A New Euratom Project To Diversify Nuclear Fuel Supply

A new Innovation Action called SAVE, funded under the Euratom Research and Training Programme is a significant step forward in Europe’s efforts towards nuclear fuel diversification.

The project will work with €10 million in EU contribution. Led by Framatome (ENS Corporate Member) and gathering 17 partners from seven EU Member States plus Ukraine, it will contribute to the swift and secure development and deployment of a European fuel solution for VVER reactors operating mainly in Eastern and Central Europe.

The importance of the diversification of nuclear fuel suppliers has been often underlined by the Euratom Supply Agency (ENS Member) which reminded us that diversification is paramount to prevent excessive dependence of EU users on any single third-country supplier and to achieve the security of supply of nuclear fuels in the medium and long term.

According to the Euratom Supply Agency, around 10% of EU gross nuclear electricity capacity is fully dependent on supply of Russian fuel. These concern operators in Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia and one operator (out of two) in Finland.

Through Euratom, the EU has invested €20 million into research on nuclear fuel diversification. SAVE is the second project on this topic after the Westinghouse-led APIS project, which kicked off in July 2023.

Read the full Press Release.

The importance of long-term strategies, investments, and further efforts towards diversification of suppliers to ensure nuclear fuel cycle security is a topic that ENS, together with Urenco (ENS Corporate Member), Euratom Supply Agency and Orano, discussed last October at the event “Fuelling Europe’s Future – Uranium Supply, Conversion and Enrichment“, which took place in Brussels.

Read more about the event in our follow-up newsletter.