The Sprott Physical Uranium Trust (SRUUF) broke support at 18.00, signaling a bear market for uranium.
Producers all show signs of selling pressure: Cameco (CCJ.us) in Canada, Kazatomprom (KAP.uk) in Kazakhstan, Boss (BOE.ax) in Australia and Paladin (PDN.ax) in Africa (Namibia & Malawi) and Australia.
Conclusion
We remain long-term bulls on uranium, with demand expected to grow as the industry expands at a faster rate than supply. But the short- to medium-term looks decidedly bearish.
Notes
There seems to be some confusion about sodium-cooled reactors and we have expanded our note to clarify:
The Natrium fast reactor uses sodium (the metal) as a coolant instead of water used in common light-water reactors. Sodium eliminates the danger of a high-pressure build up of steam in the containment vessel and/or separation of hydrogen from steam at extremely high temperatures, in the event of a melt-down, which could cause an explosion.
Heat generated by the sodium-cooled fast reactor is transferred through a heat exchange and stored as molten salts until required for power generation. This has several advantages:
- Sodium melts at 371K (98°C) and boils at 1156K (883°C), a difference of 785K (785°C) between solid and gas states, compared to just 100K for water (between ice and steam) at normal atmospheric pressure. The boiling point of sodium is much higher than the reactor’s operating temperature, requiring a far thinner reactor vessel as it is not pressurized.
- Sodium does not corrode steel reactor parts, instead it protects metals from corrosion. Molten salts, on the other hand, cause corrosion problems at high temperatures.
- The reactor in shutdown mode can be passively cooled. Air ducts are engineered so that decay heat after shutdown is removed by natural convection, with no pumping required.
- The reactor is self-controlling. If the temperature of the core increases, the core expands slightly, allowing more neutrons to escape the core and slow the reaction.
- Sodium does have a downside: it reacts with air and water and can cause fires. So it is far safer to store the heat as non-flammable molten salts, away from the reactor core.