Rio Tinto | Minerals and Metals for the world

Uranium resurgent
After years in the doldrums following the Chernobyl disaster, nuclear power is set to gain ground as a cheap, low waste energy source. By Hugh Leggatt.

In a 1945 issue of the New York Herald Tribune the journalist John O'Neill wrote of atomic energy with the dewy eyed enthusiasm reserved for a new technology. Atomic energy would make it possible for the human race to create an earthly paradise, he said.

Within ten years of O'Neill's predictions, in 1954, the nuclear reactor at Obninsk in Russia became the first to supply energy to the electrical grid. By the early 1970s nuclear power capacity worldwide was growing at a rate of 30 per cent per year and over the next ten years it continued to secure a steadily increasing share of the world electricity market. Today nuclear power offers one of the most cost effective methods of near carbon dioxide free electricity generation.

In 1986, when nuclear power accounted for 16 per cent of global electricity generation, the Chernobyl accident delivered the reputational body blow from which it has never recovered. From that time forward, nuclear maintained the same ratio of contribution, growing at the same pace as overall electricity use.

Today nuclear power represents nearly 17 per cent of world electricity production, according to the World Nuclear Association, an industry body.

As worries about climate change reignite the debate on nuclear power, its fuel, the mineral uranium, of which Rio Tinto is a large producer, is making a comeback after 20 years in the doldrums. Demand for mined uranium is rising and prices have doubled to US$20/lb in the last nine months.



Uranium resurgent After years in the doldrums following the Chernobyl disaster, nuclear power is set to gain ground as a cheap, low waste energy source. By Hugh Leggatt. In a 1945 issue of the New York Herald Tribune the journalist John O'Neill wrote of atomic energy with the dewy eyed enthusiasm reserved for a new technology. Atomic energy would make it possible for the human race to create an earthly paradise, he said. Within ten years of O'Neill's predictions, in 1954, the nuclear reactor at Obninsk in Russia became the first to supply energy to the electrical grid. By the early 1970s nuclear power capacity worldwide was growing at a rate of 30 per cent per year and over the next ten years it continued to secure a steadily increasing share of the world electricity market. Today nuclear power offers one of the most cost effective methods of near carbon dioxide free electricity generation. In 1986, when nuclear power accounted for 16 per cent of global electricity generation, the Chernobyl accident delivered the reputational body blow from which it has never recovered. From that time forward, nuclear maintained the same ratio of contribution, growing at the same pace as overall electricity use. Today nuclear power represents nearly 17 per cent of world electricity production, according to the World Nuclear Association, an industry body. As worries about climate change reignite the debate on nuclear power, its fuel, the mineral uranium, of which Rio Tinto is a large producer, is making a comeback after 20 years in the doldrums. Demand for mined uranium is rising and prices have doubled to US$20/lb in the last nine months.
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