04/30/2024 | News release | Distributed by Public on 04/30/2024 08:34
The United States has an ambitious goal: to establish a high-assay low enriched-uranium advanced nuclear fuel supply chain, revive the once thriving nuclear fuel market for low-enriched uranium in the nation, and "reestablish U.S. leadership in nuclear energy more broadly." Making a success of that could have impacts beyond the nuclear sector. According to the Department of Energy's Office of Nuclear Energy, "Expanding domestic LEU and HALEU enrichment production will be essential for fueling the clean energy required to bring down emissions in all sectors of the economy-including in hard-to-abate sectors such as manufacturing and industrial-while delivering high paying jobs to communities across the country."
Currently, Russia supplies about 44 percent of global uranium enrichment services and about 20 to 30 percent of enriched uranium used in the United States and Europe. Just over one year ago, on April 16, 2023, the United States, Canada, France, Japan, and the United Kingdom-which collectively make up half of the world's uranium conversion and enrichment capacity-announced they had created a strategic partnership to secure nuclear fuel supply chains while sidelining Russia. What has happened in the year since?
One of the "Sapporo 5": The five nations that held an April 2023 press conference on the sidelines of the G7 Ministers' Meeting on Climate, Energy, and Environment in Sapporo, Japan, were inspired by "Russia's unprovoked and unjustifiable war against Ukraine and the increasing impacts of climate change have fundamentally altered the global energy landscape and accelerated the need for collaboration between like-minded allies."
Those same nations-the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Japan, and Canada-now united in their nuclear fuel goals as the "Sapporo 5"-met again on the margins of COP28 in the United Arab Emirates last December 7 to announce a commitment to collectively mobilize and invest a combined $4.2 billion to expand enrichment and conversion capacity over the next three years. That latest announcement followed a high-profile December 5 pledge by 22 countries to triple nuclear energy capacity globally by 2050.
One year's progress: According to Kathryn Huff, assistant secretary of nuclear energy, the Sapporo 5 have already met that funding commitment.
What's ahead? The Sapporo 5 plan to meet again ahead of the IAEA General Conference in September to set new goals, according to the DOE. In the meantime, the U.S. government and supply chain entities are continuing to mark progress.