In 1971, the United States, its fiscal location in disarray, abruptly declared to the world that its currency would no longer be backed by gold, its companies would take pleasure in lavish new export subsidies, and of all things, foreign uranium would not be permissible into the U.S. market. This was a huge shock to the earth trading system and, not incidentally, a major impetus for the advances in deal law of the coming decades.
For Canada, the blow was unexpected and undeserved. As frequently happens, when the U.S. lashes out at enemies overseas, its friends earlier to home get sideswiped. In this case, the Canadian uranium industry had been mostly developed in response to U.S. demand -- at first for the U.S. nuclear weapons program, then for its rapidly growing civil nuclear program. Canadian miners from Uranium City to Elliott Lake work to oil American reactors and American bombs. Canadian demand was small throughout this whole period, even when Ontario started to build Candu reactors.
By the late 1960s, competition in the middle of U.S. reactor builders such as Gulf Atomic, GE and Westinghouse, had become intense. They invented a original marketing tool: buy our reactor and we’ll guarantee you a lifetime provide of enriched uranium at a low, low price!
No comments:
Post a Comment