Russia: more reactors, more demand as country speeds up investment in nuclear energy

Just a few days ago World Nuclear News reported that Russia is speeding up its investment in the nuclear industry.

The country already has 33 reactors online with another 34 under construction or planned and a further 20 proposed. This equates to approximately 17% of Russia’s energy needs being met by nuclear energy – a figure that the government wants to see rise to as much as 80% by 2050….

Annual investment in nuclear research and development by the state nuclear corporation, Rosatom is already at $737 million USD. The head of Rosatom sees this increasing to $1.3 billion USD by 2020 - ten times its value in 2007 when the country started to consolidate its nuclear activities within Rosatom.

How will this aggressive approach affect the global uranium market? Well naturally it is going to mean an even greater increase in demand. However, in my opinion it’s also confirmation of what many in the uranium industry have been predicting: the non-renewal of the HEU agreement, aka – a dramatic drop in uranium supply, specifically to the US which is currently the largest user of nuclear fuel.

To my thinking it’s also yet more affirmation of something else I’ve been talking about for a while – the race to secure long-term energy supplies in a world that has to reduce reliance on fossil fuels. That’s why, with the exception of Germany – a minor player where nuclear energy is concerned -  we will continue to see numerous governments pushing for more investment in nuclear energy and ensuring nuclear has a prominent place in the energy mix going forward.

Dev Randhawa