US Nuclear Plants Face Widening Uranium-Supply Gap, EIA Warns

A worker holds a core sample with a high concentration of uranium at a core processing facility near Patterson Lake, Saskatchewan, Canada.

Photographer: Heywood Yu/Bloomberg

US nuclear utilities face possible uranium shortages over the next decade, the Energy Information Administration warned, underscoring supply chain challenges in the world’s biggest atomic-power market.

Utilities signed fewer contracts for delivery last year as uranium prices surged, a report by the US agency said. High costs are pushing them to delay decisions to cover future fuel requirements, even though less than a tenth of the uranium delivered to US reactors is typically bought on spot markets.