Bill Gates and other billionaires backing a nuclear renaissance

The nuclear reactors of tomorrow will not only be safer than the ones we already have – which are themselves safer than many believe – they will be much more efficient.

Bill Gates' TerraPower, for instance, has designed a traveling wave reactor, which utilizes nuclear waste. Another design, by two MIT researchers, again uses waste, mixed into molten salt. In short, the nuclear reactors of the future will utilize not just regular uranium but will take care of the waste as well – the same waste that raises so much concern among environmentalists and the general public.

So it's the Athabasca Basin that will be ground zero in the nuclear energy rebound.

Some even call the Athabasca Basin the "Persian Gulf of uranium". It not only contains some of the highest-grade uranium in the world, it is also home to two of the top seven deposits in terms of metal content. The basin has a well developed power, transport and processing infrastructure, too, which makes it all the more attractive for miners and mining investors.

Athabasca will be one of the places to watch in the coming years as the uranium market swings from a glut into a deficit. The glut was caused by the sharp drop in demand following the Fukushima events in 2011. Now the pendulum is moving back, with a deficit in the making as uranium miners curbed exploration and production due to falling prices.

Back in 2012, Bill Gates noted that "When you have fission, you have a million times more energy than when you burn hydrocarbons. That's a nice advantage to have."

Today, it's getting increasingly clear that it's more than "nice". Nuclear power is unique among zero-carbon energy sources: its production is consistent as it doesn't depend on sunlight or wind. This, coupled with affordability and safety – whatever environmental extremists say – makes nuclear energy an indispensable element of the global renewable energy mix for the future.

It also suggests uranium is more than likely to take the center stage it deserves as fossil fuels relinquish the spotlight.

The Athabasca basin will be in the undeniable spotlight sooner than you might think in what will be a boon for major Northern American operators as well as juniors, such as Zadar Ventures.

"It's impossible to find another natural resource that is so fundamentally necessary to our future," says Zadar's Gray. "This will be the year of the uranium rebound, and nuclear energy's next-generation safeguards will rewrite the global energy map once again."