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An increasingly desperate search for industrial strength alternatives to coal and oil in the lead up to the Glasgow COP26 climate conference is rapidly changing the outlook for uranium.
Australian uranium miners have bounded ahead this year on the back of what might have been another passing burst of enthusiasm for the raw material that powers nuclear reactors.
But inside the last month a remarkable convergence of new commitments and recommitments to nuclear energy is extending investor interest in what had become a marginal commodity. Australia has roughly a third of the world’s uranium, but local interest in “yellowcake” had waned along with softer international demand since the Fukushima nuclear power plant explosion in Japan a decade ago.
Some professional investors see uranium as a re-emerging potential power source in the rush to decarbonisation.
Investment bank Morgan Stanley is bullish on the commodity with a $US49 a pound target for 2024 – it is currently around $US40.
Uranium-powered nuclear stations create carbon free energy, a factor...