International uranium prices are rising as nuclear power plant construction increases around the world. In the nuclear industry, there are calls to revise the Korea-U.S. nuclear energy agreement, which restricts domestic uranium enrichment and reprocessing of spent nuclear fuel, to secure uranium stably and reduce import dependence.
According to Investing.com on the 19th, as of the 30th of last month, international uranium futures were $101.55 per pound. Uranium futures, which had moved in the mid-$70s until mid-December last year, traded in the mid-$80s in the middle of last month and surpassed $100 in a matter of days. Uranium futures fell to $85.25 on the 7th but turned higher again and were trading at $89.5 as of the 13th.
Uranium prices have risen because many countries are moving to build nuclear plants. The Donald Trump administration set a goal of increasing the nation's nuclear power capacity from about 100 gigawatts (GW) in 2024 to 400 GW by 2050. To that end, it decided to cut the permitting period for new nuclear plants, which used to take five to 10 years, to a maximum of 18 months, and to shorten the review period for extending the lifespan of existing plants to within one year.
The United Kingdom decided to build up to eight new nuclear plants by 2050. Italy, which had stuck to a nuclear phaseout policy, declared a return to nuclear construction by enacting a law allowing nuclear power, and Sweden is also considering building at least 10 new nuclear plants by 2045.
According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), U.S. uranium production in the third quarter of last year was 329,623 pounds, down 44.8% from the second quarter. The United States reached out to Kazakhstan, the world's largest uranium producer, to make up for the uranium shortfall, but Kazatomprom, the Kazakh state-owned company, instead lowered its uranium production target.
The United States and Europe rely on Russian enriched uranium. EIA data show that over the past five years (2020–2024), the U.S. nuclear industry imported more than 20% of its uranium purchases from Russia. According to tallies from Eurostat, the European Union's statistics office, in 2023, the year after the outbreak of the war in Ukraine, the EU's imports of Russian nuclear fuel hit a record high.
Only five countries in the world can commercially enrich uranium: Russia, China, France, a European consortium (a joint operation of the United Kingdom, Germany and the Netherlands), and the United States. Among them, Rosatom, the Russian state-owned nuclear corporations, accounts for about 44% of global uranium enrichment capacity, ranking first in market share.
The U.S. government has injected a $2.7 billion budget to expand domestic uranium enrichment facilities. However, many note that it will take years to reach actual production, making it difficult to resolve supply-demand imbalances in the short term.
Korea's situation is not much different. Looking at uranium imports by country from the Korea Mine Rehabilitation and Mineral Resources Corporation (KOMIR), Russia ranked first last year with 36.93%. France was 28.76%, the Netherlands 10.51%, and Germany was fourth at 10.21%.
The nuclear industry argues that to reduce dependence on foreign uranium, Korea must be able to enrich uranium domestically and reprocess spent nuclear fuel. Currently, under the Korea-U.S. nuclear energy agreement, a mutual agreement on the use of nuclear fuel, Korea cannot enrich uranium needed for nuclear plants domestically.
If spent nuclear fuel is processed, "uranium-235" and "uranium-238," which are needed for nuclear fuel, can be recovered, but the path to reprocess spent nuclear fuel is blocked because plutonium, which can be used as a raw material for nuclear weapons, can be extracted. When nuclear fuel is burned in a reactor, about 1% of uranium-238 turns into plutonium.
Lee Jeong-ik, a professor of nuclear and quantum engineering at KAIST, said, "To expand nuclear power, the issue of securing enriched uranium must be resolved," and added, "Securing uranium enrichment capability makes stable energy supply and demand possible." Moon Joo-hyun, a professor in the Department of Energy at Dankook University, said, "With the global uranium market unstable due to factors such as the Russia-Ukraine war, it has become urgent to secure our own uranium enrichment capability."