing uranium-based fuels from Russia. Then, Cameco contracted to provide fuel for 10-12 years to Ukraine’s nuclear power plants. Cameco will also provide fuel for reactors in some EU countries.
Until it concluded the deals mentioned above, it was expected that the value of Cameco stock would decline because of decreased demand for uranium-based fuels as construction of nuclear power reactors in the US was halted.
Interestingly, US and Canadian critics of nuclear power, who publicize the dangers of transporting nuclear fuels in Canada, have not drawn attention to security and safety issues arising from transporting uranium-based fuels from Canada to Europe by sea. Nor have critics drawn attention to transporting Cameco nuclear fuels after they have arrived in Europe.
It seems that NATO’s new Cold War against Russia and the Peoples Republic of China trumps concerns regarding the safety of Cameco’s new connections to Ukraine and other parts of Europe.
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