Australia : nuclear energy superpower

The world is clearly running out of oil, running out of time, and running into global warming. Every feasible alternative for generating energy has to be considered - bio-fuels (ethanol), geothermal energy, solar energy, coastal wave energy, wind farming, liquid natural gas and nuclear power.

When it comes to nuclear power, Australia is to uranium reserves what Saudi Arabia is to oil. Just three countries, Australia, Canada and Kazakhstan, control 60% of the world's viable uranium reserves. With so much demand for energy, led as usual by China, which plans an unprecedented expansion in nuclear power plant construction, what is being debated at the highest diplomatic levels is an international system for the production, sale and storage of uranium.

Australia would be the No. 1 player in such an arrangement. The enriched uranium would then be leased to users on long-term contracts, before being returned to Australia for safe disposal. That's why the Prime Minister wants a debate on uranium. I think that's what John Howard means when he says Australia could become "an energy superpower". Because the stakes are huge. Because the world's oil addiction is going to hit the wall sooner rather than later.

- Notes : the uranium price has gone up from $8.75 in Nov/Dec 1998 to $47.25 today (US$ per pound U3O8), a 440% jump. Analysts are forecasting $100 levels. I await a day when the price of uranium (per pound) does a "cross-over" with the price of crude oil (per barrel). And why not? After all, atom per atom, uranium has 10 million times as much energy as oil.

Meanwhile, the "nuclear-powered" portion of my own portfolio has also done exceedingly well. Just sold off some uranium shares which have doubled and tripled in the past couple of weeks, and made an equivalent of an extra month's bonus (for both Biow and myself). The overall portfolio gain now stands at 49%, a significant improvement from the May/Jun crash when it went down to a gain of only 8%.

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