Uranium: Stocks

Old warheads that once fuelled power stations

What this tab covers How much is left and how much is held. For minerals and energy: reserves, current output, years of supply and recycling for the top five countries. For farm commodities: production, ending stocks and stocks-to-use for the top five producers (USDA, October 2026). It also covers inventories and stockpiles.

Top five countries: reserves, output and years of supply

Country	Reserves kt U identified recoverable resources (approximate, Red Book 2024 country shares x about 7.9 Mt world total)	Current output kt U mine output (2024)	Years of supply	Recycling
Kazakhstan	1,100	23.27	47	n/a
Canada	790	14.31	55	n/a
Namibia	–	7.33	–	n/a
Australia	2,200	4.6	478	n/a
Uzbekistan	–	4	–	n/a

OECD-NEA/IAEA Uranium 2024 (Red Book), as reported by the American Nuclear Society; World Nuclear Association 2024 production. Years of supply = reserves ÷ current output; reserves grow as prices and technology change, so this is not a countdown.

Recycling

Uranium is not recycled from products; instead, spent fuel can be reprocessed to recover uranium and plutonium (France, Russia, India) and enrichment tails can be re-enriched. Secondary supplies filled 10% of demand in 2024 (WNA). Country resource figures for Namibia and Uzbekistan were not found; the others are derived from Red Book shares and are approximate.

Uranium is unusual in having large stocks above ground. Utilities keep long fuel inventories, because fuel is a small part of generating cost and a reactor standing idle is very costly. Governments hold military and civil stockpiles, and down-blended weapons uranium fuelled many reactors after the Cold War. Spent fuel still contains usable uranium and plutonium; France and Russia reprocess some, but most is stored. Radetzki & Wårell show how utility over-buying in the 1970s, then destocking, drove the market.