u prices going nowhere, page-7

That is an interesting article with some valid points. However, it does overlook two facts that should be considered.

Firstly, it is clear that climate change is happening (despite debate about the causes). It has become so evident that, for example, there is ongoing discussion about the damage to the US economy due to the horrible freak winter that they had. There are also predictions of a terrible El Nino coming in Australia.

The push for renewables has faded as governments get sick of providing subsidies to make it work. Witness Germany and their recent realisation that green energy isn't the success story that they hoped for. So with an increasing awareness that we need to reduce carbon emissions, a failure to make green energy en masse economically viable and in the absence of a new technology that can provide green baseload power anyway we only have nuclear power to rely on for zero-emissions power. This only becomes more relevant with time and the inevitable detrimental effects from worsening climate change.

Secondly, there is little effect by the price of uranium on the economic viability of nuclear power. This is a unique characteristic when considering the energy production security for countries. Witness Japan and the ransom they are currently paying for importing fuels like LNG whilst their reactors are shut down. Look at Europe and the nervousness of their deteriorating relationship with Russia (who provide most of Europe's gas demands). Also consider the pains that India and China go to in buying coal assets to provide long-term security for their energy appetites.

Once a reactor is built, the price of uranium can double and it only effects the cost of electricity produced by something like a couple of percent. Despite the expensive cost of building reactors, the marginal cost of running them is very cheap. And the security that this provides (by not being nervous about the cost of importing fuels, like Europe is with Russia) is valuable.