Report states uranium reserves sufficient with investment

The Nuclear Energy Agency reports sufficient uranium resources exist, but investment is needed to sustain nuclear energy growth.

The Agency assert sufficient uranium resources exist to support both the continued use of nuclear power and its significant growth through 2050 and beyond. 

It states this to be true only if timely investments in new exploration, mining operations and processing techniques are sustained.

These findings are published in the latest edition of Uranium 2024: Resources, Production and Demand, commonly known as the ‘Red Book’, an essential global reference prepared jointly every two years by the OECD Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

The 2024 edition of the Red Book provides the latest comprehensive review of uranium market fundamentals, based on official government data, and delivers a detailed statistical profile of the global uranium industry.

The report also includes 62 country profiles, offering in-depth insights into mine development plans, the environmental and social dimensions of uranium mining, and national regulations and policies.

The Red Book indicates that global identified recoverable uranium resources amounted to 7,934,500t as of 1 January 2023.

These represent all reasonably assured and inferred uranium resources that could be recovered at market prices ranging from $40 to $260 USD/KgU, according to the Nuclear Energy Agency.

Compared to the total reported in the 2022 edition, this represents an increase of less than 0.5

The Agency states the establishment of new production centres ‘is anticipated to face significant lead times due to today's risk-averse investment climate and complex and lengthy regulatory processes in many uranium mining jurisdictions’. Thus, it states efforts must begin immediately to ensure adequate uranium supplies are available in the medium term.

The full publication can be downloaded online.