Urenco

Overview

Urenco is an international supplier of enrichment services and fuel cycle products with sustainability at the core of its business. Operating in a pivotal area of the nuclear fuel supply chain for 50 years, Urenco facilitates zero carbon electricity generation for consumers around the world.

With its head office near London, UK, Urenco’s global presence ensures diversity and security of supply for customers through enrichment facilities in Germany, the Netherlands, and the UK as well as the USA and Canada, where its operations have long benefited from uranium mined in Saskatchewan.

Using centrifuge technology designed and developed by Urenco, and through the expertise of our people, the Urenco Group provides safe, cost effective and reliable services; operating within a framework of high environmental, social and governance standards, complementing international safeguards. Urenco regularly transports enriched uranium to North American customers through Canada and receives a substantial portion of the output of natural uranium hexafluoride from the Port Hope uranium conversion facility in Canada, thus supporting the regional supply chain and logistics in the area and more broadly the Canadian uranium mining industry and conversion sector.

Urenco is committed to continued investment in the responsible management of nuclear materials; innovation activities with clear sustainability benefits, such as nuclear medicine, industrial efficiency and research; and nurturing the next generation of scientists and engineers.

Urenco also uses its technical expertise to more broadly serve the nuclear industry, including through its ongoing contributions to enable fuel supply security for SMR proponents. Indeed, we are dedicated to the advancement of nuclear innovation, and by extension, the prosperity of SMRs, as seen through our subsidiary, U-Battery and its advanced SMR design. The enrichment of uranium is an integral part of the process leading to the rollout of SMRs, and we understand the importance of fuel security in overall prospects of suppliers willing to invest significant equity in Canada. Urenco is willing and eager to play a larger role in Canada’s pool of uranium suppliers.

In 2018, the federal government released Canada’s SMR Roadmap, the culmination of ten months of workshops and Indigenous engagement sessions aimed at fostering a collective vision statement for the eventual rollout of SMR technology. This Roadmap brought forward 53 recommendations and signalled that the Canadian nuclear supply chain and the Government of Canada were aligned on a path forward.

The SMR Action Plan will position Canada as a world leader in nuclear innovation, while enabling its energy transformation and ability to achieve its net-zero emission targets. Further, the SMR Action Plan can accelerate Canada’s return to economic prosperity from the impacts of COVID-19. SMRs present a reliable source of innovation, employment and sustainable growth from a long-term perspective.

Urenco readily endorses the core principles of this Action Plan. It constitutes a timely, forward-thinking strategy that will strategically position SMRs as a disruptive energy commodity. A Team-Canada approach will realize the opportunities that SMRs will provide in decarbonizing the economy. Through the synergy between government officials, utility suppliers, SMR Proponents and a skilled Canadian workforce, this plan will help shape Canada’s nuclear innovation sector into a domestic and international powerhouse.

SMRs can, and will, secure the position of Canada’s supply chain in global markets. It will fortify manufacturing and research made-in-Canada jobs and create a world of opportunities, through bilateral and multilateral strategic alliances with some of Canada’s closest allies. Urenco already sees the value of the close ties Canada and the UK and knows that further integration between both countries will only be beneficial on the SMR front.

Conservative estimates place the potential value for SMRs in Canada at $5.3 billion between 2025 and 2040. Urenco is keen to play its part in heralding Canada as one of the world’s premier SMR markets, and eager to capitalize on opportunities created through the rollout of the SMR Action Plan.

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