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Fuel prices for nuclear power plants hit record highs as demand from artificial intelligence data centers exacerbated market congestion following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The price of enriched uranium reached $190 per unit of work – the standard measure of efforts to separate uranium isotopes – compared to $56 three years ago, according to data provider UxC.
A resurgence of interest in nuclear power has come as governments and companies look to carbon-free energy sources sufficient to serve major industrial facilities and communities.
Big tech companies like Microsoft and Amazon have shown interest in using the fuel. The most powerful data centers They are racing to build as they compete for market share in generative AI.
Increasing energy competition has increased the industry’s risk. Russian invasion of Ukraine About three years ago. Russia has been a major player in the process of converting ore uranium into the enriched fuel needed for nuclear enrichment, but US sanctions and a Russian export ban have helped drive up prices.
Nick Lawson, CEO of Ocean Wall Investment Group, said: “We don’t have enough change and enrichment on the west side, which is why the price has made such a move and the price is going to be higher.”
Executives and analysts say the issue could be exacerbated by the expiration of a U.S. import moratorium at the end of 2027, putting pressure on the industry to find new facilities to convert uranium into pellets for nuclear reactors. . Outside of Russia, the major Western countries with major uranium enrichment facilities are France, the United States, and Canada.
“There are a lot of very important political decisions to be made” regarding nuclear and uranium supply chain investments, Lawson said, adding that building new facilities would take “years” and cost a significant amount of money.
In the year By 2023, 27 percent of U.S. enriched uranium production will come from Russia, Bernberg analysts said. While U.S. utilities have enough fuel for this year, their inventories will fall sharply four years from now, the analysts added.
“U.S. utilities should begin contract negotiations this year to secure uranium, especially in light of the ban on Russian uranium entering the United States at the end of 2027,” he said.
Most uranium is sold in long-term contracts rather than in the open or on the market. But due to potential pressure on uranium supply, the price of immediate delivery could rise, industry analysts said. Kazakhstan’s state miner and the world’s largest uranium producer, Kazatomprom, has warned of lower-than-expected output in recent months.
“We see Kazakh material flowing into China and Russia and less of it going west,” said Andrey Liebenberg, chief executive of London-listed uranium investment vehicle Yellow Cake. “In the medium term, we can easily see a supply problem due to the lack of new projects that can be released quickly.”
