A product has just gone up in price by 90% in 12 months. It now costs more than it has in 16 years. Most people would think twice about diving into a market like that.
Not so those who run a nuclear power plant and must have the product in question: uranium. Shutting the plant down will cost you a fortune, says Nick Lawson of advisory firm Ocean Wall. Think $1 million a day. It could also make you extremely unpopular, with one in five households in the US reliant on nuclear energy. Worse, if you do have to do it, you can’t flick a switch to turn it back on once your ore has arrived; restarting means new safety checks and regulatory approvals that can take months if not years.
