With oil as an investment slip-sliding away, hedge funds are getting a charge out of another power source: uranium. Various market conversions have turned the metal red hot, as the world is experiencing a “global nuclear revival,” says James Passin of New York-based Firebird Management in an a interview with Bloomberg News. “We’re in an historic uranium shortage,” he adds, as the precious metal soared 7% last week to a record $60 a pounds and may add another $10 to that by January. Bloomberg News reports that the demand from utilities is so great – Russia expects to increase its reliance on nuclear power from 16% today to 25% by 2030 -- and as a result power producers are a paying dearly. There is optimism in the long term for uranium as the only real alternative to coal and oil-based energy. That may account for U.S.-based hedge fund Solios Asset Management launching a uranium fund in September, and other hedge funds, such as Tudor Investment and Citadel Investment Group, buying stakes in such uranium suppliers such as Cameco. But Jim Rogers, who wrote the book Hot Commodities, is somewhat cool to the rush to uranium. “It’s not a surprise that prices are at all-time highs given that nobody has been opening new mines, he said in an interview last month. “However, I don’t want to be investing in things that are touching all-time highs.”
