Uranium - Sustainable resource or limit to growth?

Nuclear power has many advantages, among them at least two that directly flow from the uranium energy source itself - the low cost of the natural uranium as a proportion of overall generating costs, and the small amount of fuel necessary to provide very large amounts of energy. However, some recent publications have promoted the view that limited supplies of natural uranium are the Achilles heel of nuclear power as the sector contemplates a larger contribution to future clean energy. This paper summarises some of the perspectives and analysis that support the following conclusion: uranium supply, like that for other metals, is economically sustainable. This means that normally functioning metals markets and technology change provide the drivers to ensure that supply at costs affordable to consumers is continuously replenished, both through the discovery of new resources and the redefinition (in economic terms) of known ones. (author)