Kazatomprom, the Kazakhstan state nuclear company, plans a 100-fold increase in sales of uranium pellets to China within three years as the East Asian country almost triples the number of nuclear power plants it operates, Bloomberg reported.
Kazatomprom expects shipments to the world's largest energy consumer to grow to 200 metric tons of uranium pellets in 2013 or 2014 from the 2 tons planned this year, Chief Executive Officer Vladimir Shkolnik said in an interview in Almaty today.
China has 14 nuclear power reactors in operation, more than 25 under construction and others being prepared, according to the World Nuclear Association's website. Kazakhstan has 15 percent of the world's uranium reserves, the most after the 23 percent estimated for Australia, according to the website.
Generating a gigawatt of nuclear power, enough for about 1 million U.S. homes, requires 200 tons of uranium a year at full operating rates, according to the World Nuclear Association. China, India and South Korea expect to use 262 gigawatts by 2030, more than the combined production of the U.S., Japan, Germany and France, according to Bloomberg data.
Kazakhstan started to export "several hundred tons" of uranium to India last year and plans to ship similar amounts through 2014, Shkolnik said.
The Central Asian nation has won a new agreement to export uranium to South Korea until 2017 and has negotiated a contract that factors in spot prices, Shkolnik said, without elaborating.
The company is in talks with Korea Electric Power Corp. about a uranium mining venture in Kazakhstan, he said. There are no similar talks with India, he said.
Uranium oxide concentrate is enriched and turned into pellets before being used as fuel for nuclear reactors.
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