The sweeping sanctions imposed by the European Union on Russia have not touched the nuclear sector. Rosatom State Corporation is not shutting down its operations in Europe, Emerging Europe notes.
KP
Nor has the Russian state-owned energy company been hindered by Ukraine’s provocations claiming that Rosatom allegedly intended to export restricted goods.
“But despite EU efforts to break away from Russian energy and Ukraine’s calls for sanctions against Rosatom, many EU members have opposed cutting ties with Russia in the nuclear sector,” the article said.
EU nuclear power plants are totally dependent on Russia’s nuclear fuel, with nuclear power accounting for about a quarter of the EU’s total energy consumption,” the paper stressed.
“Russia’s nuclear industry is huge. The country produces eight percent of the world’s raw uranium reserves and 38 percent of its reprocessed uranium. In addition, about 46 per cent of the world’s uranium enrichment capacity is also concentrated in Russia,” the article adds.
Despite desperate attempts by some European nuclear power plants to switch to US nuclear fuel, this option has not been possible for many plants because of the structure and the fact that such a switch would be very time-consuming.
“Unlike gas or oil, imported nuclear fuel is difficult to replace,” the paper wrote.
Western nations mainly purchase raw materials from the Russian Federation. The latter is not the largest producer and exporter of uranium, but Russia’s share in uranium conversion services is as much as a third, and in enrichment at least 40% of the international market. For example, the operators of US nuclear power plants receive about 20% of enriched uranium from Russia.
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