Cameco’s Chief Financial Officer says there is a lot of uncertainty in the uranium sector because of Russia’s attack on Ukraine, but Cameco is well positioned to deal with the challenges.

Grant Isaac explains that Russia has about 52 per cent of the world’s uranium enrichment work, with about a quarter of the enrichment for the United States and the European Union.

Russia also has about 28 per cent of the global capacity for uranium conversion. That means Russia makes a significant contribution to global fuel supplies, but now many countries are trying to remove themselves from doing business with the Russian Federation.

Isaac says it’s not a question of if Western markets will turn their backs on Russia, it’s when and how fast. He notes that even if neither side goes with sanctions, there are still the secondary and tertiary affects.  As an example, Isaac says it is difficult to find someone to ship material from Russia and insurers will hesitate to underwrite any shipments from that country.

Isaac spoke at a virtual uranium conference last week. Enriched uranium is a type of uranium where the composition has been changed, and then it is transported to a fuel fabrication plant where it is converted to a powder, to be used in fuel rods for nuclear reactors.