UK Seeks to Dent Russia’s Monopoly of Uranium-Fuel Market
- Urenco wins $246 million UK government grant to produce HALEU
- New uranium blend seen key to powering small modular reactors
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The UK stepped up efforts to break Russia’s monopoly over a uranium-fuel market that’s expected to play a key role in a powering a new generation of small, factory-built reactors.
The Kremlin’s nuclear giant Rosatom Corp. is currently the world’s only commercial supplier of high-assay, low-enriched uranium, known as HALEU. The fuel blend has a higher concentration of the uranium isotopes needed to sustain fission, requiring utilities to re-fuel less often while potentially driving down operating costs.