Tokyo Electric Power Co. to procure uranium from Canada

Kyodo News International, Tokyo -- Dec. 21

Tokyo Electric Power Co. said Wednesday it will begin to procure Canadian uranium for nuclear power plants when Saskatchewan Province's Cigar Lake mine in which it has a 5 percent stake starts commercial production in 2007.

TEPCO plans to purchase 350 tons annually from the mine over 15 years, it said. The amount is equal to 10 percent of its annual uranium consumption.

TEPCO will be the first Japanese power utility to independently procure uranium from a foreign country. Japanese power utilities have so far formed consortiums to purchase uranium from overseas.

Idemitsu Kosan Co., a major oil refiner-distributor, also has a 7.9 percent stake in the Cigar Lake uranium mine and plans to provide uranium purchases to power utilities in Japan.

With uranium reserves proven at 136,000 tons, Cigar Lake is viewed as one of the world's leading uranium mines, TEPCO said.

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