The UK, US, Canada, Japan and France have formed an alliance to develop shared supply chains for nuclear fuel as part of ambitions to push Russia out of the international nuclear energy market.

The five countries will use their civil nuclear power sectors to undermine Russia’s grip on supply chains, cutting off another means for President Vladimir Putin to fund his invasion of Ukraine, the UK’s Department for Energy Security and Net Zero said in a statement.

They said the aim is to use resources and capabilities possessed by each country’s civil nuclear sector to establish “a global commercial nuclear fuel market”.

They will collaborate on opportunities in uranium extraction, conversion, enrichment and fabrication. The cooperation will establish “a level playing field to compete more effectively against predatory suppliers”.