Europe should acknowledge nuclear

Thursday, 11 January 2007 Europe has a competitive advantage in the nuclear fuel business, Helmut Engelbrecht told the Financial Times, and this should be acknowledged by leaders.

Engelbrecht is the CEO of Urenco, a uranium enrichment company jointly owned by the governments of Germany, the Netherlands and the UK. Although British leaders have expressed their desire to see a new generation of nuclear power stations, this support had been lacking for many years and any investment would still have to be made by the private sector. In the Netherlands and Germany, governments are beginning to contemplate reversing decisions to phase out nuclear power.

Engelbrecht told the newspaper: "What we need is an absolutely confirmed political situation to operate in. It would be nice if European politicians would acknowledge what they have in the nuclear industry, be proud of what it has achieved and promote it."

He pointed to developments in the USA, where Usec is constructing a large new uranium enrichment plant, and to Russia, where the sate-owned industry is vying to gain access to global markets. Russia was left with a surplus of enrichment capacity after the end of the Soviet Union and its uranium products were considered to have been 'dumped' on markets by competition authorities in Europe and the USA, leading to trade restrictions.

Urenco has begun to construct a new enrichment facility in New Mexico, USA, but Engelbrecht bemoaned the intergovernmental negotiations required to make that happen. Because Urenco was formed by international treaty, it was necessary for the USA to sign that treaty and negotiations over that took four years, according to Engelbrecht.

Urenco has enrichment facilities at Almelo in the Netherlands, Capenhurst in the UK, and Gronau in Germany in addition to the New Mexico project.

Further information

Urenco
Usec