The UK is investing nearly £200 million (€232.5 million) to build Europe’s first highly enriched uranium (HALEU) production plant, a fuel that the government says will be essential to power the next generation of projects. Nuclear Energy.
As part of efforts to meet climate targets and increase energy security, the UK seeks to increase its nuclear power capacity by 2050 to 24 gigawatts, equivalent to around a quarter of projected electricity demand, compared to current demand of around 14%. The UK intends to build new advanced reactors that may require Hallyu fuel.
Nuclear Minister Andrew Bowie said in an interview with Nuclear Energy Magazine: “As more advanced modular reactors emerge, Hallyu will be the fuel needed, so having more of this technology in the UK will mean we will be able to power it from a domestic source.” And renewable energy.
The UK has awarded uranium enrichment company Urenco £196 million to build facilities in Cheshire, northwest England, which will support the creation of around 400 jobs. The Ministry of Energy Security and Energy said the unit should be ready to produce fuel by 2031, for use in the country or export. Carbon neutrality.
“Clearly there are opportunities to export this fuel to our allies who want to move away from over-reliance on Russia for their nuclear fuel,” Bowie said.
Many companies developing advanced nuclear reactors around the world rely on Halyu to power them, but the main company currently selling commercial shipments of this fuel is Tenex, owned by Russian state energy company Rosatom.
Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Western countries have sought to reduce their energy imports from Russia.
The American company Centrus Energy has also begun producing small quantities of fuel and hopes to increase production, while the French company Orano is considering building a factory in the United States of America.
Hallyu is enriched to levels of up to 20%, rather than the roughly 5% uranium used in most current nuclear power plants.
On Wednesday, the UK also announced a competition to award contracts worth £600 million (€697.5 million) to build the world’s first commercially viable fusion power plant prototype, which is expected to be able to connect to the electricity grid by 2018. 2040.
For many years, scientists, governments and companies around the world, including the United States and Japan, have tried to develop nuclear fusion reactors, the nuclear reaction that powers the sun, to produce electricity without emissions and without creating large amounts of long-term radioactive waste. .
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