Demand for uranium set to outstrip US in 2020s

BEIJING - China will surpass the United States as the world's largest consumer of uranium during the 2020s as the nation's imports rise sharply to feed a growing nuclear industry, a high-level energy official told China Daily.

But Qian Zhimin, deputy director of the National Energy Administration, insisted that forward planning means China's rising demand will not cause the price of uranium to surge worldwide.

The country's demand is likely to rise sharply because China is building several nuclear reactors and uranium will be used to power them.