• Higher uranium prices have prompted a large upswing in the re-examination of existing deposits and exploration for new ones. Some 400 companies are investing in this work, confident that today’s nuclear power plants and the many new reactors in development promise a strong market for the material. In addition, providers of uranium conversion and enrichment services are expanding their capacity in the United States and abroad.
• The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in 2005 jointly produced a report on uranium resources. The report states that uranium resources are adequate to meet the needs of both existing and projected reactors.
• U.S. nuclear power plants have the lowest production costs of any large-scale source of electricity, except hydroelectric. In 2006, the production cost for nuclear-generated electricity was 1.72 cents per kilowatt-hour (kwh), compared with 2.37 cents per kwh for coal, 6.75 cents for natural gas and 9.63 cents for oil. Fuel accounts for only 26 percent of the production cost for nuclear-generated electricity. In contrast, fuel accounts for more than three-quarters of the cost of coal-, gas- or oil-generated electricity.

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