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The U.S. government has signed an $80 billion deal with Westinghouse Electric Company to build large-scale nuclear reactors to support growing electricity demand from artificial intelligence.
Canadian uranium provider Cameco has calculated an end-of-September spot price for uranium of $82.63 per pound—the highest mark of 2025. The lowest spot price listed all year by Cameco was $64.23 per pound at the end of March, while the previous high was $78.50 per pound at the end of June.
Canadian uranium provider Cameco calculated an end-of-August spot price for uranium of $75.13—up from the previous month’s spot price of $71.10. Cameco continues to list a long-term price of $81.00 for August and has set it at $80.00 or $81.00 all year.
Uranium provider Cameco has calculated an end-of-July spot price for uranium of $71.10—a decline from the $78.50 of the previous month. Cameco lists a long-term price of $81.00 for July, which is the same price that was listed in January. From February to June, the long-term price was $80.00.
Uranium futures were about $71.45 per pound on August 4, according to online analysis firm Trading Economics, which noted that continued prices near $71.50 are maintaining the price drop from the seven-month high of $79.00 in mid-June. The relatively low prices are related to a lack of buying from holding funds, which have received lowered bids from utilities. Nevertheless, uranium prices are higher at this point, compared with the $63.70 price in mid-March this year.
Uranium provider Cameco has calculated an end-of-June spot price of $78.50 for uranium—a substantial jump from $71.55 the previous month. Cameco continues to list a long-term price of $80.00, a price that has remained unchanged since February.
Global Laser Enrichment announced that it has submitted its safety analysis report to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission for the planned Paducah Laser Enrichment Facility (PLEF). This follows GLE’s December 2024 submission of the plant’s environmental report, now completing GLE’s full license application for NRC review.
Uranium futures rose to $71.90 per pound on June 2, according to online analysis firm Trading Economics. That price was near its highest level since early February—in contrast to an 18-month low in prices reached in mid-March.
Global Laser Enrichment has commenced uranium enrichment demonstration testing at its test loop pilot facility at the company’s headquarters in Wilmington, N.C. The technology readiness level-6 testing program is expected to be a pivotal validation of large-scale enrichment performance under operationally relevant conditions, according to the company.
A combination of plentiful supply and uncertain demand resulted in spot pricing for uranium closing out March below $64 per pound, with dips down to about $63.50 during mid-March—the lowest price in 18 months, according to tracking by analysis firm Trading Economics. Spot prices have also fallen steadily since the beginning of 2024. Meanwhile, long-term prices have held steady at about $80 per pound at the end of March, according to Canadian front-end uranium mining, milling, and conversion company Cameco.
U.S. uranium production increased throughout 2024, with more growth planned in 2025. The producers who can make that happen, however, were burned before by a “renaissance” that didn’t take off. Now they are watching and waiting for signals from Washington, D.C., including the impacts of tariffs, shifting relationships with global uranium producers, and funding for the enrichment task orders designed to boost demand for U.S. uranium.
Uranium futures closed out February at about $65.55 per pound, according to online analysist firm Trading Economics. Futures prices have been below $66 per pound since mid-February.
The uranium market closed out 2024 with a spot price of $72.63 per pound and a long-term price of $80.50 per pound, according to global uranium provider Cameco.
Investors continue to be bullish on uranium, according to a number of recent news reports. Stockhead recently trumpeted, “Uranium has started 2024 the same way it ended 2023—like a bull in a china shop. Spot prices are now agonizingly close to US$100/lb for the first time since 2008, with term pricing not far behind.” Similarly, Mining.com noted, “The spot price of uranium continues to rise, boosted by pledges to triple nuclear power by mid-century, supply hiccups from producers such as Cameco . . . , and the looming threat of a ban on Russian exports to the West.”
Cameco, the front-end uranium mining, milling, and conversion company headquartered in Saskatchewan, Canada, is now officially a co-owner of Westinghouse Electric Company—alongside Brookfield Asset Management, its publicly listed affiliate Brookfield Renewable Partners, and its institutional partners.
Hall
Nuclear energy stocks “have become far more compelling to many investors in recent years,” and “there are good reasons to support this carbon-free source of energy,” according to investment entrepreneur and financial lecturer Jason Hall. In an article recently published by The Motley Fool, Hall discusses the opportunities and risks of investing in nuclear energy companies and offers his perspective on three top nuclear energy stocks.
Nuclear basics and new innovations: Hall started at the beginning, describing the most basic aspects of nuclear energy: the production of heat through fission, the generation of electricity via turbines, and the mining and enrichment of uranium for fuel. He noted that there “are only a small handful of companies with the expertise and financial strength to deal with nuclear reactors, and almost all are either private, state-owned, or the subsidiary operation of a large industrial conglomerate.”
This article is the second in a series about the domestic nuclear fuel crisis. The first in the series, “‘On the verge of a crisis’: The U.S. nuclear fuel Gordian knot,” was published on Nuclear Newswire on April 14, 2023.
Once upon a time, enrichment was a government monopoly—at least outside the Soviet bloc. But the United States, eager to get out of the field, was convinced that the private sector could do it better. Now, the West is dependent on the Soviets’ successors and is facing an uncertain supply, a complication of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Slowly, a consensus is growing that dependence on imports is a bad idea. Some experts also say that upsets like the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami, and the collapse of natural gas prices due to fracking, show that the market is too prone to shocks for private companies to navigate without support. One of the architects of the U.S. government’s exit from the enrichment game is now voicing second thoughts. And belatedly—shortly after the first anniversary of the beginning of the Russian invasion—five Western countries, including the United States, announced that they have to get more deeply involved in the fuel supply chain, but didn’t say precisely how.
Canada’s Cameco and U.K.-based Urenco last week jointly announced the signing of agreements to become part of a Westinghouse-led fuel supply chain for Bulgaria’s Kozloduy nuclear power plant. (Also included in the partnership is Uranium Asset Management.)
Canadian firms Cameco and Bruce Power have announced a 10-year extension of their long-term exclusive nuclear fuel supply arrangements, securing power generation from the eight-unit 6,507-MWe Bruce nuclear plant through 2040.
Another calendar year has passed. Before heading too far into 2023, let’s look back at what happened in 2022 for the American Nuclear Society and the nuclear community. In today's post that follows, we have compiled from Nuclear News and Nuclear Newswire what we feel are the top nuclear news stories from September through December 2022.
But first:
Five years after bankruptcy, Pennsylvania-based Westinghouse is being sold again, this time with a 49 percent share going to Cameco Corp., the front-end uranium mining, milling, and conversion company headquartered in Saskatchewan, Canada. Cameco and Brookfield Business Partners, based in Toronto, Ontario, announced the deal yesterday. Once it closes as expected, in the second half of 2023, Brookfield Renewable Partners and other Brookfield institutional partners will own a 51 percent interest in a consortium with Cameco.