On June 16, the UK government reported that the British company “Urenco” will supply enriched uranium to Ukraine’s “Energoatom” for the next two years. The supplies will be made under a £210 million ($280 million) deal. The deal effectively extends the previous one, which ran until 2024, under which “Urenco” supplied uranium to “Energoatom” for two years.
After that, several Telegram channels, including the channel of blogger Anatoliy Shariy, who was convicted of high treason, wrote about this news with a hint that the uranium would be used to create nuclear weapons in Ukraine.
In fact, just because uranium is enriched does not mean it can be used for military purposes.
When uranium is mined for nuclear fuel, 99.3% of what is mined is the isotope uranium-238, which cannot be used as fuel. The other 0.7% is uranium-235, which supports a chain reaction and releases large amounts of energy. To use uranium for nuclear energy, whether civilian or military, it must be enriched—that is, to increase the proportion of useful uranium-235 in the total mass of the fuel.
- Up to 5% is low-enriched uranium. It makes up almost all of the worldʼs civilian nuclear fuel.
- 5%–20% is high-volume low-enriched uranium. It is used in small modular reactors, a technology currently in development.
- More than 20% is highly enriched uranium. It is used in nuclear ship reactors and some research projects. And for effective nuclear weapons, uranium needs to be enriched to more than 90%.
As is known from the “Urenco” website, it produces uranium enriched to 3%-5%. It is needed for civilian nuclear power plants, which produce more than half of Ukraineʼs electricity. Urenco has supplied it to Ukraine before.
The UK has nuclear weapons, meaning it has weapons-grade uranium. However, since 1962, Britain has not produced them itself, but has relied on existing reserves and received uranium from the US.
For more news and in-depth stories from Ukraine, please follow us on X.