Part 2 of 3 Parts (Please read Part 1 first)
     Russian nuclear fuel and technology dominance is party enforced through a web of contracts that the state-owned monopoly has with nations around the world. Many of these are former Soviet bloc states which are running Russia made reactors. They were left reliant on Rosatom for parts and fuel when the Soviet Union collapsed.
      These “VVER” power stations are still in use by NATO members Turkey, Finland, Czechia, Bulgaria and Hungary. Other customers include India and China. Myanmar and Egypt are among nations who recently signed deals with Rosatom to build new reactors with Russian help.
      Eugene Shwageraus is a professor of nuclear systems engineering at the Open University. He says that persuading any of these countries to stop using Russian supplies will be hard for a practical reason. Russian VVER reactors use hexagonal-shaped fuel assemblies. This is a nuclear industry term for groups of fuel rods. The Western nuclear fuel design use square shaped fuel assemblies.
     Unfortunately, some Western nations that are not dependent on Russian nuclear fuel and technology have become more dependent on Russia since the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989.
     Under the Megatons to Megawatts arrangement, the U.S. agreed to purchase thousands of metric tons of uranium that was removed from nuclear weapons as Russia reduced its enormous arsenal of nuclear warheads. At one point this arrangement provided about ten percent of the nuclear fuel burned in U.S. nuclear power stations.
     Overall, about thirty-one percent of the enriched uranium sold to E.U. utility companies came from Rosatom in 2021. Twenty eight percent of the enriched uranium used by the U.S. in 2021 came from Rosatom. These imports of enriched uranium have continued since Russia attacked Ukraine in 2022.
     France supplies other allies with fabricated nucleal fuel. France imported four hundred million dollars’ worth of enriched uranium from Russia last year. In 2021, France only imported about one hundred million dollars of enriched uranium from Russia. This information was provided by the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI).
     The U.S. imported six hundred and forty-five million dollars’ worth of enriched uranium in 2021 and eight hundred and thirty-five million dollars’ worth in 2022.
      In the U.K., EDF, the French owned nuclear company, says that fuel used by the Sizewell B nuclear power plant in Suffolk was made using uranium enriched by Russia. Sarya Dolzikova is a research fellow at RUSI. She says that there is some evidence to suggest that Russia has made about one billion dollars from nuclear exports since the Ukrainian invasion began. She explained that “In terms of the amount of money that it brings into the Russian economy, it is not as significant as some of the other energy exports. But at the same time, that might make it a little bit easier to dismiss – even though it is a good chunk of money.”
     Industry insiders say that state-backed Rosatom has spread its influence so far by using very low prices. This has made it difficult for other nuclear fuel and technology suppliers to compete.
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