Nuclear energy and safety of supply

According to all kinds of studies, the demand for energy grows more rapidly than population. And it also happens that the consumption of electric energy grows more rapidly than consumption of other primary energies. In view of the spectacular growth of some developing countries, the question is: what type of energy source will we use to cover the growing demand for electric power? If energy should be cheep, reliable and clean, nuclear power should be one of the source used to cover the growing demand. In this respect, it is important to analyze the nuclear fuel cycle to ascertain the reliability of the nuclear power supply. From this perspective,there are three important stages of the front-end of the fuel cycle: uranium concentrate fabrication, enrichment and manufacturing. In recent years, mining production has barely covered half of the demand for uranium, while the rest has been covered by the so-called secondary sources: inventories, strategic reserves, dilution of highly enriched uranium from military weapons, or reprocessing. The known reserves today are enough to cover 65 years of operation of the current fleet. These reserves are much larger if we include those not currently available, or if natural uranium is used directly or reprocessing is included. In the enrichment stage, there is a needed to start operation before the end of the decade of the new plants that are planned. The entry into the market of highly enriched military uranium distroit this market. There is 30% excess capacity in manufacturing which is concentrated in one supplier that accounts for 50% of this excess. Nevertheless, it must be remembered that the fuel assembly is not a commodity, which means that the excess capacity cannot be used directly by the market. To conclude, it can be safety said that, although uranium is not exempt from the tensions to which other raw materials are subject and, as all the fossil fuels, it too could be depleted, the advance of technologies and the existence of secondary sources will guarantee the security of this supply event if growth predictions are fulfilled. (Author)