Because the world's uranium supply is finite and the continued growth in the numbers of thermal reactors could exhaust the available low -
cost uranium reserves in a few decades, it makes little sense to discard this spent fuel or the «tailings» left over from the enrichment process.
Not exact matches
But in addition to Russia's
Uranium reserves (9 % of the worlds), they're buying up other
reserves over
cost.
In 1979, U.S.
reserves of
uranium at the $ 50 / pound
cost of recovery were 979,000 tonnes, and New Mexico
uranium reserves were 511,500 tonnes, or 52 % of that total.