## Highlights - Uranium is a key fuel on which nuclear reactors are run - Utilities that produce nuclear energy need Uranium fuel for nuclear reactors - US banning imports of uranium from Russia, they rely heavily on Russian uranium to meet demand for electricity, 20% comes from nuclear - Largest Uranium miners want to keep production low - On March 11, Uranium hit a record 11-year high of $60.4 per pound - Kazatomprom is the world's largest producer of Uranium ## Investment Options 1. **Sprott Physical Uranium Trust Fund** - SRUU.F --> Been buying uranium aggressively, 2. Cameco (CCJ) - World's larget Uranium miner --> strong impact on the supply side, operational flexibility, spot market is not the business driver, long term legal contracts with utilities are. 3. Uranium Energy (UEC) - Buying yellocake from the spot market in a bid to sell it later to make money off rising spot prices, through making acquisitions. 4. **BWX Technology** - BWXT - Monopoly provider of key components to the nuclear industry, making money of gov contracts and services. 5. [**Global X Uranium ETF (URA)**](https://www.globalxetfs.com/funds/ura/) ![[Pasted image 20240108221157.png]] > Mercenary geologist Mickey Fulp came to a similar conclusion, as he emphasised that uranium is a boom and bust commodity, meaning that every decade or so the price rises and then falls. The chart below shows a summary of historical bubbles in the price of uranium. ![[Pasted image 20240108215952.png]] ![[Pasted image 20240108220033.png]] ![[Pasted image 20240108220059.png]] ### Uranium History Uranium, as a natural oxide, has been used since at least 79 AD to dye glassware yellow. Such uranium glass with 1% uranium oxide was found near Naples, Italy. Uranium glass fell out of favour in the late 1940s due to its association with war and nuclear weapons. There was also a growing concern over the health effects of “radioactive glass.” Currently, scientific studies have debunked this theory, concluding that uranium glass appears to have no harmful effects on human health. Nowadays, uranium glass has collector's value, especially 19th century tableware, which may have as much as a 25% admixture of uranium. The recognition of uranium as an element is credited only to chemist **Martin Heinrich Klaproth.** Klaproth also deliberately tinted glass with uranium, thereby starting a new fad for uranium glass as a household art item. In 1789 he announced the discovery of a new element and named it uranium, referring to the earlier discovery of the planet Uranus by the astronomer William Herschel. The isolation of uranium in its pure form by Eugène-Melchior Péligot in 1841 took place. ![[Pasted image 20240108220640.png]] ### [[Nuclear Fission]] The most important discovery for the entire nuclear sector was the discovery of atomic fission. At first, scientists did not realise the importance of the discovery.   Austrian physicist Lise Meitner, working with Otto Hahn, understood the phenomenon. In the early 1930s, physicists discovered that if you bombard atoms with neutrons, radioactive decay occurs. The atoms release the neutrons and turn into slightly lighter elements. Meitner, Hahn and Fritz Strassmann started their own experiments in which they bombarded various elements with neutrons. Meitner, together with Otto Frisch, proposed comparing an atom to a drop of water which, when hit by another drop, splits into two smaller drops. Together with Frisch they did the calculations and it turned out that a large uranium atom would split into two smaller ones: barium and krypton, release a few neutrons and, above all, a lot of energy. This was the first step towards understanding how nuclear fission works. An article on this subject was published in the journal Nature in 1939. Also Otto Hahn and Fritz Strassman are known as the discoverers of fission; the experiments were conducted in parallel. This discovery is now considered a milestone in the nuclear sector. By using atomic fission, humankind gained access to the most powerful energy source we know. ---- ## Benefits, use and the future of uranium Pure uranium is a silvery-white metal with a high density. It’s also one of the hardest metals. It is malleable, ductile and an electrical conductor (specific resistance 28×10-8 Ω-m; 16 times greater than copper). The main application of uranium is in the use of its isotope U235, which is a fissile material in nuclear reactors. These materials have found applications in nuclear power plants and in submarine propulsion. The percentage of isotope U235 in natural uranium is 0.7%, which is too low for many applications. Uranium, therefore, requires processing to increase its isotope content in a process called enrichment. Because of its very high density and energy potential, uranium is the perfect “space” source of energy. 1 gram of uranium is as energetic as 1.5 tonnes of coal. It makes uranium the perfect high quality energy fuel for future spacecrafts and robots. At the moment, uranium is still known as the most condensed energy source used by humanity. Other uses of uranium include: - Uranium metal, because of its high mass number, is used as a shield in high energy X-ray generators. - Uranium 238 as an isotope with a very long decay period (4,468×109 years) is used to determine the age of rocks. - Uranium (practically depleted uranium) as a metal of very high density is used as a core for anti-tank sub-caliber missiles. - Uranium is also used in photography and chemical analysis. - Uranium is the main component of the majority of energetic and modern nuclear fuels (in combination with e.g. thorium or plutonium).  ![[Pasted image 20240108221611.png]] ![[Pasted image 20240108221710.png]] ![[Pasted image 20240108221849.png]] > The current market capitalization of the entire nuclear sector is less than $40 billion, still less than the combined capitalization of GME.US and AMC.US, still less than 1/20th of the market capitalization of TSLA.US shares. ![[Pasted image 20240108222051.png]] Physical uranium resources on land are sufficient for humanity for about 300 years at the current demand. Currently, there are a growing number of mining uranium projects because uranium deposits are important for the long-term energy future of our planet. However, scientists report that the uranium available in seawater is fully renewable and there are massive amounts in the oceans. All that remains is to patent the technology to do so. It is possible that this time the zero carbon footprint policy will bring nuclear power back into favour and eventually make it the number one energy source on the planet. ![[Pasted image 20240108222152.png]] **Kazatomprom (KAZ.UK)** Kazatomprom is currently the largest uranium producer in the world, in 2020 it accounted for 23% of the raw material production. Kazatomprom mines uranium using ISR (In-Situ Recovery Mining) technology with health and safety and environmental standards (ISO 450001 and 14001 certificates).  The company has its headquarters in Nur Sultan, from where it operates and sells uranium and uranium-containing products. Using ISR technology, mining is done without blasting and without sending miners underground to bring uranium ore to the surface. The solution, containing the dissolved uranium, is brought back to the surface through "production wells". This solution is processed after mining to the surface.  The exploitation of uranium deposits with the ISR method is the most efficient and has no negative impact on the surface; there is no subsidence or ground disturbance and there is no surface storage of low-grade ores. This is also the cheapest method. The main processing steps for uranium extraction take place deep underground (hence the term "in-situ"), resulting in lower production costs and inherently higher levels of health and safety due to very low mining risks. Once the resources are exhausted and the mining operations are completed, remote areas of the Kazatomprom mine are restored to their pre-mining condition, both above and below ground. Kazatomprom has a total of 24 deposit areas, all located in Kazakhstan.  ISR uranium mining was first used in the 1960s, and by 2017, its use provided more than 50% of global uranium production. However, the ISR mining method can only be used in particularly favourable geological conditions. All Kazatomprom production is done through ISR mining. Eight of the ten largest ISR mines in the world are operated by Kazatomprom, giving the company a strategic position in the market. The processing, reconversion and production of fuel pellets for light-water nuclear reactors is another major industry in which Kazatomprom operates. China General Nuclear Power Corporation (CGNPC) and Kazatomprom are implementing a project to build a fuel assembly plant to meet China's future demand for finished nuclear fuel assemblies. China periodically establishes new agreements with the Kazakh company and appears to be its potential permanent customer, also due to its geopolitical position. Kazatomprom is also indirectly involved in the production of certain rare metals, making the company one of the world's largest producers of tantalum, niobium and beryllium. As one of only three such enterprises in the world, the plant has a fully integrated beryllium production cycle and the only tantalum plant in the Commonwealth of Independent States. Metallurgical Plant "Ulba" currently ranks second in the world in the production of beryllium products and fourth in the production of tantalum products. Kazatom also conducts scientific and research in the geological, chemical and physical sector.