Currently, approximately 190 million pounds of uranium are consumed annually, while only around 130 million pounds are extracted from the ground, creating a supply deficit.

Assuming OP is insinuating someone is building nukes... a quick Google says a nuclear war head uses about 30 pounds of uranium. That wouldn't even be a footnote on the world scale, definitely not enough to drive global demand prices 10% over night

[–] Sc00ter@lemmy.ml 2 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

I dont know about uranium, but is it traded like oil? Does the futures contract expire today and they only have so much left that can be sold in July, so they basically get to dictate the price at the end of the contract if there is more demand than supply? We saw a drastic squeeze on oil a few years back and it was back to normal in a day

Edit: it was actually the opposite for oil. They had too much to sell and no buyer because stores were full. They literally couldn't give it away and prices went negative https://www.cnbc.com/2020/04/20/oil-markets-us-crude-futures-in-focus-as-coronavirus-dents-demand.html

[–] jeena@jemmy.jeena.net 2 points 2 years ago (1 children)

30 pounds of Uranium 235 which is 0.72% of natural uranium, so a bit more but still your point stands.

[–] hglman@lemmy.ml 1 points 2 years ago

Anyone with the capacity to enrich uranium can probably also make plutonium, which is made from u238, so you really dont need that much. I belive you can chemically it separate as well.