As the global demand for clean energy intensifies, nuclear power is enjoying a resurgence not seen in decades. However, this renewed interest has exposed a critical vulnerability in the U.S. energy sector: a massive disconnect between uranium consumption and domestic production. As a guest on The POWER Podcast, Thomas Lamb, president and CEO of Myriad Uranium, discussed some of the complexities of the nuclear fuel cycle and how junior exploration companies are racing to secure America’s energy future.
The Great American Supply Deficit
To understand the urgency of the current uranium market, one must first grasp the sheer scale of consumption. A single large-scale nuclear reactor consumes approximately 400,000 to 500,000 pounds of uranium oxide concentrate (U3O8) annually, depending on design, capacity, and operating efficiency. The U.S. operates 94 commercial reactors today, resulting in a national consumption of roughly 37 million to 47 million pounds of U3O8 per year.
The domestic production figures, however, paint a starkly contrasting picture. “The United States consumes, for very round numbers, 50 million pounds of uranium per year, and produces a million pounds of uranium per year,” Lamb explained. To be more specific, the U.S. Energy Information Administration reported that domestic production of U3O8 was 677,000 pounds in 2024, and it’s been much lower than that in the not-too-distant past.
This imbalance creates a precarious reliance on foreign imports. Lamb noted that Kazakhstan alone produces more than 40% of the world’s uranium. More concerning for U.S. national security is the country’s reliance on Russia, where a surprisingly high percentage of U.S. reactor fuel bundles are sourced.
“You have a worldwide supply deficit, and then you have an enormous domestic production deficit in the United States relative to consumption. That makes the U.S. vulnerable,” Lamb said. “What if Kazakhstan, China, [and] Russia kind of work together? What if they cut off the United States? What if some other things happen? The U.S. could be short of uranium.”
Revitalizing History: The Copper Mountain Project
Myriad Uranium is positioning itself to fill this gap by revitalizing past assets rather than starting from scratch. The company’s flagship asset, the Copper Mountain Uranium Project in Wyoming, was a focal point of Union Pacific’s energy subsidiary in the 1970s.
Union Pacific invested approximately CA$117 million (in 2024 dollars, US$84.7 million) into the site, planning a large-scale mine to fuel reactors in Southern California that were ultimately never built due to the post-1979 nuclear freeze. Because the project was abandoned due to external market forces rather than a lack of resources, it represents a “brownfield” opportunity.
“In our case, we already know it’s there because a lot of the work was done,” Lamb said. “Now, we just have to … bring the information current,” he added.