Description
Uranium stocks have been sold off alongside AI stocks, but Scott Melbye says the case for uranium doesn’t depend on a single new data center. With 440 reactors running worldwide and 70 more under construction, he sees a 1.7 billion pound deficit over the next 20 years, and he calls the gap between those fundamentals and share prices “an incredible dislocation.”
At the New Orleans Investment Conference, the executive vice president of Uranium Energy Corp and CEO of Uranium Royalty Corp tells Kitco News anchor Jeremy Szafron that the inventories that once tamed price spikes are gone. The next pound now has to be mined, and utilities still haven’t contracted enough to cover what’s coming. Meanwhile, Russia controls half of Kazakhstan’s output, and Melbye says there’s no chance the U.S. ban on Russian uranium, fully in effect in 2028, gets waived.
New buyers are lining up. Defense planners are seeking 4 million pounds a year of U.S.-origin uranium starting in 2030, and Big Tech is spending billions to restart shuttered reactors. Melbye calls American uranium “Louis Vuitton,” not Coach, and says small modular reactors have moved from concept to construction. Nuclear power, he adds, enjoys rare support from both parties.
This interview was recorded on Oct. 29, 2026.
Special thanks to our sponsor, Dakota Gold, for making this coverage possible.
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Learn more about Uranium Energy Corp: https://www.uraniumenergy.com/
Learn more about Uranium Royalty Corp: https://www.uraniumroyalty.com/
00:00 Welcome to the New Orleans Investment Conference 2026
00:47 Uranium Stocks Trade in the AI Basket
02:26 Critical Mineral Status and 4 Million Pounds a Year of Defense Buying
04:30 Utilities Face a Long-Term Contract Crunch
06:41 Lessons From the 2006 Cigar Lake Flood and Kazakhstan’s Pivot East
12:08 The Russian Uranium Ban Hits in 2028
13:48 The Premium on US-Origin Uranium
14:54 Closing America’s Uranium Conversion Gap
16:41 Uranium Demand Without the AI Hype
19:35 Royalty Financing for the Next Generation of Mines
20:58 Uranium 101 for New Investors
22:08 SMRs Move From Concept Car to Showroom
23:49 Nuclear’s Bipartisan Support and Closing Thoughts
#Uranium #NuclearPower #Energy
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