If winter comes, can spring be far behind?

摘要

The international natural uranium market has been in a depressed state since the end of the 1980s. It is time to ask: if winter comes, can spring be far behind? The last decade of the twentieth century saw many changes in the nuclear fuel market, especially for uranium supply. The changes ranged from emergence of the republics of the former Soviet Union (FSU) as significant uranium sources, to realisation that there were large stockpiles of already-mined uranium which would provide one-third of world supply for many years. Perhaps the most significant event was Russia's agreement with the US to sell it civilian reactor fuel derived from nuclear weapons.