World uranium supply and demand: The changing market

Douring the 1970s, the civilian nuclear industry of the West prepared for a high rate of growth. Uranium production facilities were expanded to meet what were subsequently found to be overly optimistic uranium requirements. Beginning in 1975, uranium production significantly exceeded requirements and a large inventory built up. By 1979, this oversupply had led to falling production and a 14-year decline of uranium prices.

In the period 1985-88, it appeared that the Western uranium market was making progress in bringing supply and demand back into balance. However, in the late 1980s, the market was further destabilized by political and economic developments resulting from the dissolution of the Soviet Union and its trading bloc.

The main result has been the onset of integration of two formerly mutually exclusive economic systems. In the 1990s, the free market system of the West and the formally centrally planned ones of the East are evolving into a free global market. This economic integration has affected nearly all commodities, including nuclear fuels.