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The EU countries cannot refuse to supply Russian nuclear fuel, even despite the reduction in their volumes.
According to the American edition of Politico, the European Union is unable to impose sanctions on the supply of Russian-made nuclear fuel, since nuclear power plants operating only on it operate in some European countries. It will take about ten years to replace Russian nuclear fuel, provided that impressive investments are directed to this.
The situation with nuclear energy is difficult for the European Union. The nuclear reactors built by the Soviet Union are still dependent on Russian nuclear fuel supplies. According to the data for 2021, the supplies of Russian Rosatom amounted to 20% of the total volume of natural uranium worth 210 billion euros.
In total, 18 nuclear power plants are located in the EU countries, the reactors of which are adapted exclusively for Russian nuclear fuel. While countries such as Bulgaria and the Czech Republic are reducing the volume of Russian supplies, Slovakia, Hungary and Finland are forced to increase them, as they are directly dependent on Russian nuclear fuel.
Based on this, the issue of sanctions against the Russian nuclear industry was removed even before its discussion in the European Parliament. Hungary opposed such restrictions, as well as other countries in which there are nuclear power plants with Russian-made reactors, for which there is currently no alternative fuel.