上周天然铀现货市场活跃。全球核能发展加速，但是市场对供应的担忧挥之不去。
- 天然铀现货市场活动升温
- 在全球范围内扩建和建造反应堆
- 尼日尔的局势有所缓解
Summer may not yet be over but buyers returned to the spot uranium market last week, following several weeks of inactivity. Industry consultant TradeTech reports 850,000lbs U3O8 equivalent changing hands in seven transactions, for delivery in the US, Canada and France.
TradeTech’s weekly spot price indicator has risen US$1.25 to US$58.25/lb.
TradeTech’s weekly indicator has increased 4% in the last month, 19% since the beginning of the year, and 22% year on year.
Prices rose across the week as across the world, nuclear energy development ramps up.
If You Build It
Last week the French nuclear safety agency granted one reactor an operating extension for another ten years. It is the first French reactor to be licensed to operate beyond 40 years, having commenced service in 1980.
A local power company has begun loading fuel into a reactor in Georgia (US), ready for service to begin late this year or early next year.
Power output at a new Slovenian reactor has been increased to 90% from 75% as start-up tests continue. Unit 3 is expected to enter commercial operation in the coming months, while Unit 4 should enter service about one or two years after.
Duke Energy Corp, which operates 11 nuclear reactors at six plant sites in North and South Carolina, has proposed building a small modular reactor at a facility in North Carolina. The proposal also aims at ending the facility’s decades-long use of coal.
The plan is designed to increase electricity supply while cutting greenhouse gas emissions. The reactor could be in service by 2034.
It won’t happen overnight, but it will happen.
Geopolitics
In the term uranium markets, buyers and sellers continue to monitor growing political tensions.
With ECOWAS continuing to attempt to pursue diplomatic negotiations with the military junta in Niger, rather than military intervention, the junta hinted over the weekend it may be prepared to return the country to democracy. On its own terms, one presumes.
Earlier this month, the Euratom Supply Agency, which monitors security of uranium supply for the EU, said it saw no immediate risk to nuclear power production in Europe should Niger cut its deliveries of uranium.
While Niger was the second-largest supplier of uranium to the EU last year, Euratom said utilities within the region have enough uranium inventories to fuel nuclear power reactors for three years.
Meanwhile, as the war bogs down, utilities remain concerned over the longevity of supply of Russian enriched uranium, ahead of sourcing from elsewhere, and on-shoring uranium enrichment, particularly in the US.
That said, utilities are not currently scrambling for supply in the northern summer, still happy to enter the market later this year.
TradeTechs’ term uranium price indicators remain at US$57.25/lb (mid) and US$57.75/lb (long).
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