A complete western decoupling from Russian uranium enrichment capacity is possible even in the short term because there is already sufficient capacity for such a move, Urenco chief operating officer Bridget Sparrow said in an interview.

Sparrow said that while there is currently no legal ban on Russian uranium imports into Europe, she had seen a move away from Russian uranium enrichment services by western nuclear power reactor operators following Russia’s February 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

Sparrow said that when the Russian invasion began, Urenco, which is owned by the governments of the UK, Netherlands, and two German utilities E.ON and RWE, began to plan its ongoing capital investment and enrichment capacity expansion programme.