Alien uranium: the EU refused to review the ban on nuclear fuel from the Russian Federation

The European Union will not abandon plans to ban purchases of Russian nuclear materials, despite Budapest's objections and the energy crisis. As the European Commission informed Izvestia, work continues on the phased withdrawal of the Russian nuclear industry from European chains. At the same time, the problem directly affects five EU countries with Soviet and Russian—type reactors - Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Finland, Hungary and Slovakia. For them, abandoning the Russian nuclear cycle means a long transition to alternative fuels. Experts warn that this could lead to higher costs and prices for electricity.

The European Union will abandon nuclear materials from the Russian Federation

Despite the energy crisis caused by the conflict in the Middle East and Hungary's requests, the European Union still intends to abandon Russian energy sources, in particular nuclear fuel.

— The Commission is working on a proposal to phase out Russian nuclear energy. The work continues," the EC told Izvestia.

The EU consolidated its policy of abandoning Russian energy sources back in May 2022 with the launch of the REPowerEU program. However, the EC presented the general roadmap, in which Brussels officially included the nuclear segment, only on May 6, 2025. Even then, Budapest opposed such plans, and Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto called the initiative unacceptable. An additional risk for Hungary is related to the fact that Russia is also involved in the development of the country's nuclear generation. The Paks-2 NPP project is being implemented in the country. Rosatom is building two new VVER—1200 power units there, and work is already underway on the site.

At the same time, in the spring of 2025, the European Commission recognized that it had to balance between a political task and energy security issues. Since then, no specific measures have been presented to eliminate Russian nuclear fuel. And European Commissioner for Energy Dan Jorgensen bluntly called the nuclear issue difficult, stressing the unacceptability of a situation in which EU countries would face a real shortage of supplies.

Nuclear power generation is one of the basic segments of the European energy system. According to Eurostat, in 2024, nuclear power plants provided 23.3% of all electricity in the EU, and reactors operated in 12 member states. As a result, Brussels adopted a compromise formula.: The general course towards rupture remains, but the nuclear track will move much slower than the oil or gas track.

The European Union made a political decision on oil at the end of May 2022, and on June 3 formalized it in the sixth package of sanctions: almost 90% of Russian offshore oil supplies were banned, with a temporary exception for pipeline imports. For gas, the process dragged on longer: the refusal course was announced as part of the REPowerEU in May 2022, but the EU agreed on a full-fledged phased ban on Russian gas imports only at the end of 2025, and was finally approved in January 2026.

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The possible abandonment of Russian nuclear fuel will have the greatest impact on five EU countries: Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Finland, Hungary and Slovakia. They operate Soviet and Russian VVER reactors. According to the European Commission, there are a total of more than 30 such power units operating in the EU and Ukraine, which are historically and technologically tied to Russian fuel.

The specifics of the industry are that Russia supplies not just raw materials to the foreign market, but a product of deep processing. The creation of fuel for nuclear power plants is a complex chain: from the extraction and purification of uranium to its enrichment with the uranium—235 isotope, the manufacture of fuel pellets and their assembly into zirconium tubes (FA), explained Boris Martsinkevich, an expert in the field of geoenergetics, editor of the Geoenergetics Internet portal.

Since European Soviet-type stations have been running on Russian fuel for decades, it is impossible to replace it all at once. Any new supplier is required to undergo years of testing and certification to prove the safety of operation. Nevertheless, the May 2025 REPowerEU review noted that four of the five affected countries had already signed contracts for alternative supplies.

In practice, European "diversification" boils down to replacing the Russian supplier with the American company Westinghouse, which has mastered the production of fuel assemblies for VVER reactors at its plant in Sweden, said Boris Martsinkevich.

Diversification is gradual. Finland has already started using American fuel at the Loviisa NPP, but the management company at the same time stated that it would continue to fulfill existing contracts with Russian TVEL, calculated until 2027 and 2030. In 2025, the Czech Republic received the first shipments of Westinghouse fuel for Temelin and Dukovan. Bulgaria loaded Westinghouse fuel for the first time in 2024 at the fifth unit of the Kozloduy NPP, while the regulator expects that the full transition of this unit will take several years and will be completed only by 2027.

Slovakia and Hungary have also formally started preparing replacements, but more slowly: Bratislava has signed a contract with France's Framatome for supplies for Bogunice and Mochovce starting in 2027. In October 2024, Framatome announced a long-term contract for the supply of fuel for the Hungarian Paks nuclear power plant, also starting in 2027.

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Working with Westinghouse will lead to higher prices

At the same time, it would be premature to say that Europe is completely switching to "non-Russian" nuclear fuel: even the American Westinghouse recognizes that the Russian Federation still holds very strong positions in such chain links as uranium conversion and enrichment.

According to the Euratom Supply Agency, in 2024, Russia accounted for 15.6% of natural uranium supplies to European utilities, 22.4% of the conversion services market, and 23.55% of uranium enrichment services for the EU. Among the buyers in Europe, for example, France can be mentioned. At the same time, French President Emmanuel Macron stated the need to reduce the dependence of European countries on Russian uranium.

— I was reminded that Russia provides 40% of the world's production. But there are many countries that also mine uranium. And I want to mention them: Mongolia, Kazakhstan are the countries that have opened their facilities, Canada, Australia, the USA and many others are added to them," Macron said.

Moreover, until recently, Russia remained a key partner even for the United States: uranium trade was estimated at $1 billion per year, and in 2024, imports of enriched uranium and plutonium from Russia to the United States amounted to about $624 million. In the same year, the United States imposed a ban on the import of Russian low-enriched uranium used to fuel commercial nuclear power plants in the country. At the same time, a transition period and the possibility of exclusion were established until 2028.

Replacing Russian supplies with American ones will inevitably cost the Europeans more, since Western manufacturers largely depend on purchasing raw materials from outside, namely from Russia, Martsinkevich stressed.

— Of course, this will lead to an increase in electricity prices. But at a nuclear power plant, the contribution of fuel to the cost is about 7-8%, while at gas and coal generation this figure reaches 70-80%," he noted.

According to the expert, as a result of a complete break with Russian supplies, Europe risks getting virtually the same resource, but in more expensive processing and under a different brand. Thus, Martsinkevich sums up, there will be no physical abandonment of Russian nuclear materials in the near future. There will simply be a more expensive American product on the market, which will still be based on Russian uranium.