Monday February 13, 2006

The atom may be the future - again

peakoil.com -> theglobeandmail.com :

Prices for uranium oxide ("yellowcake") went into a deep freeze that set in when the Western world went cold on fission after the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant meltdown in 1979. Smacked hard again by the more serious Chernobyl disaster in the Ukraine in 1986, the price had plunged to less than $9 (U.S.) a pound by early 1990, as the United States and other nations abandoned plans to expand their fleets of atomic power plants. Since bottoming out at just over $7 a pound in December 2001, uranium has redeemed itself by rocketing skyward, recently hitting $37.50 on the spot market.

The rise has been fuelled by a variety of developments, including a growing interest in atomic power in electricity-starved China and India, both of which are planning to double their reactor fleets over the next 15 years, and by a renewed interest in the West, where, in the age of global warming, there is a growing push to reduce fossil fuel emissions. In all, the International Atomic Energy Agency is now forecasting 60 additional plants will be added by 2020 to the approximately 440 currently producing power in 31 countries around the world.

The icing on the yellowcake has been the entry of hedge funds and other speculators into the spot market, buying up millions of pounds of uranium, betting the value will continue to rise. The new speculative interest has had a significant impact in an industry that currently mines only about 108 million pounds of uranium a year, but where demand is running at 180 million pounds.

See also :

1. Gas crisis prompts Italians to reconsider nuclear energy
2. France will run trains free from fossil fuel
3. China : Nuclear Leap Forward
4. Malaysia "needs to develop nuclear energy"
5. Toshiba plans to triple nuclear power sales

(2006-02-13 13:19:13 SGT) [Energy] Permalink

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