Inspecting his equipment at the mouth of the Pandora Mine on the southern slopes of the La Sal Mountains, Jick Taylor is double checking everything while he waits for the final approval from the Mining Safety and Health Administration to begin mining for uranium.
It is late November, and in the three months it has taken to fully permit the southeastern Utah mine, the price for uranium has gone up from $48 a pound in August of 2006 to more than $63 a pound. By late April, the price has risen to $113 a pound.
Uranium prices have soared in recent months due to a worldwide 80-million-pound production deficit of uranium used for nuclear reactors. For the last three decades, uranium supplies to fuel nuclear reactors have been filled with stockpiled uranium and reprocessed nuclear weapons left over from the Cold War. As energy demands continue to grow around the world, most notably in China and India, the demand for nuclear power has grown.
Growing concern over climate change also has increased the appeal for nuclear power as an alternative energy source that doesn’t produce greenhouse gases associated with global warming.
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