Uranium – What Could Happen to Secondary Supply

May 5, 2014 — Leave a comment

It’s what almost every European industry insider is talking about but almost none of the analysts are writing about. I’m talking about what will happen if the international community hits Russia with sanctions and if those sanctions include uranium.

According to the Euratom Supply Agency (http://ec.europa.eu/euratom/index.html), Russia supplies as much as 40% of Europe’s enriched fuel because there is very little natural uranium in Europe. The French are big customers of Russia and not only does France rely on nuclear for most of their energy requirements but they also export energy to Germany.

We’ve not seen uranium on the list of sanctions yet but I know that utilities are seriously concerned. It’s hard to say what’s ultimately going to happen but it’s a scary situation for European utilities that have uranium sitting in Russia with converters. It’s also a sharp reminder of how quickly things can happen. Just look at the damage to Japan’s economy because they took their fleet of reactors offline. Imagine that happening to France and the UK.

The uranium sector has relied on secondary uranium supply for many years because mining production has not been able to keep up with demand. When it comes to re-enriching tails and underfeeding – two big secondary sources – Russia is a major player. If sanctions put a halt on secondary sources, there will be huge disruption in the global supply chain and even greater upwards pressure on the price of uranium.

When it comes to security of supply issues, the uranium sector is vulnerable and recent events mean a lot of people in the industry are starting to pay close attention to where their supply is coming from.

Anthony Milewski, Fission Uranium, Advisor to the Board

Dev Randhawa

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