Uranium miner Cameco has announced it is laying off 85 workers in Wyoming and Nebraska.
Ken Vaughn, a spokesman for Cameco, says the cuts are a result of an ongoing downturn in the uranium market.
“Well there’s just an oversupply on the market at present. Part of that is due to the fact that most of the Japanese nuclear plants have been offline for the Fukushima disaster,” says Vaughn.
Vaughn says the company is hoping India and China will expand their nuclear capacity and give the industry a boost, but it's not clear when or if that will happen. Despite the job cuts, all of the company’s U.S. mines and offices will stay open with a workforce of about 170 people. Employees will be notified if they are being laid off between now and the end of May.