Inside the Uranium Conundrum

This fall, uranium prices set a record high — $96.50 per pound. But even though the radioactive metal is critical to the nuclear power buildout, rising prices haven’t triggered panic among uranium buyers. So how are buyers continuing to rely on the supply chain to keep delivering? In this episode, Shayle speaks with Mike Alkin, founder and chief investment officer at Sachem Cove Partners, to unpack the full nuclear fuel cycle: from mining and yellowcake to conversion, enrichment, and fabrication. Mike explains why uranium mining, specifically, is the ultimate bottleneck in the supply chain. He also makes the case that murky contracting masks the market reality, and breaks down what could happen when America’s 2028 ban on Russian enriched uranium goes into full effect. Shayle and Mike also discuss uranium’s global supply/demand mismatch and why buyers have been replacing fuel at just half of its burn rate. #AIinfrastructure #datacenter #hyperscaler #nuclear #uranium #china #russia Timestamps: 00:00 Intro: The uranium supply chain puzzle 01:29 The nuclear fuel cycle explained 03:33 Geopolitical divide: East supply vs. West demand 07:04 Historical booms, meltdowns, and market cycles 10:15 Nuclear fuel buyer psychology and the security of supply 12:44 Inside the uranium spot market 16:45 How long-term contracts distort price reporting 22:18 Is there enough uranium? 27:52 The upstream bottleneck: why new mines take decades to come online 30:15 Centrifuge dynamics: underfeeding vs. overfeeding 33:33 Russian enriched uranium ban and geopolitical fallout Sponsors: Catalyst is brought to you by GridBeyond. GridBeyond is the world’s leading technology platform for managing distributed and flexible energy resources. Learn more by visiting https://gridbeyond.com/. Catalyst is brought to you by Antenna Group, the strategic communications and marketing partner behind the biggest names in energy, climate, and infrastructure. For three decades, Antenna has helped breakout companies amplify their stories, build reputation, differentiate from the competition, define new categories and accelerate growth. Learn more at https://www.antennagroup.com/. Catalyst is brought to you by EnergyHub. Peak season puts every grid to the test — and the utilities that pass are the ones that built flexible capacity before they needed it. EnergyHub works with more than 230 utilities to coordinate over 2.6 million DERs and more than 3.6 gigawatts of dispatchable flexibility through a single platform designed to perform when it counts most. See what that looks like at https://www.energyhub.com/. 📺 Watch more episodes: https://www.youtube.com/@LatitudeMedi... 📰 Read Latitude Media: https://www.latitudemedia.com/ 📬 Subscribe to newsletters: https://www.latitudemedia.com/newslet...