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Uranium for sale on the Net
22/08/2000 12:54 - (SA)
Chris Reese
New York - Add radioactive uranium to the list of
items you can buy and sell with the click of a computer mouse, and it might seem like a nuclear bomb-maker's dream come true.
"An (Internet) auction for uranium seems far out, but it's really quite straightforward. It's like any other commodity,'' said Becky Battle, director of marketing for New York Nuclear
Corp. which owns and operates the uranium trading website UraniumOnLine.com.
Through the New York-based website, nuclear power plants now can purchase uranium fuel needed to make electricity through an Internet auction process.
But Battle and others in the uranium production industry are quick to caution that it would be nearly impossible for terrorists to acquire the material online.
"There is no additional risk at all as a result of online trading,'' said Charles Scorer, chief executive officer of Nufcor International Ltd, a London-based uranium production and trading company.
Nufcor, equally owned by South African mining giant AngloGold Ltd. and South African banking to insurance group FirstRand, bought 120 000 pounds of uranium oxide via UraniumOnLine.com's first Internet auction in July.
"Any physical movement of uranium must be from a licensed producer to a licensed trader or buyer,'' Scorer said, adding that the international community of uranium traders is
relatively small and any new bidders would quickly be recognised as such.
Also, auctions on UraniumOnLine.com are private, and participants must be invited by New York Nuclear Corp.
The uranium is used as nuclear fuel in about 430 power plants worldwide to supply about 20 percent of the planet's electricity needs, Battle said.
"The general public may have a difficult time separating what they think of as defensive (weapons grade) uranium and commercial uranium,'' Battle said, "But the content (of nuclear
fuel) is very, very much different from bomb grade. We are talking apples and oranges here."
Bomb-grade uranium must go through a much more extensive and complex refining and enhancement process than uranium used for nuclear fuel. The process requires sophisticated and generally unavailable enhancement technology closely monitored by government agencies, industry sources said.
The online auction is seen as a step forward because it should allow for a more open-market, free trade of uranium by giving utilities and producers a more transparent uranium price
and allowing the application of financial derivatives, such as futures contracts and hedging.
"With the deregulation of the electricity industry, the fuel procurement process will be more open,'' Nufcor's Scorer
said.
"It's more efficient than the traditional system.''
Traditionally, most power plant operators buy uranium under long-term contracts with producers, with the price per pound kept secret.
"Naturally and organically, the market will become more liquid (with time), and people will use more of these online services as (they) develop,'' Scorer said.
At an online auction on Friday, the third one held on UraniumOnLine.com, an undisclosed buyer picked up 56 320 kilograms (124,160 pounds) of uranium for $23.05 per kilogram ($10.46 per pound).
This compares with a current average market price reached through traditional trading of $23.28 a kilo ($10.56 per pound), Battle said.
Friday's round attracted a "handful" of active bidders and "at least two dozen" more observers who are studying the mechanics of the process for possible future participation, she said.
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