Page 12 - bne monthly magazine June 2024 Russian Despair Index

12 I Companies & Markets bne June 2024
Russia's nuclear diplomacy binding emerging markets to the Kremlin
Ben Aris in Berlin
Currently, Rosatom controls approximately 70% of the world export market for the construction of nuclear power plants where emerging powers in the global south are trying to boost their energy production and turning to Moscow for nuclear power plants and fuel.
President Joe Biden signed into law a ban on Russian enriched uranium on May 13, the White House said. The ban on imports of the fuel for nuclear power plants begins in 90 days, although it allows the Department of Energy to issue waivers for US companies that can’t source uranium from anywhere but Russia. Russia accounts for about 24% of the enriched uranium used by US nuclear power plants.
The law also unlocks about $2.7bn in funding in previous legislation to build out the US uranium fuel industry. Last December the US together with Canada, France, Japan and the UK collectively pledged to invest $4.2bn to expand enrichment and conversion capacity of uranium to break Russia’s stranglehold over enriched urainium supplies.
"Today, President Biden signed into law a historic series of actions that will strengthen our nation's energy and economic security by reducing, and ultimately eliminating, our reliance on Russia for civilian nuclear power," Jake Sullivan, the national security adviser, said in a statement, Reuters reports.
"This new law re-establishes America’s leadership in the nuclear sector. It will help secure our energy sector for generations to come. It will jumpstart new enrichment capacity in the United States and send a clear message to industry that we are committed to long-term growth in our nuclear sector,” Sullivan added.
Russia has become a major supplier of these nuclear energy- related technologies for countries in the Global South. Like Gazprom, the state-owned natural gas champion, before it, Moscow is now using Rosatom as a diplomatic tool to garner support and exercise control over Global south countries – what the literature calls “international clientelism”. And the results have been seen in the various UN votes to condemn
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Uranium is the new gas. Like Gazprom before it, Rosatom is successfully binding countries from the global south to Moscow using nuclear technology and long-term uranium supply contracts. / bne IntelliNews
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine where Russia has managed garner support and abstentions from its global south partners.
Rosatom has won numerous tenders for the sale of reactors, positioning itself as a leader in terms of the number of nuclear reactor construction projects executed simultaneously, with 3 units in Russia and 33 abroad in various phases of execution.
Likewise, it controls approximately 20% of the world market for conversion and enrichment-related materials – a business it dominates – making it an irreplaceable partner, including for Western powers.
There has been talk of banning imports of Russian nuclear fuel to Europe and the US, but in practice both remain heavily dependent on Russian nuclear fuel and are unable to cancel their imports – despite the rhetoric to cut off supplies.
Centrus, the largest nuclear energy company in the United States, recently announced its intention to petition relevant government agencies to exempt it from a newly proposed ban on Russian enriched uranium imports – the so-called yellow cake uranium. The company said that the ban on Russian uranium imports is unworkable.
The problem is that the US can enrich its own uranium,
or anyone else’s. Nuclear power plants account for 29% of
all power stations in the States, yet the country produces almost no fuel for them. Recently, the US reported that it had managed to produce 90 kg of enriched uranium for the first time, and by the end of the year, this figure is expected to reach one tonne per annum. However, that is still nearly 700 times less than what is currently imported from Russia.
Russian Ambassador in Washington Anatoly Antonov answering a question from the media said: "The Adminis- tration continues its stillborn policy of inflicting strategic economic defeat on us. The current attack – not only on Russia, but also on the world market for uranium fuel used in