IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v14y2022i22p15295-d976127.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Study on the Characteristics and Evolution Trends of Global Uranium Resource Trade from the Perspective of a Complex Network

Author

Listed:
  • Zirui Wang

    (School of Economics, Jilin University, Changchun 130012, China
    China National Nuclear Capital Holdings Co., Ltd., Beijing 100037, China)

  • Wanli Xing

    (Development Research Center of China Geological Survey, Beijing 100037, China)

Abstract

With consensus on the climate issue, most countries have successfully put forward their carbon emission targets. Due to low carbon and mature technology, nuclear energy has become the focus of scholars. The development of nuclear energy is inseparable from the support of uranium resources. Due to the geographically uneven distribution of uranium resources, the flow of resources across the globe satisfies both supply and demand. Therefore, research on the characteristics of the global uranium resource trade and its evolution trends can provide a reference for decision-makers to formulate relevant uranium resource trade policies to ensure the security of the national uranium resource trade. Based on the perspective of the industry chain, this paper constructed an upstream natural uranium trade complex network (upstream) and an enriched uranium trade complex network (downstream) to analyze the characteristics and evolution trends of GURTNs at the global, community, and national levels. The results show that: (1) The trade of enriched uranium is mainly concentrated between developed countries such as European and North American countries. Natural uranium is a raw material, and its trade characteristics are greatly affected by uranium price fluctuations. (2) The evolution of the global natural uranium trade community is dominated by the significant uranium-resource-demanding countries. The global natural uranium trade pattern will be difficult to change in the short term. (3) With the expiration of the USA–Russia enriched uranium trade agreement, this will become an uncertain factor affecting the evolution of the global enriched uranium trade pattern. (4) Since the United States and France are deeply involved in the global uranium resources trade, both have a higher ability of anti-control and control in GURTNs, which is inseparable from the uranium resource trade strategies of the two countries. The paper concludes by suggesting corresponding policy recommendations that can inform policymakers in formulating relevant trade policies.

Suggested Citation

  • Zirui Wang & Wanli Xing, 2022. "Study on the Characteristics and Evolution Trends of Global Uranium Resource Trade from the Perspective of a Complex Network," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(22), pages 1-23, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:14:y:2022:i:22:p:15295-:d:976127
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/22/15295/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/22/15295/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Wang, Chunhui & Zhong, Weiqiong & Wang, Anjian & Sun, Xiaoqi & Li, Tianjiao & Wang, Xingxing, 2021. "Mapping the evolution of international antimony ores trade pattern based on complex network," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 74(C).
    2. Guang, Yang & Wenjie, Huang, 2010. "The status quo of China's nuclear power and the uranium gap solution," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 38(2), pages 966-975, February.
    3. Lindner, Harry & Schneider, Erich, 2015. "Review of cost estimates for uranium recovery from seawater," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 49(C), pages 9-22.
    4. Liu, Meng & Li, Huajiao & Zhou, Jinsheng & Feng, Sida & Wang, Yanli & Wang, Xingxing, 2022. "Analysis of material flow among multiple phases of cobalt industrial chain based on a complex network," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 77(C).
    5. Xu, Helian & Feng, Lianyue & Wu, Gang & Zhang, Qi, 2021. "Evolution of structural properties and its determinants of global waste paper trade network based on temporal exponential random graph models," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 149(C).
    6. Zhong, Weiqiong & An, Haizhong & Fang, Wei & Gao, Xiangyun & Dong, Di, 2016. "Features and evolution of international fossil fuel trade network based on value of emergy," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 165(C), pages 868-877.
    7. Mason, Charles F., 2014. "Uranium and nuclear power: The role of exploration information in framing public policy," Resource and Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 36(1), pages 49-63.
    8. Duncan J. Watts & Steven H. Strogatz, 1998. "Collective dynamics of ‘small-world’ networks," Nature, Nature, vol. 393(6684), pages 440-442, June.
    9. Wu, Gang & Pu, Yue & Shu, Tianran, 2021. "Features and evolution of global energy trade network based on domestic value-added decomposition of export," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 228(C).
    10. Chen, Zhihua & An, Haizhong & An, Feng & Guan, Qing & Hao, Xiaoqing, 2018. "Structural risk evaluation of global gas trade by a network-based dynamics simulation model," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 159(C), pages 457-471.
    11. Sovacool, Benjamin K., 2016. "Differing cultures of energy security: An international comparison of public perceptions," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 55(C), pages 811-822.
    12. Kahouli, Sondès, 2011. "Effects of technological learning and uranium price on nuclear cost: Preliminary insights from a multiple factors learning curve and uranium market modeling," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 33(5), pages 840-852, September.
    13. Kahouli, Sondès, 2011. "Re-examining uranium supply and demand: New insights," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 39(1), pages 358-376, January.
    14. Ferguson, Andrew & Lam, Peter, 2016. "Government policy uncertainty and stock prices: The case of Australia's uranium industry," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 60(C), pages 97-111.
    15. Adamantiades, A. & Kessides, I., 2009. "Nuclear power for sustainable development: Current status and future prospects," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 37(12), pages 5149-5166, December.
    16. Ming, Zeng & Yingxin, Liu & Shaojie, Ouyang & Hui, Shi & Chunxue, Li, 2016. "Nuclear energy in the Post-Fukushima Era: Research on the developments of the Chinese and worldwide nuclear power industries," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 58(C), pages 147-156.
    17. Fang, Jianchun & Lau, Chi Keung Marco & Lu, Zhou & Wu, Wanshan, 2018. "Estimating Peak uranium production in China – Based on a Stella model," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 120(C), pages 250-258.
    18. Considine, Timothy J., 2019. "The market impacts of US uranium import quotas," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 63(C), pages 1-1.
    19. Dainius Genys & RiÄ ardas KrikÅ¡tolaitis, 2020. "Clusterization of public perception of nuclear energy in relation to changing political priorities," Insights into Regional Development, VsI Entrepreneurship and Sustainability Center, vol. 2(4), pages 750-764, December.
    20. Garlaschelli, Diego & Loffredo, Maria I., 2005. "Structure and evolution of the world trade network," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 355(1), pages 138-144.
    21. Kornkarun Cheewatrakoolpong & Somprawin Manprasert, 2014. "Trade Linkages and Crisis Spillovers," Asian Economic Papers, MIT Press, vol. 13(1), pages 84-103, Winter.
    22. Ge, Jianping & Wang, Xibo & Guan, Qing & Li, Weiheng & Zhu, He & Yao, Min, 2016. "World rare earths trade network: Patterns, relations and role characteristics," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 119-130.
    23. Rooney, Matthew & Nuttall, William J. & Kazantzis, Nikolaos, 2015. "A dynamic model of the global uranium market and the nuclear fuel cycle," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 43(C), pages 50-60.
    24. Peng, Peng & Yang, Yu & Cheng, Shifen & Lu, Feng & Yuan, Zimu, 2019. "Hub-and-spoke structure: Characterizing the global crude oil transport network with mass vessel trajectories," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 168(C), pages 966-974.
    25. Egging, Ruud & Holz, Franziska, 2016. "Risks in global natural gas markets: Investment, hedging and trade," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 94(C), pages 468-479.
    26. Wang, Xingxing & Wang, Anjian & Zhong, Weiqiong & Zhu, Depeng & Wang, Chunhui, 2022. "Analysis of international nickel flow based on the industrial chain," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 77(C).
    27. Herring, Horace, 2006. "Energy efficiency—a critical view," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 31(1), pages 10-20.
    28. Dainius Genys & Ričardas Krikštolaitis, 2020. "Clusterization of public perception of nuclear energy in relation to changing political priorities," Post-Print hal-03271859, HAL.
    29. Sophie Gabriel & Anne Baschwitz & Gilles Mathonnière & Tommy Eleouet & Florian Fizaine Fizaine, 2013. "A critical assessment of global uranium resources, including uranium in phosphate rocks, and the possible impact of uranium shortages on nuclear power fleets," Post-Print halshs-01227916, HAL.
    30. D. Garlaschelli & M. I. Loffredo, 2005. "Structure and Evolution of the World Trade Network," Papers physics/0502066, arXiv.org, revised May 2005.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Islam, Md. Monirul & Shahbaz, Muhammad & Samargandi, Nahla, 2024. "The nexus between Russian uranium exports and US nuclear-energy consumption: Do the spillover effects of geopolitical risks matter?," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 293(C).
    2. Zhang, Ling & Wen, Shaobo, 2024. "The influence of global gallium trade network dynamics on price: A complex network and panel regression approach," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 93(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Shang, Delei & Geissler, Bernhard & Mew, Michael & Satalkina, Liliya & Zenk, Lukas & Tulsidas, Harikrishnan & Barker, Lee & El-Yahyaoui, Adil & Hussein, Ahmed & Taha, Mohamed & Zheng, Yanhua & Wang, M, 2021. "Unconventional uranium in China's phosphate rock: Review and outlook," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 140(C).
    2. Zuo, Zhili & McLellan, Benjamin Craig & Li, Yonglin & Guo, Haixiang & Cheng, Jinhua, 2022. "Evolution and insights into the network and pattern of the rare earths trade from an industry chain perspective," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).
    3. Guo, Yaoqi & Zhao, Boya & Zhang, Hongwei, 2023. "The impact of the Belt and Road Initiative on the natural gas trade: A network structure dependence perspective," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 263(PD).
    4. Kang, Xinyu & Wang, Minxi & Chen, Lu & Li, Xin, 2023. "Supply risk propagation of global copper industry chain based on multi-layer complex network," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 85(PA).
    5. Shao, Liuguo & Hu, Jianying & Zhang, Hua, 2021. "Evolution of global lithium competition network pattern and its influence factors," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 74(C).
    6. Kang, Xinyu & Wang, Minxi & Wang, Taixin & Luo, Fanjie & Lin, Jing & Li, Xin, 2022. "Trade trends and competition intensity of international copper flow based on complex network: From the perspective of industry chain," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).
    7. Gutiérrez-Moya, Ester & Lozano, Sebastián & Adenso-Díaz, Belarmino, 2023. "A pre-pandemic analysis of the global fertiliser trade network," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 85(PB).
    8. Arnaut, Javier L., 2022. "The importance of uranium prices and structural shocks: Some implications for Greenland," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 161(C).
    9. Zhao, Guimei & Li, Wenxiu & Geng, Yong & Bleischwitz, Raimund, 2023. "Uncovering the features of global antimony resource trade network," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 85(PA).
    10. Liu, Litao & Cao, Zhi & Liu, Xiaojie & Shi, Lei & Cheng, Shengkui & Liu, Gang, 2020. "Oil security revisited: An assessment based on complex network analysis," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 194(C).
    11. Li, Xiaotong & Zhang, Hua & Zhou, Xuanru & Zhong, Weiqiong, 2022. "Research on the evolution of the global import and export competition network of chromium resources from the perspective of the whole industrial chain," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).
    12. Marian Sofranko & Samer Khouri & Olga Vegsoova & Peter Kacmary & Tawfik Mudarri & Martin Koncek & Maxim Tyulenev & Zuzana Simkova, 2020. "Possibilities of Uranium Deposit Kuriskova Mining and Its Influence on the Energy Potential of Slovakia from Own Resources," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(16), pages 1-21, August.
    13. Wang, Xingxing & Wang, Anjian & Zhong, Weiqiong & Zhu, Depeng & Wang, Chunhui, 2022. "Analysis of international nickel flow based on the industrial chain," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 77(C).
    14. Wang, Chunhui & Zhong, Weiqiong & Wang, Anjian & Sun, Xiaoqi & Li, Tianjiao & Wang, Xingxing, 2021. "Mapping the evolution of international antimony ores trade pattern based on complex network," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 74(C).
    15. Hao, Xiaoqing & An, Haizhong & Jiang, Meihui & Sun, Xiaoqi, 2024. "Supply shock propagation in the multi-layer network of global steel product chain: Additive effect of trade and production," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 89(C).
    16. Yu, Guihai & Xiong, Chao & Xiao, Jianxiong & He, Deyan & Peng, Gang, 2022. "Evolutionary analysis of the global rare earth trade networks," Applied Mathematics and Computation, Elsevier, vol. 430(C).
    17. Wang, Xingxing & Li, Huajiao & Zhu, Depeng & Zhong, Weiqiong & Xing, Wanli & Wang, Anjian, 2021. "Research on global natural graphite trade risk countermeasures based on the maximum entropy principle," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 74(C).
    18. Ziming Bai & Chenyang Liu & Hongye Wang & Cuixia Li, 2023. "Evolution Characteristics and Influencing Factors of Global Dairy Trade," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(2), pages 1-20, January.
    19. Yaya Li & Yongtao Peng & Jianqiang Luo & Yihan Cheng & Eleonora Veglianti, 2019. "Spatial-temporal variation characteristics and evolution of the global industrial robot trade: A complex network analysis," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 14(9), pages 1-14, September.
    20. MIZUNO Takayuki & SOUMA Wataru & WATANABE Tsutomu, 2015. "Buyer-Supplier Networks and Aggregate Volatility," Discussion papers 15056, Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry (RIETI).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:14:y:2022:i:22:p:15295-:d:976127. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.