European Nuclear Power Plants Increase Reserves Amid Fears Of Fuel Shortages
Euratom Supply Agency: Nuclear power plant operators across Europe, from East to West, are creating “strategic reserves” of nuclear fuel. Despite the energy shift and Brussels's green policy that favors the construction of wind and solar power plants, nuclear power plants in Europe still generate 21.5% of the EU's electricity
For the first time in eight years, the fully “green and sustainable” European Union is sounding the alarm and renewing emergency policies that provide for a rapid increase in strategic nuclear fuel reserves for its remaining nuclear power plants. Operators of Soviet-era plants in Central and Eastern Europe are seeking Russian uranium, fearing possible new Western sanctions that could also ban supplies of this “made in Russia” fuel.
Power plant operators in France and some other European countries are already following unspoken guidance from Brussels and minimizing imports of nuclear fuel from Russia, which fell 16% in 2023 compared to 2022. According to the Russian nuclear agency Rosatom, “currently supplies are carried out only on the basis of long-term contracts.”
According to data recently published by the European Atomic Energy Community (Euratom), in 2022, for the first time in eight years, European nuclear power plant operators purchased more uranium than is installed in reactors. The companies purchased 11,720 tons of uranium, while only 10,990 tons were used to generate electricity.
“Some companies have increased purchases as part of emergency measures aimed at ensuring supply security,” Euratom experts write in the report. As of the end of 2022, nuclear power plants in the EU had accumulated 35,710 tons of uranium in strategic reserves, sufficient to generate electricity for three years. Currently, the total electricity generation from nuclear power plants in the EU is around 100 gigawatts. In 2022, nuclear reactors in Europe produced 609.2 billion kWh, equal to 21.5% of EU electricity production.
As part of the anti-Russian policy, European nuclear power plants have reduced imports of Russian uranium in 2022 to 1980 tons (-16% compared to 2021). Thus, Russia dropped to fourth place in the list of the largest countries supplying nuclear fuel to Europe, which increased imports of uranium from Kazakhstan (1st place, 3140 tons), Niger (2580 tons), and Canada (2580 tons). At the end of 2023 and especially in 2024, the situation will change significantly after the coup in Niger and the country’s ban on uranium exports to France.