The Rest of the World Needs Yellowcake The Rest of the World Needs Yellowcake
In the West, uranium is a political issue. It is unpopular in the United States, Germany and other developed nations. However, the rest of the world – emerging and frontier markets – is focused on attaining the same sort of lifestyle that the West enjoys. That is extremely energy intensive.
To reach our level of comfort, frontier and emerging markets will create demand for all energy sources – solar, wind, hydrocarbon energy, coal, and nuclear. Nuclear power production is increasing, but today’s price of 40 bucks a pound does not generate the supply to run those plants. The price needs to head higher.
Another thing you need to consider is that nuclear power still generates 18 per cent of electricity supply in the United States. Despite being politically unpopular, the long-term alternative to nuclear energy is not having the lights go on when you flip a switch – not an option in the United States.
Finally, Germany – which has also announced that it will phase out nuclear power – is faced with an interesting choice. They’re proposing, I suppose, to replace nuclear with solar energy. Well, one problem is that the sun doesn’t shine in Germany. Another is nighttime. Current technology simply does not allow solar energy to be a viable alternative to nuclear.
The German government is really involved in a political -and fairly cynical – ploy: reduce consumption of German-generated nuclear power but import it from France and Poland.
Worldwide, the demand for nuclear power will continue to increase, and since mining is uneconomic at current prices, utilities will need to start paying more in order to satisfy their demand. In fact, meeting demand will require a price point of about twice the current price.