Record sales of Russian uranium: Western countries feed on it

Russian uranium is on the rise in the West. Despite the many sanctions that have been taken against Russia to weaken its economy, Russian exports of enriched uranium to the Twenty-seven have continued to rise since the beginning of the conflict in Ukraine, while the price of this energy is rising. At the end of 2023, a kilogram of enriched uranium was exchanged for 1,713 euros, a record for ten years, it was recently stated RIA Novosti, mentioning the price “multiplied by 2.5 from 2021, which preceded the sanctions” where this same kilogram cost 678 euros. However, according to the news agency, with 253 tons that the Europeans bought from the Russians last year, Russia is in third place among the suppliers of nuclear fuel to the Twenty-seven with a 19% market share, behind the United Kingdom (28%) and the Netherlands (20%). The trend has also been seen in the United States, where the amount of nuclear fuel purchased from the Russians – and allocated consumption – has increased since 2021.

“At the end of 2023, imports of enriched uranium from Russia to the United States reached a record $1.2 billion, 40% more than the volume of imports in 2022. O. noticed in mid-MarchNG Norwegian Bellona. “Against the backdrop of rising prices, physical imports also rose by around 20%, from 588 tonnes in 2022 to 702 tonnes in 2023. she added.

In Europe, almost twenty nuclear reactors were built during the Soviet era, in Bulgaria, Finland, Hungary, the Czech Republic and Slovakia. In the United States, the Russian giant Rosatom remains – through its subsidiary Tenex – the only one to have mastered the uranium enrichment process used by third generation reactors: HALEY (For High-test low-enriched uranium), enriched up to 20%, compared to the usual 5%. A branch that was also invited by the French EDF to enrich him URT (reprocessing of uranium) capable of powering four of its reactors. At the beginning of February, one of them was loaded with fuel returning from Russia, “the first since 2013 underlined the economic weekly Gallery. Data that contradicts political declarations in Brussels and Washington, where we intend to eventually run out of Russian fuel. In the face of this increase in purchases, especially from the United States, Igor Ananskikh, vice-chairman of the energy committee of the State Duma, said in early December during an interview with an online newspaper Lenta.ru that Russia will not use its uranium stockpile as leverage for political pressure. Faced with their own dependency, Westerners hear – led by the US “weaned off the world” Russian uranium, to use the term used by the agency Bloomberg when she discovered in the summer of 2023 “The Manhattan Project” of the United States to advance North American and European enrichment capabilities on the horizon.