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Energy Markets Outlook: Nuclear Fuel

• Energy markets outlook: chapter 8 - nuclear (379KB)

Over the next three decades, in the absence of any lifetime extensions, the current fleet of nuclear power stations operating in the UK will close. In the absence of a new build programme, there will be a steady decline in the amounts of uranium fuel required to supply the UK’s nuclear generation capacity.

Uranium supply is unlikely to limit nuclear power for at least the lifetime of a new generation of reactors. Moreover, uranium (as yellowcake) is also easy to stockpile. A global nuclear renaissance that aimed radically to increase the nuclear share of generation in the period to 2025, might however face other constraints, for example, the supply of a skilled workforce and manufacturing capacity