The UK government must back urgent investment in the country’s nuclear capability in a bid to stop Russia’s “aggressive and successful” exports of civil nuclear technologies – exports which are feeding revenue into the Kremlin’s war economy and strengthening its geopolitical energy leverage.

According to an all-party parliamentary group paper on nuclear energy, the government should award funding “this autumn” for the reinstatement of primary uranium conversion capability and the establishment of reprocessed uranium conversion capability at Springfields in Lancashire. No uranium conversion has taken place at the Springfields facility – which is operated by Westinghouse – since 2014.

The government should also preserve uranium enrichment capacity at Capenhurst in Cheshire.

The funding could come from the government’s £75m (€85m $83m) nuclear fuel fund, which aims to preserve the UK front-end nuclear fuel cycle capability, to support its ambition to increase civil nuclear deployment to up to 24 GW by 2050.