The Colorado Geological Survey reported in 2006 on uranium activity. Interest has also been gaining recently. This article provides the background for the new activities that are in the works by many uranium exploration companies. Vince Matthews writes about it in 2006,
"The boom is back! Colorado, which has supplied uranium to the world for more than a century, is seeing the return of interest in this important energy resource. Prospectors [Uranium exploration companies in the early 2000s] are dusting off their scintillometers and heading for the
hills. Their apparent success is indicated by the filing of 3,000 new mining claims in the state last year (2005).
Why the boom? Currently, the 435 nuclear reactors (Check # in 2022) in the world need 180 million pounds of uranium per year, but the world only produces 110 million pounds. The shortfall has been made up by depleting stockpiles from the last boom cycle and by conversion of nuclear weapons. Both are diminishing in supply and consequently the price of uranium increased from $10 per pound in 2003 to more than
$55 per pound today.
China and India’s increase in the use of nuclear energy increases the demand for uranium. However, the United States also needs a lot of uranium because we are the world’s leading producer of nuclear energy. Indeed, we produce more nuclear energy than France, Spain, Germany, Sweden, and the United Kingdom combined. One of the best kept secrets in our country is that U.S. production of electricity from nuclear plants has increased over the decade since the last nuclear power plant came on line in 1996 (it was ordered in the early 1970s). This was achieved by increasing the operating efficiency of the plants.
Today we produce nearly twice as much nuclear power as any other country in the world, an amount equal to 30 percent of the world’s nuclear energy. The increase in interest in uranium is but an indicator of growing interest in all of Colorado’s rich natural resources. China and India’s appetite for natural resources creates worldwide shortages and drives up prices of nearly every energy and mineral commodity. Colorado communities are already suffering from China-caused shortages of steel and cement. Prices for such diverse commodities as gold, copper, aluminum, molybdenum, chromium, titanium, selenium, REE, and antimony have skyrocketed in the 21st century with percentage price increases ranging from a low of 48 percent to more than 1,700 percent! As shortages grow and prices increase, Colorado can expect to see increasing pressure to develop our rich array of energy and mineral resources.
The use of uranium in the future will be for the production of electricity. Electrical demand is growing sharply, especially in the emerging countries of
China and India. Nuclear power plants currently are and will be part of the electrical supply equation; perhaps, even more so as concerns grow about the emission of greenhouse gases from coalfired powered plants and the price of natural gas. Nuclear power plants are expensive to build, but uranium fuel is abundant and cheap. Problems to be resolved include power plant security, eventual decommissioning, and spent-fuel storage for later use.
[For updates to the recent developments in uranium exploration and nuclear power plant developments, see:
2020 "Beyond Hydrocarbons ... The Rest of the Story," (here).
2018 "Confronting Media and other Bias against Uranium Exploration and Mining, Nuclear Power, and Associated Environmental Issues," (here).
2020 "Uranium and Nuclear Power are on the Move ... Again!," (here).
2021 "The U.S. Uranium and REE Supply Chains: A Brief Discussion," (here).
2020 "Sources of Rare Earth Elements in the U.S. and the World, (here).
2021 "A New Meteor Crater, Old Uranium, Thorium & REE Mineralization, & A New Roll-Front Uranium District … All in Eastern Seward Peninsula, Alaska?" (here).
2022 The I2M Web Portal Introduction (here) and on Nuclear Power Updates (here).
2021 From AAPG: "Net-Zero Emissions by 2050? Not Without Nuclear," Part 1 of 2 (here).
2020 From World Nuclear News: "US Uranium Miners Ready to Support Nuclear Power, says Uranium Committee (here).
2022 From Radio Interview: "Nuclear Power is the Future – What is America Waiting For?" (here)
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