Futures: Analytics firm Trading Economics reported that uranium futures were at $86.45 per pound on March 2, “trading in a narrow range since pulling back from the two-year high of $101.5 in late January, tracking the drop for industrial commodities as the dollar rebounded and traders eased concerns of dollar debasements.” The company added that uranium ore contracts remain almost 10 percent higher than they were at the start of the year, “on the bullish view of demand,” and that the current futures price is 32 percent higher than it was a year ago.
As Trading Economics has maintained for the past few months, uranium investments are being driven primarily by interest in power-hungry data centers among U.S. technology companies that have declared interest in small modular reactors, as well as cuts to federal regulations on the construction and permitting for uranium converters and enrichers.
Recent developments: Recent uranium-related developments have included the final regulatory approval for Canada’s first in situ recovery mining operation (at Denison Mines Corp.’s Wheeler River site); the restart of uranium recovery operations at the Savannah River Site’s H Canyon facility in South Carolina as a source of HALEU; a strategic collaboration in which Fluor is the engineering, procurement, and construction contractor for Centrus Energy’s uranium enrichment facility expansion in Piketon, Ohio; the opening of BWX Technologies’ Centrifuge Manufacturing Development Facility in Oak Ridge, Tenn., under contract with the National Nuclear Security Administration; and proposals to build U.S. facilities for converting uranium and thorium feedstocks into fuel salts for advanced reactors.