The government is also training a cadre of geoscientists and engineers. Such professionals are in short supply not just in Saudi Arabia but everywhere. No amount of money can get you all the people you need today, says John Bradford of the Colorado ....

Uranium sales are negotiated through long-term contracts rather than in an open market, given the element’s use in nuclear weapons. So it is hard to get a pure price signal, says Ian Lange, an economist at the Colorado School of Mines

"The markets are not as transparent or as fluid as oil," points out Morgan Bazilian of the Colorado School of Mines, "and there's not good price discovery."