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  Industrialized nations are increasingly focused on finding alternative energy sources to reduce their reliance on fossil fuels for both political and practical purposes. Natural and geopolitical supply disruptions, global warming concerns, deregulation and price volatility are all contributing to accelerated exploration. Rising demand for power, especially from exploding economies like China and India, will put ever increasing pressure on the global energy supply chain.
The resulting gaps in the global energy grid have prompted a renewed interest in nuclear power. One of the only emission-free sources of electricity in wide use today, nuclear power, is increasingly viewed as the only practical, larger scale alternative to oil and gas. Nuclear power provided 16% of the world's electricity generation today, second only to coal and this could grow rapidly with sound public policy. Furthermore, putting a price on harmful emissions would quickly make nuclear the cheapest option as well as the cleanest for a global movement. Today there are 482 nuclear power plants in 30 countries consuming 77,000 tons of uranium (200 million pounds). Of the total uranium consumed in 2006, only about half came from operating mines. The balance was derived from secondary supply sources such as, highly enriched uranium from dismantled nuclear weapons and inventory draw down.
There are 82 new power plants under construction or in planning stages. By 2020, dwindling secondary supply sources will cover only about 15% of uranium demand with the balance coming from newly mined and processed uranium. Current and planned mines will not be adequate to supply the projected demand for primary uranium supply. The concerns about uranium sources have contributed to more than tripling of uranium price in the past two years.
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