Where can we find Uranium ?

As we all know, to produce nuclear energy we need Uranium which will be enriched through a complex industrial process before it can be used.


Uranium can be found almost every where: in soil, in rocks, in rivers, in lakes, in oceans. Traces of uranium can be found in food, in the drinking water and also in human and animal tissues. But in most cases the Uranium is found in very very small quantities and obviously can not be extracted for industrial use at a reasonable cost.


Where are the main sources of Uranium that can be mined for industrial purpose ? The main known deposits are in Australia, Kazakhstan, United States, Canada, South Africa, Niger, Namibia, Russia, Brazil, Ukraine and Uzbekistan. The deposits with higher concentration are currently in Canada.


In France we can extract Uranium from granite but the concentration is very low (of the order of 4-5 parts per million) and huge quantities of rocks would be required. France nuclear industry relies very much on Uranium mined in Niger.

In the United States of America and Russia an important source of Uranium already enriched for the nuclear civil industry is coming from nuclear weapons that are dismantled since the 2 countries signed a disarmament treaty in 1987