Uranium is suddenly the hottest topic in the high-stakes mining industry in the mineral-rich country that is home to the world's richest deposit.

Its price has doubled to above $20 a pound and the shares of producers and junior explorers have soared as analysts predict that the metal will become an increasingly important energy source for producing electricity around the world.

"To me it's one of the next commodities that there is going to be a boom in," said Randy Turner, a well-known Canadian diamond executive who spent 11 years in the uranium business.

"There are a lot of juniors that are getting back into it. There's tremendous staking activity going on in Saskatchewan, Alberta, the Northwest Territories and Labrador," he said.

Named after the planet Uranus, uranium's elemental make-up allows it, under certain conditions, to give off a lot of energy, which is used in nuclear reactors to drive generators that produce electricity.

Concerns of a future of declining energy resources have put nuclear power back on the map, overshadowing uranium's murkier role in bomb-making, and its dangers in the event of power-plant accidents.

Regarded as the world's worst nuclear disaster, the 1986 explosion at the Chernobyl power plant in Ukraine killed 30 people and forced 200,000 to flee a cloud of radioactive debris as it drifted over the then Soviet Union and Eastern Europe.

RUSH TO SASKATCHEWAN

Northern Saskatchewan is home to the world's richest uranium belt, the Athabasca Basin, where a third of the world's yearly uranium supply comes from. Cameco Corp., the world's biggest producer, has its largest mines here

Juniors have watched Cameco's stock double in value this year, prompting a rush to buy up every inch of land in the area. They have also gone further afield, purchasing potential uranium-bearing properties in Australia, Peru, the United States and Asia.

On Friday, Cameco's stock climbed 6 percent to C$107.10, helping lift the Toronto Stock Exchange's S&P/TSX composite index , which ended 10.20 points higher at 8,896.37.

For 20 years, the world has used more uranium than has been mined, filling the gap from utility and government stockpiles that include material from dismantled nuclear weapons.

But with nearly half of annual supply coming from above-ground stocks, inventories of the dense, silvery metal are running down.

At the same time, the price of oil has soared and the burning of fossil fuels like oil or coal has fallen out of favor because they give off carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas.

"Recently, security concerns over the global oil supply and fears of global warming have shifted public opinion, with nuclear energy becoming an acceptable option again," said Jim Mustard, an analyst at Haywood Securities.

"Significant uncovered demand exists in the market, and the uranium price will have to rise in order to encourage uranium exploration and bring higher-cost producers back on line," Mustard said in a research report.

According to the World Nuclear Association, about 16 percent of global electricity is generated by 430 nuclear plants. Three-quarters of France's electricity supply is nuclear, 35 percent in Japan and 20 percent in the United States.

The world industry body says that a further 30 reactors are being built and another 70 are on the drawing board, news that is encouraging explorers to find new uranium deposits.

This week, CanAlaska Ventures Ltd. bought land in the Athabasca Basin to position itself to take part in what chairman Harry Barr described as "the largest expansion in uranium exploration since the 1970s." CanAlaska's stock jumped 9 percent on Friday to 31.5 Canadian cents.

Clan Resources Ltd. said this week it has staked uranium properties in Nevada and Arizona. Its stock has quadrupled this year.