4 ms·

No need to nationalize the uranium (I am quite skeptical that would reduce the "massive overhead of bureaucracy" you mention), but other than that your plan wou

No need to nationalize the uranium (I am quite skeptical that would reduce the "massive overhead of bureaucracy" you mention), but other than that your plan would indeed solve the problem (to the extent it is a problem). The problem is that the people behind this don't actually want to solve the problem. They just want to use it as an excuse for a power grab.

alexasmyths 9y ago
Nationalization would be required because once the plan was announced, the price of Uranium would go through the roof - and then bidding/speculation would start and Uranium would be coming up all over the place. Specifically: Russia. Australia, Russia and Canada have most of the known deposits. If the market price of Uranium is literally $0, well, Russians get nothing directly out of digging it up. The grand concern would be, once something like this got going, there would be copycat entites in places that are not ready for it, i.e. China, Russia, Iran. Maybe China is today, but they are always teetering on revolution, or some kind of massive upheaval. There's no place like Canada for a vast expanse of boring, stable, calm, political stability and basic (but never exceptional) operational effectiveness.
- Turing_Machine 9y ago
  1) How would nationalizing it make the price $0? Government services are notorious for costing more than private sector equivalents. 2) How are you planning to get the Russians to go along with this? Edit to add: 3) Why shouldn't the Russians (or anyone else) get paid for digging it up? Mining uranium isn't something that people are going to do for fun.
  - alexasmyths 9y ago
    Western governments would only pay 'cost' for digging up Uranium in Canadian (or other sanctioned) mines, thereby creating 0 demand for Uranium on global markets. Nothing would stop the Russians from doing whatever they please. If this 'massive project' done by private entities - Uranium prices would rise dramatically, thereby creating incentive for Russian gov/private entities to ramp up Uranium production. But with a 'nationalization' - well, global Urainum prices might remain weak knowing ain't nobody in the 'Western World' going to pay crazy prices for something that's too dangerous and no government would allow the sale of. The 'nationalization' by Western Governments would surely be accompanied by a ban on private sale of it. So the market would collapse making Russian gov/private entities less willing to put any dollars behind it. But of course they can do whatever they want whenever they please - as they can today. By the way - even with governments notorious and dysfunctional bureaucracy - I still think it would be cheaper than buying it from private entities where most of the cost would be in the form of some kind of rent extraction, not very related to the cost of extracting it.

alexasmyths 9y ago

Nationalization would be required because once the plan was announced, the price of Uranium would go through the roof - and then bidding/speculation would start and Uranium would be coming up all over the place. Specifically: Russia. Australia, Russia and Canada have most of the known deposits. If the market price of Uranium is literally $0, well, Russians get nothing directly out of digging it up. The grand concern would be, once something like this got going, there would be copycat entites in places that are not ready for it, i.e. China, Russia, Iran. Maybe China is today, but they are always teetering on revolution, or some kind of massive upheaval. There's no place like Canada for a vast expanse of boring, stable, calm, political stability and basic (but never exceptional) operational effectiveness.

Turing_Machine 9y ago
1) How would nationalizing it make the price $0? Government services are notorious for costing more than private sector equivalents. 2) How are you planning to get the Russians to go along with this? Edit to add: 3) Why shouldn't the Russians (or anyone else) get paid for digging it up? Mining uranium isn't something that people are going to do for fun.
- alexasmyths 9y ago
  Western governments would only pay 'cost' for digging up Uranium in Canadian (or other sanctioned) mines, thereby creating 0 demand for Uranium on global markets. Nothing would stop the Russians from doing whatever they please. If this 'massive project' done by private entities - Uranium prices would rise dramatically, thereby creating incentive for Russian gov/private entities to ramp up Uranium production. But with a 'nationalization' - well, global Urainum prices might remain weak knowing ain't nobody in the 'Western World' going to pay crazy prices for something that's too dangerous and no government would allow the sale of. The 'nationalization' by Western Governments would surely be accompanied by a ban on private sale of it. So the market would collapse making Russian gov/private entities less willing to put any dollars behind it. But of course they can do whatever they want whenever they please - as they can today. By the way - even with governments notorious and dysfunctional bureaucracy - I still think it would be cheaper than buying it from private entities where most of the cost would be in the form of some kind of rent extraction, not very related to the cost of extracting it.