Orano SA, a multinational nuclear fuel cycle company with headquarters in Chatillon, Hauts-de-Seine, France, is jumping on the West’s bandwagon of reduced reliance on Russian resources, in this case - nuclear fuel. A whopping €1.7 billion ($1.8 billion) will be earmarked to expand an existing Georges Besse 2 uranium enrichment plant in southern France.
Investment in the project, approved by the Board of Directors of Orano at a meeting on October 19, 2023, presupposes building another four modules to add to the existing 14, with expansion amounting to over 30 percent, as per the company's statement.
"In the current geopolitical context, the purpose of this increase in enrichment capacities is to strengthen Western energy sovereignty in France. Orano's decision responds to requirements expressed by our customers to strengthen their security of supply with production expected to start up as of 2028," said Claude Imauven, chairman of the Board of Directors of Orano.
After the capacity expansion, the uranium produced at the Orano Tricastin site "will allow low-carbon energy to be supplied to the equivalent of 120 million households each year," underscored François Lurin, senior executive vice president. He emphasized the "importance of the support of the Japanese (JFEI**) and Korean (KHNP) shareholders in the Tricastin enrichment company SETH (Société d’Enrichissement du Tricastin Holding) in the realization of this project."
Western countries following in the footsteps of Washington’s hardline anti-Russia stance have leveled thousands of sanctions on Moscow. While failing to “cripple” Russia’s economy, many of these restrictions have instead turned out to be self-harming, delivering palpable blowback to those who wielded them. Furthermore, despite talking the talk against Russia, the United States, European Union, other Western nations have persisted in doing business with the country, buying tens of billions of dollars' worth of Russian resources, ranging from natural gas and uranium to fertilizers, foodstuffs, and precious metals. With major European economies like Germany, which faces the looming prospect of deindustrialization, mired in woes after dramatically scaling back imports of Russian oil and gas to try and “punish” Russia, France has been holding on to its imports of Russian industrial nuclear products for dear life.
Mining of natural uranium at the Khiagda ore field, the Republic of Buryatia, Russian Federation.
© Sputnik / Yevgeny Yepanchintsev
/ Paris, which derives around two-thirds of its electricity from nuclear power plants, sources around one-fifth of the uranium used to power them from Niger (which recently saw a military takeover), and 18 percent each from Russia and Kazakhstan, respectively. Remaining uranium supply comes from Canada (21 percent), Australia (16 percent), and Namibia (10 percent).
For all the brash talk about cutting reliance on Russia, EU countries imported Russian nuclear industry products, including nuclear fuel, as well as component parts for reactors, to a tune of €720 million ($762 million) in 2022, according to Eurostat data presented by Forum Energii in early September. That is 22 percent more than in 2021, with France leading the pack and tripling imports between 2021 and 2022. It was at about that time that French enrichment plant owner Orano rushed to tout plans to increase capacity by a third by 2028. Every time the EU has mulled a new sanctions package targeting Moscow, Paris has found itself under pressure to sever links with Russia's Rosatom state nuclear corporation. Earlier this year, a Rosatom spokesperson told US media that the company has “always taken the view that nuclear energy should remain outside of politics.”
Across the continental divide, the Biden administration has also allowed itself one massive exception in its failed quest to crush the Russian economy with sanctions. The United States bought 416 tons of uranium from Russia in the first half of 2023, which is 2.2 times more than in the same period last year and the largest amount since 2005, Sputnik has calculated, using data from the US federal statistical system. In the first six months of 2022, the US bought 188 tons of uranium from Russia, and 418 tons in January-July 2005.
Russia only supplies the US with uranium-235 enriched fuel, which is the country's main "radioactive" import. However, the analysis also took into account data on imports of natural and depleted uranium, which the US purchases from other countries. According to industry experts, the continued buy-up of the key commodity was due to the lack of domestic US conversion and enrichment capabilities. It was added that Russian nuclear giant Rosatom continued to account for about a quarter of all enriched uranium used by America’s network of NPPs.