How It's Made - Uranium Part 1

the size of a fireplace log this nuclear fuel bundle generates a lot more heat it's packed with enough uranium to power 100 homes for a year to obtain the uranium they tunnel 500 M underground at this site in Northern Saskatchewan this mine is the largest source of high-grade uranium in the world the uranium ore Lies Beneath a bed of water saturated sand Stone to reach it they use drill bits studded with tungsten carbide buttons like Knuckles on a fist the button bits punch into the rock face these first holes are for pipes that will pull heat out of the ground and freeze it around the ore The Miner operates the equipment by remote control it transfers a new piece of pipe to the end of the drill every meter and a half to penetrate one 130 M into the Sandstone bed it takes up to 8 days to install just one length of pipe and there are 200 of them they configure the pipes so they surround the ore deposit these freeze pipes will stabilize the ground and they'll also turn high-press groundwater to ice so it won't interfere with the actual mining a freeze plant above ground chills calcium chloride brine to -30° C and sends it through the freeze pipes the brine absorbs heat as it freezes the ground and Loops back to be chilled again above the uranium deposits they now gear up to mine The Ore they'll use this bit to chew into the ore body in order to make an initial small diameter hole known as a pilot hole the pilot hole Maps out the drill route to ore and it creates an entry point for larger mining equipment from a raised position the bit bores vertically into the Rock to drill the pilot hole and reach a specific level below the ore [Music] body they're now ready for the reamer bit the reamer has numerous button encrusted wheeled tentacles as this animation shows the drill pulls the reamer up the pilot hole widening it and the broken ore falls into what's known as an extraction chamber here a tram operated by remote control Scoops up the rock this remote control system keeps miners a safe distance away from Falling Rock hazards it also minimizes their exposure to the radioactive uranium in the ore as another precaution they continuously ventilate the mine introducing freshh air every 20 minutes steered by the operator's joystick the tram delivers the ore to a scanner by measuring the amount of radioactivity in the ore the scanner determines the uranium content is about 15% in much of the ore the uranium content is even greater on average around 18% and that's considered to be very high grade the tram now empties the ore into a chute cameras Follow The Rock's Journey to the next station then from a control room an operator manipulates a hydraulic Hammer to smash the ore to bits the broken ore then migrates to a mill that grinds it into a fine sand they add water and it becomes slurry which they then pump to the surface trucks transport the uranium or slurry to a mill 80 km away they pull into a special offloading facility the support for a vacuum system aligns with the tote that encases the slurry tank once in position a vacuum pipe drops into the tank and suctions up the slurry cameras provide a live feed of the unloading progress to a control room 7 m away a technician observes everything from here after a wash and a radiation check the truck leaves stay tuned for the transformation of uranium into nuclear fuel

Channel: CamecoCorporation

Views: 4,407,642

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Id: 9x7DozCqLxU

Length: 4min 47sec (287 seconds)

Published: Tue Dec 07 2021