In 1958, a forward-thinking design team at Ford Motors unveiled a revolutionary ‘Nucleon’ concept model – the world’s first and only nuclear car.

The unlikely car, unveiled at the tail-end of the so-called ‘Atomic Age’ and shortly after the launch of the world’s first full-scale nuclear power plant, was to be powered by a small generator located at the back of the vehicle.

Ford’s designers imagined the atomic cores of these reactors would be replaced as needed, while drivers could select from several differently sized ‘power packets’, effectively letting them choose their car’s horsepower. 

While the radical car lives on in video games like Bethesda’s ‘Fallout’ series, the Nucleon was never actually put into production owing in large part to the safety and weight issues associated with placing a nuclear reactor in a moving vehicle.

But more than 60 years later, the role of nuclear power in commercially-available vehicles is once again coming to the fore, as the radioactive fuel begins to play a larger role in decarbonising global power grids.

Although electric vehicles emit less carbon than their internal combustion engine-powered counterparts already, research shows reducing the amount of carbon emitted generating the power that charges these vehicles will have an even greater impact.

Murray Hill, CEO of uranium explorer Marenica Energy, told guests at Reach Markets’ fortnightly ‘The Insider’ webcast series, that these developments make now a “fantastic time” to be involved in the uranium industry.

“The electric vehicle revolution is gathering enormous pace, and we’re going to need a lot more power than we currently generate to feed these batteries,” Mr Hill said. 

“Some people don’t realise that batteries store energy and they discharge energy, but they don’t produce energy. We need to put energy into them”.

“As a consequence, there’s a lot of talk about uranium and nuclear power.”

Uranium price tipped to grow

Uranium production in 2020 is expected to have dipped between 9% and 12% on 2019 levels due to COVID-related disruptions.

At the same time, the current supply of uranium is falling short of still-growing market demand, and these factors are expected to push the price of the yellow metal up in 2021.

“We think there are definitely better uranium markets ahead,” Energy Fuels’ vice president of marketing and corporate development, Curtis Moore, told Investing News Network.

“The realizable sales price for uranium is below most miners’ cost of production, which is unsustainable. In many ways, history is repeating, and we might be in the beginning of the next run in uranium prices. We don’t know when the market will recover, but it will” he further added. 

Marenica’s CEO Murray Hill recently joined us for our fortnightly webcast ‘The Insider: Meet the CEOs’. You can watch a full recording below, or you can click here to book into our next session where we will be joined by Pureprofile (ASX:PPL), PointsBet (ASX: PBH) and Auctus Investments Group (ASX: AVC).

‘The Insider’ is a great way to hear directly from the CEOs of fast growing Australian businesses. You will get valuable insights to their industries and companies future prospects.

The Insider: Meet the CEOs – Event Details:

Date: Wednesday, 3rd March Time: 12pm AEDT Format: Online, 3 x 15 minute presentations

This is a free event. Click here to book your spot.

Sources:

• The Ford Nucleon, nuclear-powered car of the future
• The 30 greatest concept cars ever
• Ford Nucleon Scale Model, 1958
• EVs smash petrol cars on emissions, even with a coal-powered grid
• Uranium Outlook 2021: Positive Fundamentals Point to Growth
• energyfuels.com – Executive Bios
• Marenica Energy (ASX: MEY) Webcast Replay

Reach does not assume responsibility for the accuracy or completeness of any information provided, and the views expressed are not reflective of Reach Markets position. Any advice contained within this presentation is general advice and does not consider your personal circumstance, you should consider whether it’s appropriate for you. 

The information we are giving you is for educational purposes only. “Investing is about understanding your risk” and every time you invest in the share market there is a risk of loss.

Past performance is not a reliable indicator of future performance.

Reach Markets have been engaged by MEY to help manage their investor communications.