The uranium market, like all commodity markets, has a history of volatility, moving with the standard forces of supply and demand as well as geopolitical pressures. It has also evolved particularities of its own in response to the unique nature and use of uranium.
Historically, uranium has been mined in countries willing to export, including Australia and Canada.[2][3] However, countries now responsible for more than 50% of the world’s uranium production include Kazakhstan, Namibia, Niger, and Uzbekistan.[4]
Uranium from mining is used almost entirely as fuel for nuclear power plants. Following the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster, the global uranium market remains depressed, with the uranium price falling more than 50%, declining share values, and reduced profitability of uranium producers since March 2011. As a result, uranium companies worldwide have reduced capacity, closed operations and deferred new production.[5][6]
Before uranium is ready for use as nuclear fuel in reactors, it must undergo a number of intermediary processing steps that are identified as the front end of the nuclear fuel cycle: mining it (either by ISL or by mining and milling into yellowcake); enriching it; and finally fuel fabrication to produce fuel assemblies or bundles.
- ^ "NUEXCO Exchange Value (Monthly Uranium Spot)". Archived from the original on 2011-07-22.
- ^ "Nuclear renaissance faces realities". Platts. Retrieved 2007-07-13.
- ^ L. Meeus; K. Purchala; R. Belmans. "Is it reliable to depend on import?" (PDF). Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Department of Electrical Engineering of the Faculty of Engineering. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2007-11-29. Retrieved 2007-07-13.
- ^ Benjamin K. Sovacool (January 2011). "Second Thoughts About Nuclear Power" (PDF). National University of Singapore. pp. 5–6. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2013-01-16.
- ^ Nickel, Rod (7 February 2014). "Uranium producer Cameco scraps production target". Reuters. Retrieved 17 April 2014.
- ^ Komnenic, Ana (7 February 2014). "Paladin Energy suspends production at Malawi uranium mine". Mining.com. Retrieved 17 April 2014.