Commodities | Sep 20 2011
By Greg Peel
Last week saw the 36th annual World Nuclear Association Symposium held in London, at which 650 nuclear industry professionals gathered. The theme of this year's gathering was “The Future of Nuclear Power – Now It's Down to Us”.
Unsurprisingly, “us” decided a bit of reassurance was required, and industry consultant TradeTech reports keynote speakers at the Symposium remained positive about the long term future of nuclear power in the post-Fukushima world. Issues discussed included investor confidence, nuclear market infrastructure in emerging markets, long term sustainability of nuclear power and the practical implementation of new nuclear build.
It must have worked – the spot uranium price ended the week up US$1.00 to US$53.50/lb on TradeTech's indication.
It would be cynical to suggest, of course, that nuclear market representatives would be unlikely to be anything other than positive about nuclear energy. As for last week's rise in the spot price indicator, it marked the third week of increases since the price once again briefly breached the US$50 level which has, in the past, proved a level of support. Volumes were very low at 450,000lbs representing four transactions, probably because everyone was in London.
Symposium attendees' hangovers would not have been helped by subsequent news that German engineering giant Siemens has now pulled the plug altogether on nuclear reactor construction. Due to a “clear position taken by society and politics in Germany,” Siemens has elected to “close the chapter” on its nuclear involvement. Some components such as steam turbines which can be used in the nuclear industry as well as other power industries will continue to be built, but otherwise Siemens has decided to focus greater attention on supporting the alternative energy industry through its engineering of components for wind and solar power facilities.
The move includes dropping planned cooperation with Russian nuclear power company Rosatom. While Russia still has nuclear expansion plans on the agenda, Germany is now in the process of phasing out all of its reactors, most of which were constructed by Siemens. China remains the swing factor in reactor demand as it has not wavered from its plans as a result of the Japanese tsunami. No wonder “emerging markets” were a major topic at the Symposium.
