Nuclear power plant operators benefited from a slump in uranium prices after the reactor meltdowns in the Fukushima No. 1 plant. Areva SA, the second-biggest producer of the metal, says that's about to end.
Power utilities need to boost orders of uranium by 2015 or face potentially soaring prices as new atomic plants come on line in addition to any reactors reactivated in Japan, Olivier Wantz, who heads Areva's mining division, said in an interview.
"It would be wise for buyers to make decisions in 2015 at the latest," he said at the company's headquarters near Paris.