John Rubino is a former Wall Street financial analyst and author or co-author of five books, including The Money Bubble: What to Do Before It Pops and Clean Money: Picking Winners in the Green-Tech Boom. He founded the popular financial website DollarCollapse.com in 2004, sold it in 2022, and now publishes John Rubino’s Substack newsletter.
Nuclear energy is the “Switzerland” of energy sources. It is increasingly popular with both sides of the political spectrum for several reasons.
First, nuclear energy is the most reliable baseload power source. That’s because it has the highest capacity factor, which measures how often a power plant runs at its maximum power.
Nuclear power can step in when other sustainable energy sources like wind and solar power can’t meet power needs.
Second, nuclear energy is nearly carbon-free, making it ideal to meet clean energy goals.
By increasing its nuclear energy use while also limiting its vulnerability to supply chains, the U.S. can lower its exposure to geopolitical tensions, price manipulations and foreign energy dependence.
The only way to achieve that is to secure domestic and reliable allied uranium supply sources and production. This would also require the development of more efficient technologies to refine uranium and convert it into nuclear energy.
Transformational U.S. Nuclear Energy Bills
After taking nearly two years to develop, several crucial bipartisan bills supporting nuclear energy, domestic and allied uranium supply, and technologies became law starting in late 2023.
The three you should know about are:
1. The Nuclear Fuel Security Act
This bill was signed into law as part of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) on December 22, 2023. It establishes a strategic uranium reserve to ensure domestic uranium supply for national defense.
The Act creates new programs and expands existing ones to increase domestic supplies of certain types of low-enriched uranium (LEU) for nuclear energy, including high-assay low-enriched uranium (HALEU) used by advanced reactors.
2. The Accelerating Deployment of Versatile, Advanced Nuclear for Clean Energy (ADVANCE) Act
This Act passed the House on May 8, attached to S. 870, the “Fire Grants and Safety Act,” by a vote of 393-13. The Senate passed it by a vote of 88-2 on June 18. With votes like those, it should be clear that nuclear is popular across the aisle (a rarity in the D.C. Beltway).
The legislation invests in advanced nuclear technologies for efficient energy production. That includes the continued development of small modular reactors (SMRs) and microreactors.
The overwhelming bipartisan support for advancing nuclear energy as a clean and reliable power source will only serve to enhance energy independence and national security.
After Russia invaded Ukraine, escalating its war that started with its invasion of Crimea in 2014, the U.S. banned imports of certain Russian energy products like oil and coal. But it didn’t ban uranium due to a lack of domestic and allied supply.
In December 2023, the House passed H.R. 1042, the Prohibiting Russian Uranium Imports Act, by voice vote. Two months before that, I met with the senior staff of Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA), who chairs the Energy and Commerce committee. She championed the bill. We discussed its importance for overall energy and national security.
The Senate passed its version by unanimous consent on April 30.
The bill bans low-enriched uranium (LEU) produced in the Russian Federation or by a Russian entity, fuel used in domestic nuclear reactors.
It also allocates $2.72 billion to domestic and allied uranium companies to further advance domestic enrichment capabilities.
Uranium is More Powerful Than Gold
Those policy developments are boosting uranium prices and domestic uranium producer shares.
Uranium prices rose 3-fold since early 2020.
They more than doubled from July 2023 through January 2024 to $107 per pound before settling to current levels near $80-85 per pound, which are still up 60% since then.
That’s compared to gold at 19% and silver at 28% over that period.
Given the growing global need for uranium, I see uranium prices doubling over the next two years and surpassing the 2007 levels shown in the chart below.
STAY INFORMED! Receive our Weekly Recap of thought provoking articles, podcasts, and radio
delivered to your inbox for FREE! Sign up here for the HoweStreet.com Weekly Recap.
