On the Watch for a Nuclear Rebound
This is the legacy of the megaton to megawatt program...USA GDP. Jobs and economic growth transferred to Russia.
Russian nuke supply ceases, U.S. uranium production
spikes
By Mark Wilcox February 5, 2014
With no more Russian nuclear
warheads at the conclusion of a 20-year agreement to supply American nuclear
power plants uranium for fuel, U.S. uranium production hit a 17-year high in
2013.
According to the Energy Information Administration, the Megatons to Megawatts program made its final delivery to the U.S. in December last year. USEC Inc., the private company that acted as executive agent for the intergovernmental deal, said the deal eliminated the equivalent of 20,000 nuclear warheads by recycling 500 metric tons of bomb-grade uranium into 14,000 metric tons of lower-grade enriched uranium.
Wyoming has largely stepped in to take up the slack from the dying program with the arrival of two in-situ uranium mining projects in the past year. Ur-Energy opened its Lost Creek facility near Jeffrey City last year, and sold about 90,000 pounds of yellowcake into the market near the end of 2013. During the fourth quarter of 2013, the EIA reported that total production of uranium was less than 1.1 million pounds, meaning Ur-Energy's new mine may have accounted for about 8 percent of production – though it's not clear whether the 90,000 pounds were all produced in the same quarter they were sold.
Meanwhile, Uranerz Energy Corporation, another Casper-based newcomer to uranium mining, should be starting production at its Nichols Ranch in-situ uranium project sometime in the first quarter. Altogether, EIA reported that yellowcake production from Wyoming accounted for nearly 900,000 pounds or about 80 percent, of all national uranium production during the fourth quarter. Wyoming, even without Uranerz's upcoming greenlit project, hosts three out of seven functional facilities in the U.S.
But the U.S. needs far more production than even that to stay even. Projections show contractually supplied uranium dwindling in the coming years, with only half currently under contract by 2017.
"Increased domestic production of uranium concentrate should help fill the market requirements going forward," the EIA stated.
According to the Energy Information Administration, the Megatons to Megawatts program made its final delivery to the U.S. in December last year. USEC Inc., the private company that acted as executive agent for the intergovernmental deal, said the deal eliminated the equivalent of 20,000 nuclear warheads by recycling 500 metric tons of bomb-grade uranium into 14,000 metric tons of lower-grade enriched uranium.
Wyoming has largely stepped in to take up the slack from the dying program with the arrival of two in-situ uranium mining projects in the past year. Ur-Energy opened its Lost Creek facility near Jeffrey City last year, and sold about 90,000 pounds of yellowcake into the market near the end of 2013. During the fourth quarter of 2013, the EIA reported that total production of uranium was less than 1.1 million pounds, meaning Ur-Energy's new mine may have accounted for about 8 percent of production – though it's not clear whether the 90,000 pounds were all produced in the same quarter they were sold.
Meanwhile, Uranerz Energy Corporation, another Casper-based newcomer to uranium mining, should be starting production at its Nichols Ranch in-situ uranium project sometime in the first quarter. Altogether, EIA reported that yellowcake production from Wyoming accounted for nearly 900,000 pounds or about 80 percent, of all national uranium production during the fourth quarter. Wyoming, even without Uranerz's upcoming greenlit project, hosts three out of seven functional facilities in the U.S.
But the U.S. needs far more production than even that to stay even. Projections show contractually supplied uranium dwindling in the coming years, with only half currently under contract by 2017.
"Increased domestic production of uranium concentrate should help fill the market requirements going forward," the EIA stated.
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