Uranium Industry

Overview

The uranium sold by Energy Resources of Australia Ltd (ERA) is used only for the generation of nuclear electricity, under strict international safeguards monitored by the Australian Safeguards and Non-Proliferation Office and the International Atomic Energy Agency. ERA only supplies uranium to countries that have signed the Non-Proliferation Treaty, and where there is a bilateral safeguards agreement in place.

Worldwide, there are some 442 commercial nuclear power reactors with a total installed capacity of 370,721 MWe¹. This is more than three times the total generating capacity of France or Germany from all sources. A further 30 power reactors are under construction – equivalent to six percent of existing capacity, while 55 are firmly planned, equivalent to 16 percent of present capacity.

Although fewer nuclear power plants are being built now than during the 1970s and 1980s, those now operating are producing more electricity. In 2005, production was 2,626 billion kilowatt hours (kWh). The increase over the last five years is equal to the output from 30 large, new nuclear reactors. Yet between 1999 and 2005, there was a net increase of only two reactors (and 15 GWe). The rest of the improvement is due to better performance from existing units.

From 1990 to 2005, world capacity rose by 44 GWe² (13%) and electricity production increased 725 billion kWh (38%). The relative contributions to this increase were: new construction 36 percent, up rating 7 percent and availability increase 57 percent.

Nuclear power provides about 16 percent of the world’s electricity as baseload power³, and saves about 2,600 million tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions each year, relative to coal.

World Electricity

With increasing concern about emission of greenhouse gases from fossil fuels, it is likely that there will be a substantial increase in the use of nuclear power for electricity generation beyond those countries, which now have active programs of building nuclear capacity. Recent parliamentary approval for a new reactor in Finland on economic and energy security grounds is likely to be followed by government endorsement of new nuclear capacity in UK and USA.

Relative to any other major technology, the safety record of nuclear power is outstanding, and improving with each new generation of nuclear plants. The safety record is excellent from fuel supply through reactor operation to waste disposal, and including all the transport in between. The record stands in the context of over 12,000 reactor-years of operation, in 30 countries.

For more information on the world’s uranium industry, visit the World Nuclear Association website at: www.world-nuclear.org

1. MWe refers to the electric output of a power plant in megawatts (1 MWe = 1,000 kilowatts)
2. GWe refers to the electric output of a power plant in gigawatts (1 GWe = 1,000 MWe)
3. Power produced for the electricity grid can be categorised as ‘baseload’, ‘intermediate’ and ‘peak’ power. Baseload power generators supply most of our electricity most of the time. Baseload power plants are designed to operate on a nearly continuous basis, except for scheduled outages and breakdowns.