San Onofre to ship low-level nuclear waste

3

A new, 640-ton steam generator at the San Onofre nuclear plant last year, before it was installed in the dome housing reactor three. Parts of the old steam generators, considered low-level radioactive waste, will be shipped to Utah starting this month. Register photo by Jebb Harris.

Steam generator parts that are considered low-level radioactive waste will be shipped from the San Onofre nuclear plant to Utah beginning this month, Southern California Edison officials said Tuesday.

The lower sections of the steam generators, recently replaced in a massive operation, will be taken by highway to a low-level waste-disposal facility in four shipments.

The shipments should be completed before the end of the year, an Edison statement said.

Edison operates the nuclear plant.

The shipments from San Onofre, just south of San Clemente, will pass through San Diego, Riverside and San Bernardino counties as well as Nevada, then arrive in Clive, Utah.

The generators’ radiation levels are below the U.S. Department of Transportation’s safety threshold, the statement said, although Edison officials said they could not provide details on the route or shipping schedule for security reasons.

No one living along the route will be exposed to radiation, Edison said; standing six feet from the from the vehicle carrying the generator parts for an hour would bring the same level of radioactive exposure as a dental X-ray.

Four 640-ton steam generators, two for each of the plant’s reactors, have been replaced over the past two years.

Fukushima - The Elephant in the Room

By lila york





Recent map of iodine contamination, North America by Nowegian Institute

Remember Chandra Levy?   Her disappearance following an affair with her congressman was the national obsession in the summer of 2001 - until we awoke one Tuesday morning to see the World Trade Center towers on fire     In the summer of 2011 the nation, or at least the nation's media, seems similarly obsessed with the murder trial of Casey Anthony and the twitter account of a New York congressman.   Meanwhile, the crisis at the Fukushima Daichi plant rages on with no resolution in sight and a cold shutdown now projected to be years away.   

Until last week there was an apparent media blackout on the crisis, although some Americans, this writer included, have followed the status of the reactors daily at Energy News andFairewinds, the website of nuclear energy expert, Arnie Gundersen.   

The Fukushima reactors were built by General Electric, which also owns Comcast, NBC, CNBC and MSNBC, so the absence of timely information is not surprising.   

One article early on in the crisis suggested that the reinsurance on Fukushima was held in part by AIG and Warren Buffet's Berkshire Hathaway, a supposition I cannot substantiate, but that may be true.   There is no doubt that we live in a time when corporate profits trump human safety and well-being, and we are seeing that manifest in this current crisis.   

The best MSM sources for information over these last months have been Bloomberg, online and on television, and The Wall Street Journal, which have tracked the crisis primarily because it affects investment in Japanese companies.

Last week the Japanese government made startling announcements. Three of the five reactors experienced total meltdowns on March 11th, the day of the initial earthquake, and all three reactors have "melted through" leaky containment vessels, molten masses of melted fuel rods now fissioning  on the basement floors of those reactors.   

The statement further confessed that levels of radiation released from the explosions were actually twice as high as initially reported, blaming the miscalculation on bad math.   (Indeed in the days after the March explosions plutonium was discovered on the ground in northern California and tritium in Vermont.)   

In light of these revelations Arnie Gundersen did an interview on CNN last week, recommending that Americans wash produce thoroughly and stop drinking milk and eating dairy products.   He also suggested that any Americans wealthy enough to relocate to the southern hemisphere consider doing so, adding that Seattle residents were inhaling 5 "hot particles" or "fuel fleas" per day in the weeks following the explosions.   

Democracy Now, Amy Goodman's radio and television news program, which has not ignored the story over these months, did an extensive update on yesterday's broadcast. 

Should we all be constructing fallout shelters and stockpiling food and water?   Should we be shipping our children to South America until the crisis ends?   I have no idea, but neither does anybody else, including the nuclear experts.   

They know that the crisis is more serious than Chernobyl.   The world has never experienced a "china syndrome" event, and there is no way to calculate the potential outcome.   

One nuclear physicist who posts regularly at enenews.com suggests that another explosion is unlikely given the current status, but warns that reactor 4 is in danger of collapsing on itself from even a minor earthquake or aftershock.   A collapse would negatively alter the scenario and could cause another major release of radioactive particles into the jet stream.   

Chronic low-level radiation produces a myriad of diseases in animals and humans, and even the IAEA recently admitted that no level of radiation is safe, as radiation is the prime cause of cancers.   In any event, radiation exposure from a cross-country flight is in an entirely different category from a "hot particle" that would become an internal emitter once inhaled or ingested.   Of the isotopes released in nuclear accidents, the most dangerous are plutonium, strontium 90, which attacks bone tissue, iodine 131 which attacks the thyroid gland, and cesium 137 which attacks soft tissue, including the liver, kidneys and lungs.   

Of these plutonium is the most lethal -- 1/10,000th of a micron will kill a human.   Fukushima's reactor number 3 illegally used MOX fuel, which is a mixture of uranium, depleted uranium, and plutonium. (The MOX fuel was sold to Japan by the United States during the Reagan administration).

The Norwegian Institute (NILU), a Scandinavian organization that measures air quality, akin to our EPA, had, for the first six weeks following the explosions, issued forecast maps for the northern hemisphere which tracked fallout clouds containing radioactive iodine, cesium and xenon, a gas.   Those maps were disturbing to all who saw them, as they showed North America literally blanketed in radioactive fallout at levels that vastly exceeded normal background radiation. 

The EPA announced in early May that it would cease testing air, rainwater, tap water and milk, as iodine 131 levels, the isotope with the shortest half-life, had fallen to normal atmospheric levels (EPA test results here).   

It has been reported at several websites that both NILU and the EPA were pressured to discontinue testing -- or at least to discontinue publication of the test results.   The "pressure" has been variously attributed to the U.S. government, the Japanese government and the United Nations, although I have seen no hard evidence to substantiate any of those claims.   NILU began to publish more recent and updated historical maps in an alternate hidden file it code-named Zardoz, after the 1970's sci-fi film about a post-apocalyptic future.   

The previously hidden maps, showing emergency-level fallout contamination across North America, were subsequently re-published by two 20-something bloggers, here (scroll down the page) and here.   

The Nuclear Engineering Dept at U.C. Berkeley has continued to test rain water, tap water, raw and commercially made milk, topsoil and an assortment of vegetables.   While radiation contamination has dropped significantly since the explosions of March 11, recent tests show new highs in contamination levels of topsoil and milk for cesium 137 and cesium 134.   

Since only UCB is publishing test results, we cannot know for certain what levels persist in other areas of the country. In early April, the government of France advised that pregnant women and young children avoid milk, soft cheeses and leafy vegetables.   

No such missive came from the U.S. government - and Western Europe has been receiving only 5% of the fallout that has blanketed North America. Last week Food Processing.com, the website for the U.S. food and beverage industry, published a very informative article entitled "Fukushima in Our Food," a good overview of contamination that has been recorded in North America since March 11th . Greenpeace, which conducted tests on marine life outside of Japan's 12 mile limit last month, found levels of contamination in fish and seaweed to be above legal limits.

Yesterday Counterpunch published an article by two doctors on the spike in infant deaths in the U.S. since the explosions at Fukushima, a spike which mimics infant deaths in Europe following the Chernobyl disaster.   In North America the contamination comes largely in rainwater, which will, in turn, affect tap water, topsoil, vegetables, meat and dairy products over time.   

The most vulnerable populations are pregnant women and women planning to become pregnant, infants and young children, the elderly and any person suffering from an immune system-compromising illness, such as AIDS.   

The most logical preventative measures Americans can and should take are these: Avoid going out in the rain and always carry an umbrella, avoid fresh dairy products, wash all produce, increase intake of potent antioxidants, such as CoQ10 and alpha lipoic acid, and buy a reverse osmosis water filtration system for your home or at least for your kitchen faucet.   

If you want to be prepared for a possible emergency down the road, also look into N95 face masks, which are widely available, HEPA air filters, and stockpile at least a few weeks of canned and dried food and filtered or spring water sufficient for your household.   

(Well water and spring water are safe as they are filtered by the clay in the soil.)   

Consult the links below for methods of protection from and detoxification of radio isotopes.   

(These methods are also valuable to protect against radiation exposure from x-rays and CT scans).

Resources for news on Fukushima and results of testing :
Energy News.com   http://enenews.com/

Fairewinds, Arnie Gundersen http://www.fairewinds.com/home
EPA test results http://opendata.socrata.com/Government/RadNet-Laboratory-Analysis/cf4r-dfwe
UC Berkeley Dept of Nuclear Engineering test results air and water monitoring teamhttp://www.nuc.berkeley.edu/UCBAirSampling
American Nuclear Society twitter page   http://twitter.com/#!/ans_org
NILU historical maps   http://www.woweather.com/weather/news/fukushima?LANG=us&VAR=eurad2500
NILU Zardoz file http://zardoz.nilu.no/~flexpart/fpinteractive/plots/?C=M;O=D

And some global viewpoints on nuclear proliferation ..

The Economic and Political Weekly carries many fine articles on India's political, economic and social system.

I went hunting there to see the nuclear items they publish.

What IS interesting is that moral questions find room to be published so that they can be publically debated, and most of the articles will even highlight that that is the POINT.

Here are the links as listed and then below I have chosen a comment from one of them to show you how well crafted and timely these articles actually are. I think that they are all worth a read.

Nuclear Weapons

South Asia Needs a Bomb-Less Deal

Pervez Hoodbhoy

Nuclear Disarmament

Achin Vanaik

North Korea Test as Spur to Nuclear Disarmament

Ramesh Thakur

Fallout from Nuclear Deal

R Rajaraman

A Nation’s Shame

none

Nuclear Power

Economics of Nuclear Power: Subsidies and Competitiveness

M V Ramana

Nuclear Power in India

M R Srinivasan , R B Grover , S A Bhardwaj

High Costs, Questionable Benefits of Reprocessing

J Y Suchitra , M V Ramana

Economics of Nuclear Power in India

Sudhinder Thakur

False Assumption of Nuclear Deal

Amulya K N Reddy

Heavy Subsidies in Heavy Water: Economics of Nuclear Power in India

M V Ramana

<<:>> <<:>> <<:>>

South Asia Needs a Bomb-Less Deal

PERVEZ HOODBHOY

The US-India nuclear accord will exacerbate the arms race between
India and Pakistan and threatens to accelerate nuclear
weaponisation by both countries. The sane course is for the two
countries to negotiate a fissile cut-off pact, which may well create
positive ripple effects in China and the US as well.

Criminal Behaviour

But instances of criminal nuclear
behaviour are to be found even in the very
recent past. For example, India’s defence
minister George Fernandes told the International
Herald Tribune on June 3, 2002
that “India can survive a nuclear attack,
but Pakistan cannot”. Indian defence secretary
Yogendra Narain had at that time
taken things a step further in an interview
with Outlook: “A surgical strike is the
answer”, adding that if this failed to resolve
things, “We must be prepared for
total mutual destruction”. On the Pakistani
side, at the peak of the 2002 crisis, General
Musharraf had threatened that Pakistan
would use “unconventional means” against
India if necessary.

Given the roller coaster nature of regional
politics, it is quite likely that similar tense
times will return at some point in the future.
But Indian and Pakistani leaders are likely
to once again abdicate from their own responsibilities
whenever that happens.

Instead, they will again entrust disaster
prevention to US diplomats and officials,
as well occasionally to those from Britain.
Of course, it would be absurd to lay the
blame on the US for all that has gone
wrong between the two countries. Surely
the US does not want to destabilise the
subcontinent, and it does not want a south
Asian holocaust. But one must be aware
that for the US this is only a peripheral
interest – the core of its interest in south
Asian nuclear issues stems from the need
to limit Chinese power and influence, fear
of Al Qaida and Muslim extremism, and
the associated threat of nuclear terrorism.
The Americans will sort out their business
and priorities as they see fit. But it
is unwise to participate in a game that
leaves the south Asian neighbours at each
other’s throats while benefiting a power
that sits on the other end of the globe. The
real question is: what actions would best
serve the interest of the peoples of India
and Pakistan, as well as of China? The
answer lies in moving away from the mad
homicidal urges that have come to possess
south Asian ruling elites.

Many years ago, all three countries
crossed the point where they could lay
cities to waste and kill millions in a matter
of minutes. The fantastically cruel logic,
known as nuclear deterrence, requires only
the certainty that one nuclear bomb will
be able to penetrate the adversary’s defences
and land in the heart of a city. No
one has the slightest doubt that this capability
was crossed multiple times over
during the past few decades.
Delivery vehicles for nuclear weapons
have also multiplied and increased in accuracy,
as well the ability to avoid detection
and interception. Indian militarism is far
more ambitious than Pakistan’s – which
is fundamentally constrained by economic
and manpower resources. India is reportedly
developing MIRV capability for
delivering its nuclear warheads. A latent
worry in the US is that India may even
develop an intercontinental ballistic missile
(ICBM), and perhaps also develop countermeasures
to penetrate American missile
defences. Technological progress will
inevitably bring with it limitless dangerous
possibilities. Unless rationality is brought
to bear, every crazy idea will be pursued
just because it is possible to do so.

Best Hope

The time for a fissile material cut-off is
now. It offers the best hope to limit the
upward spiral in warhead numbers. Instead
of threatening to create more Kahutas,
Pakistan should offer to stop production
of highly enriched uranium while India
should respond by ceasing to reprocess its
reactor wastes. Previous stockpiles possessed
by either country should not be
brought into issue because their credible
verification is extremely difficult and would
inevitably derail an agreement. Years of
negotiation at the Conference on Disarmament
in Geneva came to naught for this
very reason. A series of “nuclear risk
reduction” talks between Pakistan and India
have also produced zero results. The cessation
of fissile material production is
completely absent from the agenda; it must
be made a central item now.

If a Pakistan-India bilateral agreement
could somehow come through, it would
have fantastically positive effects elsewhere.
China – which is the major target of US
nuclear weapons – may not have enough
warheads to match the US but has more than
a sufficient number to constitute a nuclear
deterrent. Inspired by an Indian cut-off, it
could declare a moratorium on fissile
material production. The US, which no longer
produces fissile materials because it has
a huge excess, could encourage the Chinese
action by offering to suspend work on its
Nuclear Missile Defence system.

Unfortunately, the US is not acting as
a force for peace in south Asia. Confronted
by the accusation that it is pumping arms
into a region that some of its leaders had
once described as a “nuclear tinder box”,
US officials have responded defensively
with answers such as: you have to deal with
the world as it is and the Indian programme
cannot be rolled back; India is a democracy;
India needs to import nuclear fuel
and technology and we need to sell them.
But such replies sweep under the carpet
the disturbing history of near-nuclear
conflict on the subcontinent for which the
US has often taken credit for defusing.
By proceeding with the nuclear deal with
India the US may destabilise south Asia.
Equally, if it forces a change in the global
nuclear order by creating an exception for
India, it will have bartered away one of
its fundamental interests. “What will Russia
say when they want to supply more nuclear
materials or technology to Iran?” angrily
asked congressman Ed Markey of Massachusetts.
Indeed, the US-India nuclear deal
will deeply damage the NPT, take the heat
off Iran and North Korea, open the door
for Japan to convert its plutonium stocks
into bombs, and create the conditions for
eventual global nuclear anarchy.

Email: pervezhoodbhoy@yahoo.com

NOW the recent news on Billiton (BHP) and Rio Tinto!!

Rio Tinto surges to record amid talk of further bid activity
Independent, UK - 3 hours ago
By Nick Clark Shares in the mining giant Rio Tinto soared to a record close as the markets anticipated further bid activity in the wake of its rejection of ...
Bidding war talk sends Rio Tinto shares soaring Scotsman
Steelmakers fear duopoly if BHP bid for Rio Tinto is allowed Times Online
Rio Tinto: BHP hostile bid would face hurdles including multiple ... Financial Times
National Post - TheStreet.com
all 1,181 news articles »

Rio Tinto completes Alcan takeover The Age, Australia - 20 hours ago Major miner Rio Tinto Ltd says the company's $41 billion takeover bid of Canadian aluminium producer Alcan Inc has closed, with 98 per cent of shares ... For sale: Rio Tinto coal mines Gillette News Record Teck Cominco seen as suitor for Rio Tinto US coal mines Globe and Mail Alcan reports Q3 results Canada.com Reuters.uk - MarketWatch all 64 news articles »

UK Stocks Gain, Led by BG Group, Rio Tinto, British Energy Bloomberg - 19 hours ago BHP Billiton Plc, the world's largest mining company, and Rio Tinto Group advanced. British Energy Group Plc climbed after Goldman, Sachs & Co. added shares ... European Stocks Pare Losses; Rio Tinto, Anglo American Advance Bloomberg Rio Tinto rejects 3-for-1 share offer from BHP Billiton UPATE Hemscott Thursday Lunchtime Market: Rio Tinto lifts FTSE, but banks ... CityWire.co.uk Hemscott - Rocky Mountain News all 25 news articles »

London shares firmer midmorning; Rio Tinto up on rumours of ... CNNMoney.com - 17 hours ago 9, 2007 (Thomson Financial delivered by Newstex) -- London shares were firmer midmorning although off highs following rumours of a counter bid for Rio Tinto ... London shares close down; NY falls on Bernanke speech; Rio Tinto ... CNNMoney.com London shares lower midday; NY seen lower; Barclays denies ... CNNMoney.com London shares up early on; M&A and specific newsflow provides ... CNNMoney.com CNNMoney.com all 151 news articles »

China Post

Rio Tinto lifts Sydney; exporters trip up Tokyo MarketWatch - 17 hours ago In Australia, markets gained on a surge in Rio Tinto Plc shares after the miner rejected a $110 billion, all-share approach from top global player BHP ... Asia-Pacific markets: Asian bourses witness another wild ride Daily Times ASIA MARKETS Asian markets mostly down, exporters trip Tokyo MarketWatch Asian Markets Mixed On Friday AHN all 30 news articles »

Canada could benefit from BHP/Rio deal

VANCOUVER–A BHP Billiton Ltd. takeover of rival Rio Tinto PLC could end up being a boon to a Canadian mining industry that's been beset by foreign takeovers this past year, analysts said.

The potential combination of two giant seniors would no doubt result in antitrust regulators demanding the sale of a number of assets that could be picked up by smaller rivals, including Canadian mid-cap companies.

"There's been a lot of talk about a hollowing out of Canada's mining sector with the loss of quite a few large-cap companies, so this could be a chance for (Canada's) mid-caps to pick up some of the pieces to become larger players within the sector," said UBS analyst Tony Lesiak.

BHP ended months of speculation yesterday when it confirmed it had approached Rio Tinto in a deal that could be worth $159 billion (U.S.).

While Canadian icons such as Inco and Falconbridge have disappeared from the landscape north of the 49th parallel, midcaps such as Lundin Mining Corp. Ivanhoe Mines Ltd., Hudbay Minerals Inc. and First Quantum Minerals Ltd. could emerge as potential suitors for BHP/Rio cast-offs.

"Cash-rich Ivanhoe, for example, has quite the platform for putting deals together," said one analyst.

He said the Vancouver-based company is already implicated in a potential BHP/Rio deal because Rio has a strategic stake in Ivanhoe and its Mongolian Oyu Tolgoi copper-gold project.

Ultimately, analysts reckon antitrust regulators will end up looking at four specific areas if a BHP/Rio deal actually goes through: iron ore, aluminum and alumina, uranium, and copper assets. Once BHP announced its offer, speculation immediately started mounting over the fate of Canada's aluminum giant Alcan Inc., which has just been taken over by Rio Tinto.

But analysts said the timing of BHP's offer for Rio Tinto is particularly telling.

"BHP let Rio Tinto mop up Alcan and then stepped in to buy Rio," said Tony Robson, co-head of mining research at BMO Capital Markets. "Clearly, because BHP is bidding for Rio after the Alcan deal means it wants the assets. They're a great prize, especially the hydro-electric power (assets) in Quebec and B.C."

He said BHP would surely honour the continuity agreements and various obligations in place between Rio, Alcan and Quebec's provincial government.

Another aspect of Canada's mining community that could also be dramatically affected is the north and its dynamic diamond sector.

Rio Tinto owns 60 per cent of the high-profile Diavik diamond mine in a joint venture with Aber Diamond Corp. And BHP owns 80 per cent of the rival Ekati diamond mine.

"There have been rumours Rio wants to sell out of Diavik and a BHP/Rio deal might mean both assets could be sold off or merged to create a larger competitive presence in the north," said one analyst. "If there's a sale, a company such as Aber could end up being a big beneficiary."

<<:>> <<:>> <<:>>

This essay was written in c 1959. It was copied from the Canadian Register of Commerce & Industry held in the Western Libraries at the University of Western Ontario. The original article should be consulted since this copy may contain some errors. The text and/or the images are being made available to researchers for scholarly purposes. They should not be used for commercial gain without the permission of the author or publisher.

RIO TINTO GROUP IN CANADA

Uranium properties, with a combined capacity of more than 19,000 tons of ore a day, the largest on the North American continent, constitute the most important underlying assets of the Rio Tinto Group of companies in Canada.

Rio Tinto Management Services Limited, a subsidiary of The Rio Tinto Mining Company of Canada Limited, is, in fact, managing companies whose uranium contracts come to a grand total of more than $630,000,000. Within five years, from April, 1953, to May, 1958, Algoma, the largest uranium camp in the world had come into being fully. Of the area's eleven huge mills, capable of handling a total of 35,000 tons of ore a day, seven belong to The Rio Tinto Mining Company of Canada Limited.

Built and brought into operation at an aggregate cost of nearly $200,000,000 for the entire Rio Tinto Group, the combined daily production rate of these Rio Tinto properties is now over the scheduled total of more than 19,000 tons of ore a day.

Rio Tinto (Canada) Limited was actually incorporated March 2nd, 1955, as a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Rio Tinto Comparty, Limited, of London, England. It immediately acquired a substantial interest in Algom Uranium Mines Limited, which was thereafter administered by a management subsidiary, Rio Tinto Management Services Limited.

1956--The purchase of the mining interests in Canada of the man behind the Algomauranium finds, Mr. Joseph H. Hirshhorn, New York-Toronto financier, followed on May I st, 1956.

The name of Rio Tinto (Canada) Limited was changed to The Rio Tinto Mining Company of Canada Limited and its capital was increased.

The 85-year-old Rio Tinto Company of London, England, today holds voting and beneficial control of Rio Tinto Canada. Mr. Hirshhorn is chairman of the board of directors of the Canadian company and retains a substantial share holding in the company.

In addition to Canada, the London company, through subsidiaries, has extensive mining interests in other parts of the world, including large copper holdings and nickel prospects in Rhodesia and uranium in Australia.

Algoma Uranium Area--The Canadian company's principal assets, at the present, consist of its interest in associated companies which hold government uranium contracts representing some 60% of the forecast capacity of the Algoma area.

Of these contracts, that held by Northspan Uranium Mines Limited for $275,000,000 is almost certainly the largest single contract of its kind in the world.

Algoma Uranium Mines Limited comes close with its contract of $206,910,000, whilst Milliken Lake Uranium Mines Limited at $94,525,000 and Pronto Uranium Mines Limited at $55,000,000, follow with substantial contracts.

These four companies together have eight mines and seven concentrator plants.

Pronto has been in production since October, 1955, with its one mine. Algoma's two mines came officially into production in February, 1957. Northspan is now in production with its three mines, "Lacnor", in production since the end of 1957, "Panel", in production since March, 1958, and Spanish American in production since May, 1958. The Milliken Lake mine came into production at the end of April, 1958. All these properties are in the Blind River region of northern Ontario.

Capitalization and Officers--Rio Tinto Canada is capitalized at $15,000,000 of authorized 5% debentures due May Ist, 1963, of which $14,668,000 are outstanding, and 80,000,000 no par common shares of which 44,227,615 shares were outstanding as at December 31st, 1957.

Officers and directors of The Rio Tinto Mining Company of Canada Limited include Joseph H. Hirshhorn, chairman of the board; Hon. Robert H. Winters, president; Dr. E. B. Gillanders, executive vice-president; W. B. Malone, vice-president and treasurer; Dr. D. R. Derry, vice-president (exploration); W. H. Bouck, vice-president (legal); Henry Blaise, J. N. V. Duncan, Sam Harris, Senator S. A. Hayden, Rt. Hon. C. D. Howe, B. R. P. MacKenzie, Leo Model, Frank Petito and Sir Mark Turner, directors.

last updated 2 Aug 2005)

BHP Billiton Plc

Shareholders

On Oct. 6, 2000, Billiton Plc announced that it has acquired 95% of the outstanding common shares of Rio Algom Limited. The acquisition was completed on Nov. 29, 2000.
On Dec. 15, 2000, the Rio Algom Ltd’s U.S. uranium mining business was sold to Billiton Base Metals, a wholly owned subsidiary of Billiton Plc.
In 2001, Billiton Plc. and BHP merged to BHP Billiton Plc.
On June 3, 2005, BHP Billiton became the major shareholder of WMC. As of August 2, 2005, BHP Billiton owns 100 percent of WMC Resources Ltd. shares.

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Head Offices

BHP Billiton Plc
1-3 Strand
London WC2N 5HA
United Kingdom
Tel.: +44-20-7747 3800, Fax: +44-20-7747 3900, email: corporate@bhpbilliton.com

Neathouse Place
London SW1V 1LH
United Kingdom
Tel.: +44-20-7802 7000, Fax: +44-20-7802 7332

BHP Billiton Limited
Bourke Place
600 Bourke Street
Melbourne Victoria 3000
Australia
Tel. +61-3-96093333, Fax: +61-3-96093015

> View company's press releases
> View company's ASX announcements (ASX Code: BHP)
> Download Annual Report · Sustainability Report

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Subsidiaries

(uranium related ones only)

• (100%) Billiton Base Metals
  • (100%) - Reno Creek ISL project, Wyoming, USA
  • (100%) - Quivira Mining Co
    • - Ambrosia Lake, New Mexico, USA
  • - Lisbon, La Sal, Utah, USA

• (100%) - WMC Resources Ltd
  • (100%) Olympic Dam, Roxby Downs, South Australia
  • (100%) Yeelirrie Project, Western Australia

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See also: BHP Shareholders for Social Responsibility