Just 7% of America’s Nuclear Fuel Comes From Home
Oracle’s $165 Billion Data Center Plan Hits a Gas Pipeline Delay Haley Zaremba is an energy journalist and researcher with more than a decade of professional experience covering global energy systems, land and natural resources, and… The Trump administration is pushing for a homegrown nuclear power renaissance.
The United States is still the largest producer of nuclear energy in the world, but thatwon’t last longwithout drastic changes in energy policy and investment at the state and federal level.
The United States’ nuclear energy fleet, while sizable, is aging out, with far more plants being decommissioned than coming online.
Moreover, the country is heavily dependent on foreign imports of nuclear fuel, presenting another major challenge for Trump’s goal to “produce lasting American dominance in the global nuclear energy market.” At present, a whopping93 percentof the United States’ uranium for nuclear fuel is coming from foreign markets.
Not only is this antithetical to the current administration’s goal of global dominance, it also presents key energy security concerns.
Uranium production and enrichment are overwhelmingly carried out by a worryingly small number of players, and many of these critical supply chainsare controlled by Russia.
nuclear energy faces fuel supply chain vulnerabilities, with tight uranium supplies, geopolitical risks, and rising costs threatening both existing reactor costs and advanced reactor development," according to a Januaryreportfrom Stanford Energy.
Plus, the United States isfar from the only country planning a nuclear energy revival, indicating that increased competition for scarce uranium supply could soon prove to be a major bottleneck.
The World Nuclear Association projects that global demand for uranium will balloon 28 percent by 2030 and nearly double by 2040, and prices are alreadysoaring on the global market.
Moreover, the United States is behind the ball in terms of securing deals.
"Russian and Chinese players have been very keen to secure access to resources in Central Asia and Africa, creating a very aggressive competitive environment," Benjamin Godwin at Prism Strategic Intelligence told the Financial Times last year.
SetOilPrice.comas a preferred source in Googlehere.
| Product | Price | Change |
|---|---|---|
| Brent Crude | $102.14/bbl | +0.34% |
| WTI Crude | $96.90/bbl | +0.21% |
| EN590 Diesel | $846/MT | +0.18% |
| Jet Fuel A-1 | $1090/MT | +0.55% |
| Mazut M100 | $450/MT | -0.15% |
| Bitumen 60/70 | $470/MT | +0.08% |
| Sulphur Gran 99.5% | $470/MT | -0.44% |
| Urea 46% Gran | $650/MT | +1.12% |
| NPK 16-16-16 | $460/MT | -0.28% |
| Nat Gas TTF | $15.42/MMBtu | +0.92% |
Comments
Post a Comment