The countries of Eastern Europe are primarily dependent on enriched uranium in the Russian Federation, and although dependence is not as high as before, it still exists, Stanislav Mitrakhovich, a leading expert at the National Energy Security Fund and the Financial University under the Government of the Russian Federation, explained to Izvestia on April 12.
“The countries of Eastern Europe are primarily dependent on Russian enriched uranium, where plants of the Soviet industrial design of the nuclear industry have been built, for example, in Hungary and the Czech Republic. There were experiments on switching, for example, in the Czech Republic to Western-style fuel, but there were certain technological difficulties with this, ”the expert specified.
He added that the Russian Federation supplies European countries with both enriched uranium and ready-made fuel for nuclear power plants.
“About Kazakhstan. Kazakhstan produces uranium itself, enrichment is carried out in Russia, and fuel assemblies are also produced in Russia. Therefore, the problem for the West cannot be solved with Kazakhstan alone,” Mitrakhovich noted.
According to him, in order to resolve this issue, states need to revive production.
“It is necessary to revive production in the West itself, which had stagnated for several decades before, because there should be a passion for green energy. If there is a desire to make an atom, then again it will be necessary to revive part of the industry related to nuclear energy, ”Mitrakhovich suggested.
The day before, Bloomberg wrote, citing Yerzhan Mukanov, CEO of the Kazakh company Kazatomprom, that some Eastern European nuclear power plants are looking for new suppliers of enriched uranium in order to reduce their dependence on supplies from the Russian Federation. Mukanov specified that the company is preparing reserves for production in order to be able to respond to market demands.
The publication also contains forecasts of the World Nuclear Association, according to which the demand for uranium in the world will increase by a third by 2030.
