Uranium: resources, consumption and market developments

Uranium, like any other energy source such as coal, oil or gas, is a naturally occurring substance contained in the earth's crust (or seawater in the case of uranium). It can therefore be harnessed to provide energy, thanks to installations known as "nuclear reactors", which fission the nuclei of uranium atoms, releasing enormous quantities of heat. This heat can then be recovered directly or transformed into electricity. This metal has been known for over two centuries, but was virtually ignored until March 1896, when French physicist Henri Becquerel discovered the then mysterious phenomenon of "radioactivity" and identified its origin: uranium (at the time, he dubbed these strange uranium emanations "uranic rays"). However, it was in December 1938 that uranium became a particularly coveted material, when the process of fission of uranium atomic nuclei was discovered in Germany. This attraction became a real fascination for scientists of the time, when they realized that this process could not only produce energy, but could also be used to make atomic bombs (albeit at the cost of complex transformations). Today, uranium is sought after and exploited for its energy applications, and with the development of "nuclear energy" for power generation, it has become an essential, even strategic, raw material for many of the countries that use it. It is therefore the subject of a global market governed by complex geopolitical and technical factors, given the great diversity of the players involved. These players are first and foremost the countries that possess the resources, then the companies or organizations that exploit them, and finally the customers who buy the uranium to run their nuclear reactors. This article examines the various components of this market from a technical and economic standpoint.