By Andrew Nelson

You can call it a support, or you can call it resistance, but either way uranium has stayed within a few dollars of US$50/lb for a long time now. There have been signs of firmness and signs of weakness over the past 12 months and with speculative talk now trickling through the market of theoretical emerging supply tightness and the possibility of increasing demand, the spot price has held steady for a few weeks now.

Looking at and trying to draw conclusions from a market that doesn't do much week in and week out gets a little bit harder to do every time you try. One pines for novel information in order to say something new. When you finally get something new, it's hard not to go over the top with either optimism or gloom.

Over the past few weeks we have written about the possibility a looming supply shortfall, the prospects of increasing Asian, European and North American demand, to name just a few. There seem to be a growing number of analysts talking about building exposure now, as prices in this sector could climb quickly once they're set in motion.

But as of yet, there is no motion, only talk, and the U308 spot price is rooted firmly to its year-long support/resistance level. Last week saw no change in this. There was, however, a little more talk, a little more news.

China is planning to build as many as 100 reactors over the next two decades. While there is nothing new in this statement, there is at list a little more motion. China's National Nuclear Power Co said it has now received final approval from the Ministry of Environmental Protection to move forward with its planned initial public offering.

The state-owned nuclear power operator said in June that it had received preliminary approval from the ministry to move ahead with an IPO to finance five power projects valued at 173.5 billion