Spot Price down $2 to $69.Read on......Uranium Falls to 16-Month...

Spot Price down $2 to $69.

Read on......

Uranium Falls to 16-Month Low on Surplus Supply, TradeTech Says

By Yuriy Humber

April 14 (Bloomberg) -- Uranium fell to a 16-month low, or half the record price reached in June, after new supplies became available and exceeded demand.

Uranium-oxide concentrate for immediate delivery slipped to $69 a pound, $2 lower than a week earlier, Denver-based pricing service TradeTech LLC said in an April 11 report. Four sales totaling 900,000 pounds took place last week. Supply exceeded demand by about 50 percent, TradeTech said.

``Although recent transactions have absorbed a significant quantity of supply from the spot market, additional supply continues to emerge,'' TradeTech said.

Uranium, a metal processed as fuel for nuclear reactors and bombs, climbed to $138 a pound last June, buoyed by renewed interest in atomic energy as a way of combating greenhouse-gas emissions from oil and coal-fired power plants. An increase in 2007 uranium output in Australia, Kazakhstan and Russia, three of the world's four largest producers, and an expected slump in the U.S. economy have pushed prices down since then.

The U.S. operates 104 nuclear reactors, more than any other country.

The WNA Nuclear Energy Index, which comprises 60 companies that sell and build atomic reactors, make fuel, generation power and provide nuclear services, gained 1.1 percent to 4,032 points on April 10, according to the latest data. The index peaked at 4,707 points on Nov. 6.