Publications

Survey of Energy Resources 2007

Nuclear - Uranium Availability

The world uranium market is rapidly adjusting to 'rising expectations'. The ten-fold uranium price increase since 2000 is one indicator of this adjustment and triggered the beginning of a correction of an almost twenty-year old market anomaly, in which mine production persistently fell short of reactor requirements. Exploration and mine development have begun to follow uranium prices, with the number of exploration and mining companies mushrooming ten-fold and exploration expenditures increasing four-fold between 2001 and 2006. Short- and long-term uranium resource availability is discussed in detail in Chapter 6, Part I Uranium. Suffice it to say here that uranium resources are plentiful and pose no constraint on future nuclear power development.