Bloomberg reported that Kazatomprom, the Kazakhstan state nuclear company plans a 100 fold increase in sales of uranium pellets to China within three years as the East Asian country almost triples the number of nuclear power plants it operates.

Mr Vladimir Shkolnik Chief Executive Officer said the Kazakh Company expects shipments to the world’s largest energy consumer to grow to 200 metric tons of uranium pellets in 2013 or 2014 from the 2 tons planned this year.

China has 14 nuclear power reactors in operation, more than 25 under construction and others being prepared. Kazakhstan has 15% of the world’s uranium reserves, the most after the 23% estimated for Australia.

Uranium oxide concentrate is enriched and turned into pellets before being used as fuel for nuclear reactors.

(Sourced from Bloomberg)