A nuclear icebreaker owned by Rosatom, the Russian atomic energy giant that nobody touches. Photo: AP
rose garden is one of the world’s largest nuclear fuel and technology companies. And despite being a Russian joint stock company, it is off the radar of European sanctions and it is also allowed to export to Europe by plane, in principle in contradiction with the sanctions approved so far by the European Union.
Rosatom (Russian State Atomic Energy Corporation) it seems untouchable after six packages of sanctions and no one aspires to put it in a possible seventh package.
has an explanation purely economic: According to Euratom, the European nuclear monitoring agency, the 18 European nuclear reactors (out of 103) that use only Russian nuclear fuel generate 10% of all electrical capacity of European Union. In some countries, such as Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Slovakia or Hungary, that addiction is absolute.
The exceptions for not touching a Rosatom hair have been seen since March, when two large Russian cargo planes landed in Czechia and Slovakia. Inside they carried nuclear fuel produced by TVEL, a subsidiary of Rosatom. The Czech and Slovak reactors are Soviet-made and they need a type of nuclear fuel that only Russia produces.
Slovakia, his government justified in those days, has four Soviet-made VVER-440 nuclear reactors that produce more than half of the country’s electricity.
The goodwill of Russia
The supplies received in March allow them to function until the end of the year. More will be needed later, then it depends on the good will of Russia. Even Moscow has so far shown no signs of wanting to use nuclear fuel as a political weapon.
So far Moscow has given no sign of wanting to use nuclear fuel as a political weapon. Photo: EFE
In addition to the four Slovak nuclear reactors, another 10 of the VVER-440 model, distributed in Hungary, the Czech Republic and Finland, have no other alternative to operate than to receive nuclear fuel from Rosatom.
As long as the nuclear fuel is not touched, the European Union has already banned the import of Russian coal (effective from next August), oil (by the end of the year with exceptions for Hungary and Slovakia) and natural gas (two-thirds reduction by the end of the year).
US sanctions they do not affect Rosatom for now. According to the company itself, 32 countries they consume their nuclear fuel.
Rosatom assures that there are 439 nuclear reactors in operation in the world, of which 38 in Russia and another 42, in other countries, they were built with Soviet or Russian technology. This makes 80 reactors, to which 15 more will be added. Russia has the 46% of all world uranium enrichment capacity.
European industrial giants are exiting Russia and abandoning their investments in the Russian economy after the attack on Ukraine. But those decisions they usually do not include nuclear projects. Germany’s Siemens has acknowledged that its departure will not affect its joint projects with Rosatom. They will also be maintained by the French company Framatome.
Brussels, especially for Clarione
ap
Idafe Martin
Source: Clarin
