As we mark Ukrainian Independence Day, we recognise the critical role of the British nuclear fuel industry.
Ukraine’s survival depends on the British nuclear fuel industry, in one small part among many. Ukraine gets 60% of its wartime electricity generation from its nuclear reactors, without which it could not sustain its economy, its industrial production and its war effort. All of those reactors get their enriched uranium from Urenco, the largest Western enricher, 1/3 owned by the UK state, and with one of its four major production facilities at Capenhurst in Cheshire.
Urenco’s production is doubly important because it displaces Russian enrichment: Kremlin revenue for British jobs and British orders. It’s a good trade, and one we need to make much more of.
We know Russia earns billions of dollars from exporting nuclear fuel. Across the world, they have used underpricing and overproduction to drive out Western suppliers, embed their own supply, and get their claws into our allies. They take advantage of mistakes, like Germany’s nuclear phaseout, to build energy leverage over other countries, which they then use to devastating effect. The Ukrainians can tell us the consequence.
But tomorrow is still Ukrainian Independence Day. And we in this industry, in this country, have a unique capability and thus a special responsibility to support Ukraine in its struggle.
We host the West’s leading enricher, supplying Ukraine and expanding capacity across its sites to drive out the use of Russian enrichment across the OECD.
We are the headquarters of Rolls Royce, and we have our members Holtec and Westinghouse, all committed toward construction of new reactors for Ukraine in peacetime.
And we are also the hosts of Springfields, the one uranium conversion site in the whole world that could be brought back into production to ensure that the West buys only from the West, and not from Russia.
That is the key, because conversion is the hole. We have Cameco and others providing mined uranium, Urenco and Orano investing in enrichment, and Westinghouse delivering VVER fuel. On conversion, we come up short.
But we have Springfields.
Let us bring it back. Let us find the framework for Government to support its restoration, bring in the customers, and manage the risk of construction. Let us do everything we can to mobilise investment, bring jobs to the UK, and bring energy security to our allies.
This is about more than commercial success. This is about our strategic interest in protecting our allies and upholding our values, from wherever the challenge may come. Let’s get it done.
Lincoln Hill is the NIA’s Director of Policy and External Affairs.
