Clay Montgomery Profile picture
Aug 28, 2022 17 tweets 5 min read Read on X
I'm bullish on #uranium for the long-term. But, there is a significant bearish case for the next 2-3 years that needs some attention. It's a bit complex, but here it is. The short version is that the import ban on Russia is not happening. How do I know this? ...
Prior to June, the DoE never spoke publicly about the risk of Russian nuclear fuel imports stopping, even though they supply at least 40% of US commercial EUP needs and this dependency has existed for 30 years. The DoE still claims it's 20%, but it's at least 39% according to ...
Cameco (who won't embarrass their customers), but it's really 50%-60% according to me (who will).

But in June, we learned that the only cargo ships that will transport the radioactive fuel to the US were stopped because new sanctions on Russia are ...
fnarena.com/index.php/2022…
*suddenly* in effect. Why would such a close ally abruptly stop half of US nuclear fuel without any warning. That's not how Canada usually does this. Just bureaucratic incompetence? No, it wasn't.

Those ships are registered in Canada and that government has been leading ...
the world with excruciatingly complex legalize on what a bad person Putin is and what to do about it. Their special economic measures started in 2014 and have been thoroughly documented online ever since, with many amendments and weekly updates. ...

laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/regulation…
But, why no public warning to the US about June 7th, even after a certain President so publicly chastised Germany for their dependence on Russian gas? Trudeau would have loved to do that. ...
But then, only a week later, *someone* announced that ARRC Line's Class 7 ship had an exemption! So, the EUP shipments would continue. ...

Tim Gitzel mentioned it with only one sentence, "While an exemption by the Canadian government has resolved this issue for now, it highlights the tenuous nature of reliance on Russia or Russian ports for supply."

Wow! The US is so lucky that it was resolved in only 1 week! ...
When has that ever happened before?

Then, in July, the DoE decides to present at a NEI Fuel Forum and WNA in London, to calm panicked nuclear utilities, and a Congressional hearing to reveal (for the very first time) that an import ban is a really bad idea, until a new ...
enrichment plant is built. Suddenly, the DoE finally talks about dependence on Russia, after 30 years! But, not even a mention of the absolutely critical exemption from Canada, that just happened 3 weeks prior? So, what changed at the DoE? They have a deal with Canada now. ...
But, to this day, there has never been ANY official document released publicly that even describes the exemption, in any way. We don't even know when it expires, if it's extendable, what shipping companies are covered or what the ...

washingtonexaminer.com/policy/energy-…
US paid or exchanged to obtain it.

-------------
And for the first person that finds that exemption document, I will buy you a nice steak dinner with an obsessively methodical uranium expert, the next time you are in Texas!
-------------
...
Finally, my point, is that the exemption that keeps the EUP flowing was obviously negotiated in secret and may never be public. Why? Because it's embarrassing to the US and Canadian governments. But it also would probably show that no uranium ban is coming until more ...
enrichment capacity is built in the US (by 2026-2027). It's not just that this deal was done, but that they intend to extend it. That's why it's not public.

But hey, I'm just connecting dots here, and I do have a lot of bullish option spreads on uranium miners.

(End)
I recently wrote the bear case for #Centrus Energy ($LEU), but they will probably be the biggest beneficiary of the US/Canada deal for no import ban. And a secret deal will be very hard for anyone to criticize.

OK! OK! My thesis is NOT a "SIGNIFICANT bearish case" for uranium! I get it. My bad choice of words. The thread is not about dumping uranium. Did I mention that I'm long?

There are bills in Congress for a ban. So, just be reassured that's not happening.

Perhaps I need to explain this?

Utilities always buy their fuel fab and enrichment first, then they know how much U308 to buy and WHEN to take delivery. So, when they don't know where their enrichment is coming from, they tend to wait until they do. That's happening right now.

• • •

Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh
 

Keep Current with Clay Montgomery

Clay Montgomery Profile picture

Stay in touch and get notified when new unrolls are available from this author!

Read all threads

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

PDF

Twitter may remove this content at anytime! Save it as PDF for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video
  1. Follow @ThreadReaderApp to mention us!

  2. From a Twitter thread mention us with a keyword "unroll"
@threadreaderapp unroll

Practice here first or read more on our help page!

More from @ClayDMontgomery

Oct 24, 2023
The International Uranium Fuel Seminar started today in Charlotte, NC. It's the largest uranium conference in the US. Many Great presentations and conversations that I will be writing about. The mood is better this year with higher prices, but the big problems of hiring and lack of US Govt leadership still hang like dark clouds. A major topic is rumors of Rosatom not finding enough supply since depleted UF6 has stopped flowing there from Europe, and limited Kazatomprom production. Europe used to dump depleted UF6 back in Russia which supplied secondary material for re-enrichment, but no more. #uranium
Image
I'm on a bus with @uraniuminsider Justin Huhn and Jason Polanski @polan13. We just toured the Westinghouse plant in Columbia, SC and saw a lot of fuel rods. You know I asked where their UF6 is coming from! Great hosts and great conversations! #uranium
The first response I got about their UF6 supply was 90 percent from Urenco-USA, but it changes a lot. Later, his boss said just "overseas". I asked if it came through the Port of Houston or Baltimore, but it varies by customer and "UF6 is fungible."

It was fascinating to see how the Zircalloy and Inconel tubing are filled with U02 pellets, after deconversion from UF6 into oxide, using ammonium hydroxide. Each tube is then welded by hand and leak inspected using helium. They are trying to automate this using AI inspection but the staff already seemed small to me.

They build assemblies for many reactor types including CANDUs and Russian. The Russian frames go to Sweden to get their rods installed.

They blend five UF6 enriched levels, to order. No plans for HALEU because they want to stay with category 3 security.

Amazed to learn the control rods are not inserted into the frames until the very last step before shipment. They are safe to handle when dry.
Read 5 tweets
Mar 30, 2023
Listening again to the recent Full Committee Hearing to Examine the Nuclear Fuel Cycle, I've realized it's more bullish than I thought. Senator Barrasso (00:52:00) asks the DoE what's REALLY causing the delay in their ...

#Uranium #Silex $SLX.AX $CCJ

energy.senate.gov/hearings/2023/…
"inter-agency review process", to release the First Draft of their Solicitation for Fuel Acquisition Proposals for the HALEU Availability Program. He is suspicious of anti-nuclear politics at the OMB. But, I think the delay is actually at the NNSA (within the DoE).
...
They have been working on this for over a year and the pressure on the DoE to get it released must be getting intense, from both Congress and utilities. The NNSA is not anti-nuclear, but are responsible for security and non-proliferation issues. They also must have agreement ...
Read 11 tweets
Jan 13, 2023
A major market catalyst for #uranium will be new conversion plant capacity coming online this year, since it will enable the transition to overfeeding by UF6 enrichment plants, which will create up to 20% higher U308 demand. That's needed just to keep ...

the existing commercial #nuclear fleet running, without continuing to import fuel from Russia.

ConverDyn's restart of the only US conversion plant is delayed to April, but it is secured by a 5-year, sole-source contract from the DoE/NNSA, as part of ...

exchangemonitor.com/nnsa-to-make-c…
a new US program to stockpile UF6. But, that's still not enough capacity to replace Rosatom imports. What's needed is for the Westinghouse Springfields conversion plant to also return to service, in the UK. The problem there has been that ...

world-nuclear-news.org/Articles/Westi…
Read 7 tweets
Sep 2, 2022
1) A diagram to illustrate the huge transition occurring in the #uranium industry.

The lemonade business (fuel enrichment) used to be so bad that they were squeezing every lemon extra long and hard (underfeeding) to get every possible drop (of U235)...
2) But now, no one wants to use Russia's juicers (centrifuges) anymore and we don't have enough (SWU/enrichment capacity) in the West. So, to maintain the same production rate of lemonade (LEU), the lemons will be squeezed faster (overfeeding)...
3) But, this requires more lemons (U308) because more juice is left in the lemons (higher tails assays).

Look at how much the switch from underfeeding to overfeeding increases uranium demand while also producing more depleted UF6 feedstock for the Silex/GLE PLEF project ...
Read 5 tweets
Aug 30, 2022
#Silex just announced testing is complete and they will ship the First Full-Scale Laser System Module to the US by years end. They are building more of these lasers and Cameco's independent engineering assessment gives it a thumbs up! #uranium $SLX.AX ...

clients3.weblink.com.au/pdf/SLX/025614…
These lasers were custom designed for the frequency and pulse rates required to pop fluorine atoms off of UF6 molecules of the U235 isotope. Process is 2-20X more efficient than gas centrifuges, so it's ideal for harvesting acres of depleted tails at ...

decommissioned enrichment plants that the US needs to recycle. This should motivate more utilities to get on board the GLE/PLEF consortium bandwagon and Cameco's shares will benefit too.

The acceleration continues! Congrats Silex!

Read 6 tweets
Jul 7, 2022
Dr. Kathryn Huff (@katyhuff), the DoE's Assistant Secretary for Nuclear Energy was just added (tentatively) to speak at the @NEI Nuclear Fuel Forum in DC on July 19. Seems like a good venue to make a big announcement on the DoE's new #nuclear fuel ...

nei.org/conferences/nu…
plan, which Dr. Huff has been leading for several months now.

I'm flabbergasted that this plan has received so little attention from most #energy analysts and Congress, considering months of hints from the DoE and leaks via Bloomberg about the size ($4.3 Billion) of the plan ...
and the recent failure of a Canadian ship to make a large delivery of nuclear fuel to US utilities, and their critical dependency on Russian imports for at least 40% of enriched nuclear fuel. The plan is at least 3 months late due to multiple delays that are likely to cause ...
Read 11 tweets

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!


This site is made by just two indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3/month or $30/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Don't want to be a Premium member but still want to support us?

Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal

Or Donate anonymously using crypto!

Ethereum

0xfe58350B80634f60Fa6Dc149a72b4DFbc17D341E copy

Bitcoin

3ATGMxNzCUFzxpMCHL5sWSt4DVtS8UqXpi copy

Thank you for your support!

Follow Us!

:(