Global demand for electricity has tripled since the 1980s and expected to double again in the next two decades yet while uranium demand hit 165 million pounds in 2011, only 143 million pounds was produced. The shortfall has in the past been made up from the HEU agreement with Russia – an agreement that will shortly come to an end, thus placing more pressure on production. As Gitzel is quoted in yesterday’s article on the conference, this “raises the big question: where is this production going to come from?"
The Canadian Press article takes a balanced view and duly notes the Fukushima event which prompted Germany’s decision to shut down its reactors (though it recently had to restart some of them during the winter freeze). However, it places Fukushima into context and the undisputed fact is that uranium demand already outstrips mine production and demand can only grow as India, China, South Korea and even countries like the US pursue their plans for new reactors.
This is a problem because, as Gitzel points out, "Uranium mines in general are difficult to bring on at the best of times and now, with the lower uranium prices, we're seeing (that) delays and cancellations of projects are becoming the norm as proponents are unable to meet feasibility tests. As a result, we believe that the industry could face significant supply challenges and widening supply gap issues in the very near future."
Read the full article here.
Dev Randhawa
