Welcome to Phoenix Research Inc.

Nuclear Energy Now

Phoenix Research Inc. is a Calgary based firm dedicated to developing long-term and environmentally sustainable solutions to North American energy. Presently, the company is developing a plan to utilize abundant Saskatchewan uranium reserves for the production of nuclear power to be used as process energy to facilitate growth in the bitumen production in the oilsands industry.

Production of bitumen and/or refining it to high-grade synthetic crude oil is a critical industry for Alberta and all of Canada. More than US$100 billion has been spent on oilsands development, and though some projects are dormant in light of the recent downturn in world oil prices it is abundantly clear that investors are committed to companies that are expanding their oilsands production. The bitumen reservoir in the region is estimated at some 200 billion barrels of recoverable reserve, and this resource will supply millions of barrels per day of synthetic crude into a hungry world market for hundreds of years to come. By 2015, bitumen and/or synthetic crude production from Alberta and Saskatchewan could surpass the 3-million barrel per day mark.

The reservoir of uranium in northern Saskatchewan is the world’s largest high-grade deposit zone comprising almost 50% of the established reserves on the planet. 2008 production of some 25 million pounds of uranium oxide from the region comprises almost 30% of mined world supply. Canada has an aged but well developed multi-gigawatt nuclear power generation industry, primarily in Ontario, which is dependent upon uranium fuel mined in Saskatchewan. The most pressing demand node in the nation however, is the process energy requirements of the oilsands, where 2015 bitumen production will require 1-million gigajoules per day in process energy.

Production of bitumen and/or synthetic crude oil from the oilsands is more energy intensive than conventional oils oil production. Various recovery techniques presently consume enormous quantities of natural gas (CH4) for process energy production. Accordingly, massive quantities of carbon dioxide (CO2) are also produced. Though considerable research and development is ongoing with regard to carbon capture and sequestration (CCS), the CO2 output of the oilsands is well beyond and CCS capacities that have been developed. Given the present and evolving societal concern respecting greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, present oilsands production techniques may be unsustainable. The threat of new regulations, the costs of CCS, and diminishing gas supplies are all threats to the future of the industry. Only nuclear energy can address the scale of the demand as an alternative.

What is proposed would be the largest capital project in the history of Saskatchewan. On an incremental basis the demand will facilitate the development of the world’s largest nuclear complex, and provide dramatic stimulus to the Canadian economy over the next century. The nuclear option is the most environmentally responsible means of dealing with burgeoning world oil demand. It is a safe, achievable, economically viable and highly secure option for providing stable, multidimensional energy supply to the continent. This is a long-term solution.

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Phoenix Research Inc.

1596 Evergreen Hill SW

Calgary, Alberta, Canada

T2Y 3A9


Phone: (403) 532-9284

Fax: (403) 532-9285

Email: info@phoenixresearch.ca