Part 1 of 3 Parts
    Enriched uranium is the fuel burned in most of the nuclear fission reactors being used to generate electricity in the U.S. today. Uranium is a fairly common element and it is found in trace amounts in soil and in deposits of many minerals. Of course, the richer the deposit the more profitable it is to mine that location. A variety of major nuclear accidents and problems at nuclear power plants have soured the public acceptance of nuclear power which, of course, seriously impact the domestic uranium market. The dropping costs of sustainable energy sources recently has also hurt the uranium market. The price of uranium has been quite volatile over the past few years.
    After ten years of low prices and growth, uranium has trended upward lately as compared to an otherwise grim market for commodities. Uranium prices have risen thirty-five percent in the past thirty days. It is now trading at $33.30 per pound. The price of uranium has not been this high in four years. The main cause for this price jump has been the shutdown of critical mines by Cameco in Canada and Kazatoprom in Kazakhstan. These mines have been supplying over half of the uranium being consumed by all the nuclear power reactors in the world.
    Bloomberg has reported that these mine closures have removed over forty-six million pounds of uranium from the market in the past twenty one days. This represents thirty five percent of the annual global uranium output. The main cause of this downturn in supply is a result of the arrival of the corona virus.
    This reduction in production and the rise in price happen to coincide with the Trump administration’s campaign to expand the U.S. production of uranium. They claim that this is being done to insure energy independence and national security for the U.S. However, this “third” surge in uranium prices could be stopped by low energy demand and prices as well as public rejection of the nuclear industry.
     This past Thursday, the U.S. Nuclear Fuel Working Group (NFWG) made recommendations for the U.S. government to open over fifteen hundred acres near the Grand Canyon to uranium production. They claim that this is necessary in order for the U.S. not to be overly reliant on foreign sources of uranium. The NFWG has called for the U.S. to spend over one and one half billion dollars over the next ten years to buy uranium from U.S. producers in order to create a federal stockpile. This would require the purchase of about ten million dollars’ worth of uranium per year.
     The NFWG also pointed out that there are two other major reasons for building this stockpile. The military needs low enriched uranium for the production of tritium to make triggers for nuclear weapons through the 2040s. Highly enriched uranium is required for the manufacture of fuel to be used in nuclear reactors used by the Navy for ship propulsion through the 2050s.
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