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 436 commercial nuclear power reactors with a total installed capacity of 372,000 MWe¹. This provides about 15% of the world's electricity as continuous, reliable base-load power, and their efficiency is increasing. A further 43 power reactors are under construction , while 108 are firmly planned.

Although fewer nuclear power plants are being built now than during the 1970s and 1980s, those now operating are producing more electricity.  In 2007, production was 2608 billion kWh.  The increase over the six years to 2006 (210 TWh) was equal to the output from 30 large new nuclear plants.  Yet between 2000 and 2006  there was no net increase in reactor numbers (and only 15 GWe in capacity).  The rest of the improvement is due to better performance from existing units.  In 2007 performance dropped back by 50 TWh due to plant closures in Germany, UK and Japan.

Many parts of the world have renewed their interest in the nuclear energy option as fears grow about the effect of greenhouse gas emissions on climate. Sustainable development in the future will require increasing reliance on clean fuels and other non-carbon emitting renewable energy sources, and nuclear energy is a key part of the solution.

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 the 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.