In the nuclear sector, Russia remains one of the most powerful states in the world. His state-owned company exports uranium and other reactor components to major powers.
The G7 nuclear powers want to put an end to Russia’s dominance in the global atomic fuel markets, which remains a strong sector for Putin, both geopolitically and financially.
Moscow’s leadership in this sector has remained solid and not affected by the sanctions, since the atomic development of the major world powers depends on it. Even those lined up on the opposite front to Russia in this historical period which is so complex and ready to explode into new/old tensions.
Canada, France, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States pledged on Sunday April 16 to jointly remove Russia from global nuclear supply chains. The issue is crucial, since even in the midst of Western sanctions, the Kremlin’s state-owned nuclear giant, Rosatom Corp., is still the world’s largest exporter of reactors and fuel.
Russia dominates the atomic market: can the G7 stop it?
There is a clear commitment of the G7 powers: to stop Russia’s nuclear power. This was agreed at a nuclear industry conference convened on the sidelines of the Group of 7 Power meeting held in the Japanese city of Sapporo.
The United States and its European allies have been weighing sanctions against Russia’s nuclear sector for more than a year, but have struggled to agree. The concern is that closing its nuclear factories to Russian supplies would be too far-fetched economically.
In fact, Rosatom supplied about a quarter of the enriched uranium needed for 92 reactors in the United States in 2021. In Europe, utilities that generate energy for countries with about 100 million inhabitants still rely on the company.
“We allowed ourselves to become dependent on too few sources of supply,” said Dan Poneman, chief executive officer of Centrus Energy Corp., a company seeking to restart a US uranium enrichment industry. “It will take four or five years to replace that capability the world has relied on”.
“Russia has proven to be an unreliable supplier”, according to US Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm. “Nations need to rework global nuclear supply chains to work with companies and countries that share their values”, he said.
While some European nations – including Bulgaria, Finland and Slovakia – have taken steps to diversify Russian nuclear fuel, Rosatom has been building a pipeline for future supplies with new reactor projects in Africa, Asia and the Middle East.
Rosatom is not hindered by the non-proliferation rules imposed by the US Department of Energy. In India, which has been subject to Western trade restrictions since it tested a nuclear weapon in 1974, Russia is supplying nuclear fuel and is building two reactors scheduled to open in 2025.
In China last year, Rosatom supplied more than $375 million of fuel for a reactor that the US Department of Defense is concerned could bolster Beijing’s stockpile of nuclear weapons.
Finally, Russia has come under increasing pressure in the International Atomic Energy Agency for endangering nuclear safety following the seizure of Europe’s largest nuclear power plant at the start of its war against the Ukraine. The Zaporizhzhia station, with six reactors designed to generate a fifth of Ukraine’s electricity, was subsequently targeted by artillery and missiles, threatening to cause an accident. It is now maintained by engineers from Rosatom.
Original article published on Money.it Italy 2023-04-17 15:30:28. Original title: La Russia domina il mercato atomico: perché è una minaccia globale
