European Nuclear-Fuel Maker Boosts Expansion on Russian Phaseout

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(Bloomberg) — The West’s top nuclear fuelmaker is doubling the size of a planned expansion in the Netherlands, as pressure increases on US and European utilities to phase out Russia-enriched uranium.

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State-controlled Urenco Ltd. will bring an additional 1.5 million separative-work units, or SWUs, online by 2030, the British-Dutch-German consortium said Monday. That’s the equivalent to the annual fuel requirements of more than 10 nuclear reactors. 

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Urenco is second only to Russia’s Rosatom Corp. in the business of separating the uranium isotopes that are needed to sustain nuclear fission. With both Europe and the US planning to phase out Russian fuel in the coming years, Western companies are seeking to diversify their supply chains. 

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“A positive development in the EU has been the intention to phase out Russian nuclear material,” the London-based company said in an emailed statement. The new enrichment hall being built in Almelo will strengthen a robust “Western nuclear fuel supply chain,” Urenco said.

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Almost a quarter of the enriched uranium powering European reactors was sourced from Russia last year. US nuclear utilities face possible uranium shortages over the next decade, the Energy Information Administration reported last month, underscoring challenges in the world’s biggest atomic-power market.

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While Silicon Valley investors pour billions of dollars into designing reactors, fuel supplies have emerged as a potential vulnerability for the latest nuclear renaissance. Because the same process can also produce material for weapons, uranium enrichment is a highly regulated business with only a handful of global suppliers. 

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Urenco, which operates enrichment facilities on both sides of the Atlantic, declined to disclose how much it is spending on its expansion in the Netherlands. The company’s committed more than $520 million to building out operations at its four enrichment sites, according to its most-recent filing. 

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