Russia v. EU, greenhouse gases, and "peak" oil etc make nuclear a pretty compelling long-term investment.

India is already contracting long-term supply agreements with Russia and K-stan, and it stands to reason that there will be more U demand going forward.

Given there are only 4 major U deposits that are economic, and given the recent credit annihilation, there will be shortage AT SOME POINT in the future.

Thoughts on plays? I don't like Cameco, since Cigar Lake seems ****ed, and Paladin is too low-grade. U1 has been a basket case, too.

Isn't it companies with a lot of low-grade deposits that are most geared if price starts ricing?

Will these proposed nuclear plants be able to get the finance, yes I know most will be Government financed, but...they may well be postponed.
I'm long Uranium stocks, but don't see them as any safer as anything else

Jubber - I agree. Huge CapEx for nukes. In today's credit markets only govs can afford to finance nukes, and even for them it's tougher. A lot will still get built, b/c it just makes too much sense long-term, but expect delays & cancellations.

Careful, there's a lot of unaccounted-for supply socked away in different corners of the supply chain not to mention "unconventional" supply. Those shortages were supposed to materialize last year. Never did.

The wild-card is the inevitable production short-falls & mining disasters that seem to happen every year.

I hate playing uranium here with no clear direction.

Part of Bush energy bill passed recently:

$500B of EPC insurance for first 8 nuke plants built in the US.

This + regulated status of power = minimal credit risk. This is something that could definitely get financed, especially in Florida to help offset the transmission jams down south(there isn't enough production down south versus in the NE).

I just look at Areva, and they're the premier nuke co, with both mining and EPC. They have mines all over the world, and are constantly adding reserves: there HAS to be a reason for this!

Stocks even in a defensive industry like nuclear / uranium won't do so great if equity markets everywhere tank another 30-40% this year.

That being said, you can collect some fat premiums and still be fairly defensive by just maintaining a covered call position in some of the bigger names that have liquid options (Areva, Cameco, EnergySolutions).

http://seekingalpha.com/article/137684-u....

May 14th

By Lara Crigger

Uranium spot prices jumped another $2 Monday to settle at $51/lb (monthly contracts are trading closer to $44/lb). Sure, that's still a long way from their $136/lb peak set back in June 2007. But after a consistent downward slide since then, U3O8 prices seem to have bottomed, emerging from the downward spiral they've been on since last September:

It's just further evidence that nuclear power, once so despised it made the perfect long-running gag on "The Simpsons" is making a bit of a comeback. And why not? On the alt-energy playground, nuclear power is the beefiest kid around: an efficient, well-understood technology that works entirely independent of seasonal weather patterns (hear that, solar and ethanol?). Plus, nuclear reactors don't emit an ounce of greenhouse gases, and in this emissions-obsessed culture, that makes fission a downright rock star.

While Americans might still have some reservations about Blinky the Three-Eyed Fish, the rest of the world has increasingly embraced nuclear power. France, for example, gets more than 87% of its electricity from nuclear, while Belgium and Sweden get 54% and 60%, respectively. And that market share is set to rise: The International Atomic Energy Agency recently projected that in the next 15 years, we'll see 70 new nuclear plants, which would almost double global capacity. As it is, over 40 reactors are currently under construction in 11 countries, including South Korea, Russia, Japan and China.

China, in particular, plans to heavily invest in nuclear power as part of its stimulus plans; already the country is building 11 new reactors, with another 98 proposed or in planning stages. China has also announced its intentions to stockpile uranium to ward off shortages - and as we've seen in base metals lately, when China decides to hoard, prices go skyward.

All this means good things for uranium, since you can't have nuclear power without nuclear fuel.

We've discussed these and other long-term fundamentals for uranium now and again here at HardAssetsInvestor, and even though prices have plummeted since 2007, those driving forces still remain in play. In short: Demand for ready-to-use yellowcake already far outstrips supply - indeed, it has done so every year since 1989 - and the new global push for more reactors is only going to squeeze stockpiles further. Estimates from Ux Consulting place 2009 demand for uranium between 171 million and 184 million pounds, while only 125 million pounds will be produced.

So even though uranium took a playground beating during the recent financial meltdown, in the long term, yellowcake may have nowhere to go but up.

But don't take my word for it. Here's the latest from a new report by RBC Capital Markets: "We believe the uranium market is in the early stages of a bull market rally that could last three or four years."

The Many Ways to Access Uranium

If RBC is correct, investors can get the jump on the impending bull market in a variety of ways, including futures. Although no physical exchange exists yet for uranium, you can still trade monthly yellowcake futures on NYMEX, which uses prices from The Ux Company's Ux U3O8 index.

Or you could invest in a holding company that stockpiles uranium, like Uranium Participation Corp (TSE:U) or Nufcor Uranium Limited (LON:NU). In fact, rumors that these companies had begun purchasing more yellowcake is one of the reasons prices started to rise last month.

But perhaps the most promising way to access uranium right now is to look to the source: producers. Lately, uranium miners haven't been doing half bad, having regained some of the ground they lost in 2007's U3O8 price drop and last year's credit crunch. The same RBC report noted that overall, uranium stocks have rebounded almost 225% from their lows, and that the market could reclaim its previous peaks within the next two years.

This recovery in miners has been driven in part by good discovery news out of Africa. New drilling results from the Rössing South mine in Namibia suggest that the newly discovered source is not only the country's highest-grade uranium deposit, but could be one of the largest in the world. (Extract Resources (TSX: EXT), which owns the mine, and Kalahari Minerals (LSE: KAH.L), which owns a large stake in Extract, have both seen their share prices soar). Meanwhile, in Niger, French nuclear power giant Areva has teamed up with local officials to lay foundations for a new mine in Imouraren, which when completed, will be Africa's largest uranium mine and the second largest in the world.

Uranium Miners: The Cast Of Characters

Many diversified resource companies like Cameco (NYSE: CCJ), BHP Billiton (NYSE: BHP) and Rio Tinto (NYSE: RTP) dig for uranium along with coal, copper and iron ore. In particular, shares of Cameco, the world's largest uranium supplier, have more than doubled in price since last December's lows. While the company's first-quarter profits declined 38%, CEO Jerry Grandey revealed that this was because the company is snatching up uranium at above-production prices in order to resell later. "Down the road, we will realize additional revenue and earnings as we deliver the purchased material to our customers," he said.

Both BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto have announced expanded relationships with China; in particular, BHP is investigating the possibility of expanding its operations at the Olympic Dam mine in Australia (the world's largest known uranium deposit) in order to meet Chinese demand.

Other miners doing particularly well are First Uranium (TSX: FIU) and junior miner Deep Yellow (ASX: DYL), which have both seen strong price increases (174% and 87%, respectively). In fact, First Uranium recently announced it would offer $92 million in new stock, using the proceeds not only to speed up new development, but also to sow the seeds for potential acquisition.

Even beleaguered miner Uranium One (TSE: UUU) is looking a bit chipper: In the first quarter, the company doubled production to 700,900 lbs, with lower-than-expected production costs. Although Uranium One has had its share of troubles - from last year's shutdown of its Dominion Mine in South Africa to crippling shortages of sulphuric acid at its Kazakhstan mine - the company appears to be stabilizing, and revenues nearly doubled over the same quarter last year.

And if you don't want to make the individual calls, there are three solid nuclear-centric ETFs in the marketplace now: the Market Vectors Nuclear Energy ETF (NYSE Arca: NLR), the iShares S&P Global Nuclear Energy Fund (NASDAQ: NUCL) or the PowerShares Global Nuclear Energy ETF (NYSE Arca: PKN). Each takes substantial equity positions in the major minors, along with reactor manufacturers and service companies.

One final footnote for the uranium bulls: Now-defunct investment bank Lehman Brothers is apparently sitting on a 500,000 lb stockpile of yellowcake, large enough to make a nuclear bomb. Should they dump that uranium on the market, it could depress prices, although Chief Executive Brian Marsal has said the firm plans to gradually sell the supply "over the next two years."

I have 9 Ux plays I watch or own up over 10% today, some are up 30 to 40%. Something continues to brew in this space...

25 of the UX plays I watch or own are up 10% or more today, 8 of which are up 20% or more. Only 1 of 40 is down, and it has had a nice run up recently.

Wow what a week, most of my Juniors up %100 or more, WU.V FDC.V ALZ.V and others HAT, FIS, TAS, and RSC going crazy...
Any that have not moved too far yet?

Actually, rsc wasn't up too much for the week itself, but no, they have almost all moved. Ditem (DIT.V) is one that hasn't exploded yet.

well there goes Ditem !

Ha, I was just gonna post the same! Hit .115 and smacked back down to .095, no news.

this has been posted all over Stockhouse today, nice read

http://us2.campaign-archive.com/?u=6aec0....

Was just looking at a 10yr chart for DML:TSX.

Does anyone know what happened in May 2002 for the stock to go from 150 to under 10? Then another crash in March 2004 - from 60 to about 2?

Free, maybe there were some reverse splits that were depicted very well on the charts? This is Denison, right?

yes - first I thought it had to do with splits, but I thought maybe someone here who was familiar with the stock would know the details.

Ditem up over 18% today, hit .195.

There were 9 U plays that I follow up over 10% today, 15 up 5% or more. Obviously with our markets closed, these are on the Candadian Exchanges.

yep nice bought my DIT @0.055 & 0.12, also got some ALZ, BEA ,DUR, PBM, PPU,(which are going great guns), some FIS,PXP (nicely up today) big chunk of FDC, and UXA.AX

UXA.AX up 37.50% in OZ

Jubber you always seem to come up with plays I've not heard of or haven't tracked in years, which amazes me. BEA is Belmont on the venture, that's been a while since I tracked and DUR is Delta Uranium on the venture also, and I've not heard of it at all! Time for some DD on those.

PPU, did you mean PTU.V or Purepoint?

So glad you bought Ditem, up 31% today, hit 26 cents! Do we sell some?!

My avg is .065!

Sorry I meant Purepoint, BEA looks promising, not so sure about DUR, however UXA.AX looks interesting

Added a few more WU.V producing Uranium !!!

http://www.proactiveinvestors.com.au/com....

I feel like a broken record, but...

There were 9 U plays that I follow up at least 10% today, 3 over 20% and 16 up 5% or more.

Big winners were Mesa (msa.v), Forum (fdc.v) and Eso (eso.v).

steel

Yep another great day, got a load of GWG which is nice from 30's!,
also a load of FDC, long term holder,PTU going guns, my FIS up loads this week and finally RSC finally moving. DIT struggling and BEA dog**** at the moment.Have ESO but no MSA.

Spotted anything looking interesting?