**Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is forcing the US and Europe to search for alternative sources of enriched uranium to power their reactors**
In a remote, dusty corner of New Mexico, so near to the Texas border that if you wander too close your smartphone changes time zones, sits a pristine factory that is the best chance for the US to wean itself off an addiction that few knew it had: uranium enriched in Russia.
Outside the $5 billion Urenco plant in Eunice, cacti and lizards bask in the fierce sunlight, watched by heavily armed guards. Inside, the facility is spotless, with bright, polished machinery that looks brand new even though some of the equipment has been in service for years. Hundreds of centrifuges, each at least 20 feet tall, spin at supersonic speeds and generate an ear-piercing whine that reverberates across a cavernous hall, where they separate the uranium isotopes needed to make fuel for nuclear power plants. For security reasons, parts of the piping that connect the Eunice machines are shielded from curious visitors.
The plant supplies about one-third of US demand for enriched uranium and is in the process of boosting output by 15%. It’s the centerpiece of a transatlantic project to rejuvenate production of the fuel to feed the West’s fleet of nuclear reactors, a linchpin of energy security and efforts to reduce carbon emissions. Urenco Ltd. is the only commercial supplier of enriched uranium in North America. Currently, about half of the global supply comes from Russia, an uncomfortable reality for leaders in the US and Europe in the wake of Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.
The high levels of security are easily understood. The recipe to make nuclear fuel is one of mankind’s most-guarded secrets: its dual-use technology means the same methods for feeding reactors also apply to building bombs. For years, the US has refused to share or transfer fuel-manufacturing technologies — first developed for the Manhattan Project in the 1940s that made the bombs dropped on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. But now, Washington is urging more countries to develop that capacity.
The trigger for that change of mind was the attack on Ukraine. Some 18 months on, Rosatom Corp. — the Kremlin-controlled nuclear group — is still the world’s biggest uranium enricher. It still supplies almost a quarter of America’s 92 nuclear reactors and dozens of other plants across Europe and Asia.
Western governments have avoided sanctioning Rosatom because doing so risks damaging their own nuclear industries and economies more than Vladimir Putin’s.
“We’re bearing the costs of an overreliance on Russia for nuclear fuel,” said Pranay Vaddi, a White House nuclear adviser at the National Security Council. “And it’s not just us, it’s the entire world.”
**‘Frankenstein’s Monster’**
Reconstituting a North American fuel cycle and boosting the capacity of European providers is a massive undertaking. The recent coup in Niger, which has about 5% of the world’s uranium and has long been a significant supplier for former colonial ruler France, underscores the geopolitical stakes inherent in the business. South Africa’s national utility, Eskom Holdings SOC Ltd., allowed a nuclear trade agreement with the US to expire in December and then signed a deal with Russia to jointly produce nuclear fuel, part of an initiative to rebuild the African country’s own fuel cycle.
If Western nations fail in their bid to rebuild the sector, they will face a series of unpalatable options. They could continue to rely on Rosatom, presuming Moscow is still willing to do business. But given that most utilities only keep about 18 months of fuel inventory, if Russia were to stop selling, existing reactors may have to start powering down in the absence of alternative supplies.
The TLDR and detail being “Enriched“, not raw Uranium.
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**Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is forcing the US and Europe to search for alternative sources of enriched uranium to power their reactors**
In a remote, dusty corner of New Mexico, so near to the Texas border that if you wander too close your smartphone changes time zones, sits a pristine factory that is the best chance for the US to wean itself off an addiction that few knew it had: uranium enriched in Russia.
Outside the $5 billion Urenco plant in Eunice, cacti and lizards bask in the fierce sunlight, watched by heavily armed guards. Inside, the facility is spotless, with bright, polished machinery that looks brand new even though some of the equipment has been in service for years. Hundreds of centrifuges, each at least 20 feet tall, spin at supersonic speeds and generate an ear-piercing whine that reverberates across a cavernous hall, where they separate the uranium isotopes needed to make fuel for nuclear power plants. For security reasons, parts of the piping that connect the Eunice machines are shielded from curious visitors.
The plant supplies about one-third of US demand for enriched uranium and is in the process of boosting output by 15%. It’s the centerpiece of a transatlantic project to rejuvenate production of the fuel to feed the West’s fleet of nuclear reactors, a linchpin of energy security and efforts to reduce carbon emissions. Urenco Ltd. is the only commercial supplier of enriched uranium in North America. Currently, about half of the global supply comes from Russia, an uncomfortable reality for leaders in the US and Europe in the wake of Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.
The high levels of security are easily understood. The recipe to make nuclear fuel is one of mankind’s most-guarded secrets: its dual-use technology means the same methods for feeding reactors also apply to building bombs. For years, the US has refused to share or transfer fuel-manufacturing technologies — first developed for the Manhattan Project in the 1940s that made the bombs dropped on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. But now, Washington is urging more countries to develop that capacity.
The trigger for that change of mind was the attack on Ukraine. Some 18 months on, Rosatom Corp. — the Kremlin-controlled nuclear group — is still the world’s biggest uranium enricher. It still supplies almost a quarter of America’s 92 nuclear reactors and dozens of other plants across Europe and Asia.
Western governments have avoided sanctioning Rosatom because doing so risks damaging their own nuclear industries and economies more than Vladimir Putin’s.
“We’re bearing the costs of an overreliance on Russia for nuclear fuel,” said Pranay Vaddi, a White House nuclear adviser at the National Security Council. “And it’s not just us, it’s the entire world.”
**‘Frankenstein’s Monster’**
Reconstituting a North American fuel cycle and boosting the capacity of European providers is a massive undertaking. The recent coup in Niger, which has about 5% of the world’s uranium and has long been a significant supplier for former colonial ruler France, underscores the geopolitical stakes inherent in the business. South Africa’s national utility, Eskom Holdings SOC Ltd., allowed a nuclear trade agreement with the US to expire in December and then signed a deal with Russia to jointly produce nuclear fuel, part of an initiative to rebuild the African country’s own fuel cycle.
If Western nations fail in their bid to rebuild the sector, they will face a series of unpalatable options. They could continue to rely on Rosatom, presuming Moscow is still willing to do business. But given that most utilities only keep about 18 months of fuel inventory, if Russia were to stop selling, existing reactors may have to start powering down in the absence of alternative supplies.
The TLDR and detail being “Enriched“, not raw Uranium.