By most measures, manufacturing of uranium focus (U3O8) remained at or close to all-time lows in the USA throughout 2021, at 21,000 kilos—lower than 1% of the post-2000 manufacturing excessive of 4.9 million kilos U3O8 in 2014, in response to the US Power Data Administration (EIA). As home manufacturing has declined, an rising quantity of the uranium bought to be used in US industrial nuclear energy reactors has been from different nations.
In 2021, house owners and operators of economic nuclear energy reactors purchased 46.7 million kilos (lb) U3O8 equal (U3O8e) at a mean value of $33.91/lb U3O8e. Buy quantity in 2020 was solely barely increased than in 2021, though the acquisition value was barely decrease—48.9 million kilos at a mean value of $33.27/lb U3O8e.
Most of uranium bought in the USA in 2021 was imported (95%), which is typical underneath circumstances of low home uranium manufacturing. Kazakhstan was the highest supply for uranium in 2021, accounting for 35% of whole US uranium purchases, adopted by Canada at 15% and Australia at 14%.
Home nuclear energy plant operators bought enrichment service contracts for processing 14 million separative work models (SWU) in 2021. SWU is the measure of effort required to separate uranium isotopes throughout the enrichment course of. The common value of $99.54/SWU in 2021 was almost the identical as in 2020.
Many of the uranium utilized in the USA is processed overseas. In 2021, 19% of SWU originated in the USA, and 81% originated in different nations. Most SWU that originated in different nations got here from Russia (28%), the UK (17%), Germany (13%), and the Netherlands (11%).
Business uranium inventories embody uranium in several levels of the nuclear gas cycle: in-process for conversion, enrichment, or fabrication. Whole US industrial inventories had been 141.7 million kilos U3O8e on the finish of 2021, up 8% from 131 million kilos on the finish of 2020.
Business nuclear energy plant operators personal a lot of the uranium stock held in the USA. On the finish of 2021, US industrial nuclear energy plant operators owned 108.5 million kilos of U3O8e, a 2% enhance in energy plant-owned inventories from the year-end 2020 stage. Uranium inventories owned by US suppliers of every type, together with converters, enrichers, fabricators, producers, brokers, and merchants, totaled 33.2 million kilos U3O8e on the finish of 2021, up 37% from the top of 2020.
