World's two largest coal consumers won't be weaning off the fossil fuel anytime soon

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5. New nuclear may be delayed by uncertain fuel supplies

https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/new-nuclear-may-be-delayed-by-uncertain-fuel-supplies-2023-09-21/

New nuclear may be delayed by uncertain fuel supplies
By Paul Day
September 21, 202311:07 AM EDT

September 21 - Many of the new nuclear reactors under development are designed to run on uranium at enrichments as high as 15%-19.75%, known as high-assay low-enriched uranium (HALEU), rather than traditional Light Water Reactor (LWR) technology, which typically uses uranium enriched to 3%-5%.

The only commercial source of HALEU, however, is Russia.

The invasion of Ukraine, and Russia’s consequent political and commercial isolation, has left many developers of next generation reactors concerned that, without a concerted effort to rebuild non-Russian supply chains, there will not be enough fuel.

“It's unfortunate that the United States got over a barrel in this way. It took decades to get to this sort of abject level of dependence. The country went from the world's largest exporter to the world's largest importer, through a variety of missteps and mishaps,” says Dan Poneman, Chief Executive Officer of U.S. nuclear fuel company Centrus Energy.

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