The European Union and the United States intend to forge cooperation to curb the globe’s reliance on Russia in the nuclear energy supply chain, a joint statement said.
This was agreed at the recent US-EU Energy Council meeting in Washington, where the allies affirmed support for climate action, energy security in Ukraine and efforts to curb world demand for Russian energy.
“[T]he Council noted the role that nuclear power can play in decarbonizing energy systems in countries that have decided or will decide to rely on nuclear energy”, said the statement, shared by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE).
“The United States and the EU intend to intensify cooperation to reduce dependency on Russia for nuclear materials and fuel cycle services, and support ongoing efforts by affected EU Member States to diversify nuclear supplies, as appropriate. The Council expressed support for multilateral efforts to identify alternative nuclear energy-related suppliers across the global nuclear supply chain for relevant countries”.
On February 9, the European Commission opened applications for membership in a new alliance to accelerate the development of small modular reactors (SMRs), following moves by the U.S. and the United Kingdom to commercially scale up the advanced nuclear generation technology.
The alliance aims to come up with a working model by the 2030s. “The Alliance targets a wide range of SMR stakeholders including vendors, utilities, specialized nuclear companies, financial institutions, research organizations, training centers and civil society organizations”, the Commission said in a news release at the time. “The key objective of the Alliance is to reinforce the nuclear supply chain in Europe by leveraging its manufacturing and innovation capacity and strengthening EU cooperation”.
“In combination with other sources of clean energy, SMRs will play a role in achieving the clean energy transition and boosting energy security in Europe in the coming years by helping to decarbonize industry, produce low-carbon hydrogen and provide heat to industry and urban districts”, it explained.
“Compared to the larger, conventional nuclear power plants, SMRs have several advantages – such as shorter construction time schedules, enhanced safety features and a sounder appeal to private investors thanks to their lower initial costs and shorter development timelines”.
Earlier the UK government announced an investment of GBP 300 million ($350.7 million) for the domestic production of so-called high-assay low-enriched uranium (HALEU), challenging Russia’s status as the only commercial manufacturer of the SMR fuel.
“The UK will become the first country in Europe to launch a high-tech HALEU nuclear fuel program, strengthening supply for new nuclear projects and driving Putin further out of global energy markets”, the UK Department of Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) said in a press release January 7.
The DESNZ said GBP 10 million ($11.7 million) has also been allotted to develop sites and promote skills development for the production of other “advanced nuclear fuels”.
The International Atomic Energy Agency says HALEU is only produced in the U.S. and Russia but only the latter makes the fuel at a commercial scale. SMRs need HALEU, which contains five to 20 percent of uranium-235, beyond the five percent level that powers most of today’s nuclear power plants, according to the United Nations nuclear watchdog.
The UK move was followed by an announcement by the U.S. DOE offering contracts worth up to $500 million in total for HALEU production. “Currently, HALEU is not commercially available from U.S.-based suppliers, and boosting domestic supply could spur the development and deployment of advanced reactors in the United States”, the DOE noted in a media statement January 9 announcing the funding offer.
However, Europe’s biggest economy, Germany, has already abandoned nuclear energy. Germany on April 15, 2023, shut down its three remaining nuclear power plants. And a December 2023 briefing paper by the German Federal Office for the Safety of Nuclear Waste Management warned SMRs were costlier to build than big nuclear power plants and could still pose radioactive dangers.
Take the Survey at https://survey.energynewsbeat.com/
ENB Top News
ENB
Energy Dashboard
ENB Podcast
ENB Substack
