Wednesday, 8th May 2024

UK Government

UK will build first high-tech nuclear fuel facility in Europe to power future nuclear reactors – helping to isolate Russia from global energy markets, boost British energy security and provide reliable, affordable energy. The high-assay low enriched uranium (HALEU) will power the UK’s future civil nuclear power stations. The government is awarding £196 million to Urenco to build a uranium enrichment facility. This will produce fuel by 2031 that would be ready to export or use domestically, and could power UK homes in the next decade. Urenco’s facility will have the capacity to produce up to 10 tonnes of HALEU per year by 2031. When fabricated into fuel, 10 tonnes of HALEU could contain as much energy as over one million tons of coal. On the other hand, UK also announced competition for up to £600 million in contracts to build the world’s first commercially viable fusion power station prototype.