WEMO24-Compiled Report-Interactive compressed (002) 4154-7882-8116 v.1 - Flipbook - Page 38
Global
Outlook
In 2020-2021, the health crisis linked to Covid 19, and the
resulting lockdowns, slowed down global trade. This has led to a
desire to develop national production to shorten supply chains.
In 2022, Russia's unjustified invasion of Ukraine, highlighted
Europe's dependence to Russian gas (especially certain countries
like Germany). Russia has gradually reduced and almost stopped
its gas supplies via pipelines to Europe.
To deal with this crisis, European countries have encouraged
their citizens to reduce their energy consumption149; they have
diversified the origin of their gas supplies and accentuated the
transition to renewable energies.150
As a measure of retaliation, the Europeans and Americans have
launched embargoes against Russia, particularly on coal, oil (see
above) and more recently the American embargo on Russian
enriched uranium.
149 Fear of electricity or gas cuts and high prices have led to drops in consumption of around 10%
150 WEMO 2023 https://www.capgemini.com/insights/research-library/
world-energy-markets-observatory/
151 https://www.sfen.org/rgn/uranium-enrichi-orano-valide-le-projet-dextension-de-georgesbesse-2/
152,153
154
Natural uranium and SWU
, prices have increased.
However, this price increase has little impact on the final cost of
nuclear electricity because the enriched uranium cost represents
only 5 %155 of the total nuclear electricity generation cost.
China: during his term, President Trump launched an economic
war against China to try to curb its economic dominance notably
in the clean technologies.
Indeed, China has become by far the world's largest producer
of hydroelectric, wind and solar power thanks to its massive
deployment of renewable capacities (see above).
152 Separative Work Unit (SWU) is a unit that defines the effort required in the uranium
enrichment process
153 In 2023, the average price paid by the Civilian Owners/Operators was $106.97 per SWU up 6%
from 2022. https://www.eia.gov/uranium/marketing
154 https://www.eia.gov/uranium/marketing/
155 https://www.iaea.org/sites/default/files/publications/magazines/bulletin/bull59-2/5920405_
corr.pdf
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• China accounted for more than half of all new renewable
capacity installed last year.
• It is building the biggest number of large nuclear reactors156,
it has already one SMR in operation and is building both SMRs
and AMRs,157,158
• in 2023, it has installed half of the world’s electrolysers to
produce hydrogen,
• It is for a few years already the largest batteries and EV
manufacturer.
• More recently it has launched plans to install CCS facilities
which are badly needed as the country is burning increasing
volumes of coal and gas.
156 China is on pace to add as many as 10 reactors a year and may surpass the United States’ total
nuclear capacity by 2030.
157 https://www.ans.org/news/article-5861/
chinas-new-linglong-one-reactor-just-one-piece-of-nuclear-expansion/
158 https://www.reuters.com/world/china/
china-starts-up-worlds-first-fourth-generation-nuclear-reactor-2023-12-06/
WEMO 2024
In recent years, various events have changed the Western
countries energy doctrine and led them to strengthen their
energy sovereignty.
In May 2024, the USA President Joe Biden signed a ban on
Russian enriched uranium even though the country imports
around 20% of its needs from Russia. The law unlocks about $2.7
billion in funding to build out the USA uranium fuel industry. The
European Company, Urenco has already decided to increase its
New Mexico plant capacity by 15% from 2025 and the French
Orano is looking at building an enrichment plant in the USA.
In Europe, missing Russian supplies will be met thanks to the
extensions of Urenco enrichment plant in the Netherlands (by
15% from 2027) and Orano plant in France151 (by 30 % from 2028).
38
In the current geopolitical context,
energy sovereignty is a major
concern
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