uranium $70/pound by end of the year?, page-5

This is something I posted on the PDN website - full of rabid crazies

*****

Just on more a macro/strategic basis. Given the revolution in oil fracking/shale gas in the US, the desperately cheap price of gas, and the availability of existing pipeline infrastructure (which in time, is likely to spread globally) - here is potentially a cheap and plentiful resource that will challenge many forms of energy. So much so, that many coal-fired power stations are being moth-balled (also partially due to the warm weather) in the US, and there is now excess coal capacity everywhere in the US – hence why they are desperately trying to increase thermal coal exports.

In light of the current situation, I would politely suggest that it is unlikely that the 110-120 (can’t remember exactly) nuclear reactors in the US will not be replaced. Not because of any failure in nuclear technology, but of the enormous amount of capex involved the plant, versus a gas fired turbine, straight of the shelf (which is incidentally cheaper than a coal fired power-station). Given the current sovereign debt situation globally, this is probably not such a bad thing.

Note that China has one of the largest shale gas resources in the world, however they are typically deeper and structurally more challenging than those currently being exploited in the US.