Working to remove Russia from global uranium market – Ukraine's Energy Minister
Ukraine is working to increase uranium production, which will be a step towards ousting Russia from global markets in this sector.
Source: Energy Minister Herman Halushchenko
Quote: "Unfortunately, Russia still controls a significant part of the global uranium market. This slows down the issue of imposing sanctions, as many companies have contracts with the Russians for uranium supplies. However, we are working hard to push them out of this market and to increase uranium production in Ukraine."
Details: Halushchenko said that Ukraine has already concluded a number of agreements with international companies in this area, in particular with Canada's CAMECO.
As part of this cooperation, the first batch of Ukrainian uranium mined at the Eastern Mining and Processing Plant (VostGOK) was recently loaded and shipped to Canada, where it will be used to produce nuclear fuel for the needs of Ukrainian nuclear power plants.
Ukraine also received a £192 million loan guarantee from the UK government in cooperation with Urenco. This is a loan to provide Energoatom, Ukraine’s national nuclear energy company, with uranium enrichment services.
"Uranium production is a component of national security for us," Halushchenko emphasised.
Halushchenko also pointed out that a few days ago, the first batch of nuclear fuel developed by the American company Westinghouse Electric Sweden AB and specialists of Ukraine’s Energoatom was loaded into the VVER-440 reactor of the Rivne Nuclear Power Plant. This put an end to Russia's monopoly on the nuclear fuel market.
Background:
Ukraine has started exporting all of its extracted uranium to Canada. At CAMECO's facilities, Ukrainian uranium will be used to produce nuclear fuel for the needs of Ukrainian nuclear power plants (NPPs).
CAMECO will supply 100% of Energoatom's uranium hexafluoride needs for the Rivne, Khmelnytskyi and Pivdennoukrainsk (South Ukrainian) NPPs from 2024 to 2035.
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