Uranium and Nuclear Power are on the Move .... Again ! - 2020

Uranium (Nuclear Minerals) / Exploration, Mining, Marketing, & Acquisitions

Campbell reported in late 2020 in an on-line presentation during the 2020 AAPG Conference that uranium and nuclear power are rising in price and in construction, respectively, throughout the world to help with climate concerns. He summarized how nuclear plants operate and some of the history on nuclear power's development over the years:

• Nuclear power plants operate by boiling water to turn turbines that generate electricity.
• Heat is generated by the fission that occurs when uranium cells are brought together and controlled by graphite rods.
• The uranium fuel and graphite rods are usually replaced every 5 years or so.
• After years of construction of nuclear power plants, the Hollywood movie “China Syndrome” was released. Only a few days later, the Three- Mile Island incident occurred. This brought massive coverage by the media pandering fear, but no one died, no one was irradiated.
• A few years later, the Chernobyl accident occurred, killing a number of fire fighters and emergency personnel. This was a special case caused by poor reactor design and incompetent management during the time of the Soviet Union and the “Cold War.” A number of children contracted thyroid cancer, but 99% were successfully treated, although a few died. The others fully recovered.
• During the next 30 years, the U.S. did not construct one new nuclear power plant, and coal and natural gas provided the bulk of the energy. France, Russia, China and others continued to build new nuclear power plants, with France receiving all power from nuclear power at one stage.
• By 2011, Japan had constructed a large fleet of nuclear power plants, but in that year a large earthquake struck off-shore and sent a tsunami to the Japanese coastline killing 10s of thousands of people. A part of the tsunami broke through one of the protecting walls of a coastline nuclear power plant and flooded the back-up power supply that cooled fuel rods. This resulted in an explosion of hydrogen gas that was set-off by fires in one of the fuel rod storage facilities. Again, no one was hurt or killed at the plant although the media again over played seriousness of the incident.
• The Fukushima incident sent off fears that went around the world, until the actual conditions came out by responsible media. The melt-down of the fuel rods was managed properly. At least one of the reactors was out of service, but the damage was more psychological, than physical. Those people living near the plant left in a panic, and some have not yet returned. But, no one died or was irradiated.
• Shortly after the incident, Japan shut down all of their nuclear power plants for ”safety reviews.” To date, many of Japan’s nuclear power plants are back in service.
• Germany followed by subsequently announcing that they too were shutting down their numerous plants and replacing that power source with ‘brown” coal, a lower quality lignite very high in burnable ash, plus natural gas from Russia, and planned to replace them all with renewable energy. Since neither the sun shines very long, nor does the wind blow much in Germany, their “green” activities are creating large increases in electricity costs and increasing use of dirty coal and natural gas.
• The impact of the 2011 incident resulted in a worldwide 60% decrease in the price of yellowcake, the raw fuel which is subsequently refined into pellets suited for loading into nuclear power plants. Also, all of a sudden, too much yellowcake was being produced by mines worldwide because of the shutdowns, but because most of the fuel came from overseas to fuel American nuclear power plants, much of that production declined to preserve future revenues, until the excess fuel had been consumed. This resulted in many years of depressed prices for yellowcake.
• In late 2019, the excess fuel supply was beginning to be consumed, which has prompted the yellowcake “spot” price to increase, but not enough to stimulate re-starts in U.S. uranium mines. Long-term contracts were not yet being sought by the nuclear utilities who buy the fuel as their fuel supplies reach a certain minimum. Recently, the DOD has supported a plan to provide some protection for U.S. mines by creating a Strategic Uranium Reserve, to guarantee uranium price levels …. but this has not yet been consummated.