Belgian energy company Engie Electrabel has signed contracts only with suppliers from Western countries for use in the Doel 4 and Tihange 3 nuclear reactors until 2035 – completely banning fuel of Russian origin.
The latest two nuclear plants will only run on fuel from suppliers from countries such as Canada and Australia during their lifetime extension, according to the annual report of the subsidiary responsible for ordering nuclear fuel Synatom, De Tijd reports.
"At the end of 2021, the last deliveries from Russia came," Engie spokeswoman Hellen Smeets told the newspaper, adding that the company deliberately opted not to stop working with Russian uranium suppliers.
"For the conversion of uranium (an intermediate step to enrich it) and for the final enrichment, we no longer work with Russian companies," Smeets added.
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Russia is a major global player in uranium mining and enrichment, but Europe has been questioning its dependence on the country since the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Before the war, about 40% of the fuel at Doel and Tihange could still be linked to Russia; 20% came directly from Russia, while 19.7% was purchased in Kazakhstan from Uranium One, a subsidiary of Russia's state-owned Rosatom. But even before the war started, new deliveries of Russian fuel were not scheduled as Synatom had enough supplies to operate the nuclear plants until the end of 2025 as planned.
Engie does not disclose how many different contracts were concluded and with which suppliers, but does say it obtained a sufficient geographical spread of its supply, Belga News Agency reports.
