Thread by @jeffgeringer92

Greetings from the NEI International #Uranium Fuel Seminar Day 2. My thoughts, in no particular order:

(1) Transportation is hard. Like really hard. Nuclear power is extraordinarily energy dense, and while that’s a huge plus for nuclear power, it means the nuclear materials make up a relatively small volume of any ocean or rail shipment. It’s *maybe* a weak spot.

We’ve got a lot of capable companies and people working on this problem. LEU+ and HALEU fuels are going to require new transport packages and new gov’t regulations. These adaptations are in progress, but they ain’t free.

We’re dependent on just a few ports and relative few carriers and charters to move yellowcake and enriched material from facility to facility. And we’re also dependent - frankly - on Russian rail to get some Kazakh and Uzbek production to Western markets. Keep an eye on it, eh?

(2) Some radical truth-telling from a representative from an enricher. The market is chaotic. And capacity growth will come at a cost. Not long ago utilities and enrichers collaborated and shared risk on big enrichment capacity projects. The rep thinks we can do it again…me too.

HALEU and LEU+ are coming. Projected supply of LEU+ at 5.5%-10% enrichment to be commercially available by 2025, and HALEU at 10%-20% enrichment by 2028. I won’t stone cold guarantee it but I believe it’s possible.

Enrichment is expensive. And it’s not just tubes. Lots of mechanical and digital equipment needs replacing to keep the tubes spinning and the UF6 flowing. It wasn’t a good value proposition at $60/SWU. Now? Looks fine but takes time and (most importantly) skilled labor.

(3) From one panelist - it’s the utilities’ choice to keep taking Russian material. Maybe not that simple, but also maybe not that complicated.

(4) My friends at UxC shared some survey results from their semi-annual survey of customers. Big takeaway for me: producers and consumers agree on much but utilities tend to think current prices will bring forward new production while suppliers do not. Make of that what you will.

(5) GLE/Silex is starting to firm up their deployment schedule. I don’t completely know how I feel about laser enrichment’s viability in general (so this is not an endorsement), but this is a cool timeline to see as someone who plans on being in this industry for the long haul.

Anyway - logging off for more networking and camaraderie. Close community here in nuclear fuel and it’s fun to be among fellow nerds. See some of you on @uraniuminsider webinar tomorrow. Cheers!

p.s. i did get to spend a little bit of time with @ClayDMontgomery and another investor named Kevin. Would be interested to hear their thoughts on the reception they received and the value of coming to this conference.