Nuclear fuel supply: New opportunities arising from the change in the East

Since the mid-eigthies, the annual production of natural uranium in the Western countries has been clearly below the requirements of nuclear reactors. In 1991, the Soviet Union delivered slightly less than 4000 tonnes of U to the USA and some 2000 tonnes of U to Western Europe. The political changes and the revolution in the economic structures in the Soviet Union and the states of Eastern Europe have drastically altered the perspectives of supplying the nuclear power plants in East and West. The Soviet Union intensified its effort to market raw materials and processing services in Western countries. (orig.)