UK creates Europe’s first next-generation nuclear fuel plant | Nuclear energy

The United Kingdom is investing almost 200 million pounds (232.5 million euros) to build Europe’s first highly enriched uranium (HALEU) production plant, a fuel that the Government says will be needed to power the next generation of projects nuclear energy.

As part of efforts to meet climate targets and increase energy security, the UK is seeking to increase its nuclear power capacity by 2050 to 24 gigawatts, equivalent to around a quarter of projected electricity demand, compared to the current approximately 14%. The United Kingdom intends to build new advanced reactors that may require HALEU fuel.

“As more advanced modular reactors emerge, HALEU will be the fuel needed, so having more of this technology in the UK will mean we will be able to power them from a domestic source,” said Andrew Bowie, minister in an interview. of Nuclear and Renewable Energy.

The UK is giving uranium enrichment company Urenco £196 million to build facilities in Cheshire, North West England, which will support the creation of around 400 jobs. The unit should be ready to produce the fuel by 2031, to be used in the country or exported, said the Department of Energy Security and Carbon Neutrality.

“There are obviously opportunities to export this fuel to our allies who want to move away from excessive dependence on Russia for their nuclear fuel,” Bowie said.

Many companies developing advanced nuclear reactors around the world rely on HALEU to power them, but the main company currently selling commercial shipments of this fuel is Tenex, which is owned by Russian state energy company Rosatom.

Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Western countries have sought to reduce their energy imports from Russia.

The American company Centrus Energy has also started producing small quantities of the fuel and hopes to increase production, while the French company Orano is considering building a plant in the USA.

HALEU is enriched to levels of up to 20%, rather than the approximately 5% of uranium that powers most existing nuclear power plants.

The United Kingdom also announced, this Wednesday, a competition to award contracts worth 600 million pounds (697.5 million euros) for the construction of the world’s first commercially viable fusion power plant prototype, which is expected to be able to connect to the electricity grid by 2040.

For years, scientists, governments and companies around the world, including the US and Japan, have been trying to develop fusion reactors, the nuclear reaction that powers the Sun, to produce electricity without emissions and without creating large amounts of long-lasting radioactive waste. .