The Globe and Mail reports in its Tuesday edition that talk of nuclear power has increased substantially of late. The Globe's guest columnist Brian Donovan writes that the primary driver of uranium demand is the capacity of nuclear reactors to generate electricity. The lion's share of uranium is traded using long-term contracts between uranium producers and utility companies. Most of the rest is sold on the spot market. One can also trade uranium futures on the New York Mercantile Exchange. There are 440 reactors worldwide that require 74,000 tonnes of uranium oxide concentrate each year. Mines in 2021 supplied 77 per cent of the utilities' annual requirements with the difference being made up from stockpiles around the world. Canada produced, on average, about 10,000 tonnes of uranium each year over the past decade, of which 75 per cent was exported and the rest consumed domestically. Recently, Canada's production levels have fallen to the 5,000-tonne level owing to mine downtime. To make up the projected shortfall, some capacity will come back on-line from idled mines such as Cameco's McArthur River/Key Lake restart in Northern Saskatchewan that is projected to ramp up to 10,000 tonnes a year in 2024.