Russia to change uranium deal with US
by: burgundy90 07/13/06 10:00 am
From “Gold World: The Forgotten Commodity”
“On July 14, the Russians will make their most aggressive nuclear play in decades when world leaders assemble in St. Petersburg, Russia for the G8 Summit.
It's at that meeting that Putin will put an end to the sweetheart deal they made with the U.S. that allows American companies to get uranium well below market prices from old Russian warheads.
That agreement is called the HEU (highly enriched uranium) agreement...and it calls for material from old nuclear weapons to be blended into lower enriched uranium by U.S. facilities.
How important is this deal for the United States?
Well, roughly half of the supply of uranium at U.S. reactors comes from melted down Russian warheads.
But that's all about to change...and when it does, the uranium market will blow sky-high!
Putin and the Russians are furious because uranium prices have been climbing, yet they haven't been able to take advantage of it.
Until now.
The Russians have made it very clear that they want to make a better deal. And Putin will undoubtedly use his role on the world stage this month to make this happen.
On the Official web site of Russia's G8 presidency, three "priority issues" for the summit are listed.
Take a wild guess what's at the top of the list...
You guessed it...Energy.
This month's meeting will, at best, be the trigger for uranium prices climbing all the way to $100 - or more - by the end of this year. At worst, I suppose, you could call it a good, old-fashioned shakedown.
Take a look at this recent excerpt from the Financial Times that quotes a Russian diplomat making his country's position crystal clear... (Emphasis added is mine.)
"But one Russian diplomat with responsibility for the nuclear fuel trade says: "We want to change the conditions of the suspension agreement and open the gates more widely for the export of Russian uranium. The US utilities very much support the Russian attitude." While Russia wants to keep a political deal with the US on uranium, "we want to change the conditions of the contract [so as to be] closer to the real conditions of the nuclear market."" - Financial Times, June 12, 2006” …
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