Climate Change and Renewable Energy News and Discussion

This is disturbing and also somewhat thought provoking...

look at this, electrolyzers in China is just so much cheaper than the west.

The difference is 4 to 5 times

WWS = Wind, Water, Solar

Comment: Despite China being very pro-nuclear in policy, unlike much of Europe, it seems like the future of the energy transition is going to be WWS. Nuclear will have a minor role. I suspect the high cost and long lead times are to blame. It's just not as competitive for rapid scale-up whereas renewable energy costs are falling rapidly.

escobar said:

Nuclear Fuel: US Imported Significant Chinese EUP Quantities in 2023

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So this is the US's idea of getting an independent supply from Russia? Getting Chinese enriched uranium instead of Russian enriched uranium?
And I suppose China will get uranium from Russia getting a tidy profit out of this. Totally retarded move by the West as usual.

gelgoog said:

So this is the US's idea of getting an independent supply from Russia? Getting Chinese enriched uranium instead of Russian enriched uranium?
And I suppose China will get uranium from Russia getting a tidy profit out of this. Totally retarded move by the West as usual.

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I believe Cnnc gets most of its uranium from Kazakhstan

tphuang said:

I believe Cnnc gets most of its uranium from Kazakhstan

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Kazakhstan doesn't have enrichment facilities. They have uranium mines and they make the fuel elements to put into the reactor. But you need to enrich the uranium before putting it in the fuel elements. Mined Uranium Ore -> Yellow Cake -> Enriched Uranium -> Uranium Fuel.

gelgoog said:

Kazakhstan doesn't have enrichment facilities. They have uranium mines and they make the fuel elements to put into the reactor. But you need to enrich the uranium before putting it in the fuel elements. Mined Uranium Ore -> Yellow Cake -> Enriched Uranium -> Uranium Fuel.

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I thought cnnc recently added more enrichment capacity

Actually looks like they also set up Jv for enrichment in Kazakhstan

gelgoog said:

So this is the US's idea of getting an independent supply from Russia? Getting Chinese enriched uranium instead of Russian enriched uranium?
And I suppose China will get uranium from Russia getting a tidy profit out of this. Totally retarded move by the West as usual.

Click to expand...

CNNC has over the past couple of years stocked up on Russian EUP, likely at a discount, and locked in new sales to nuclear fuel customers in the US and Europe.

tphuang said:

I thought cnnc recently added more enrichment capacity

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Yes, China has its own enrichment capacity. But not Kazakhstan.

tphuang said:

Actually looks like they also set up Jv for enrichment in Kazakhstan

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Did you read the article you linked to?
"It made no mention of the fuel division of Russian nuclear giant Rosatom, TVEL, which said in November 2021 that it had supplied Ulba-TVS LLP with a first delivery of LEU and would be ensuring further deliveries from its plant in Novouralsk, Russia “on a regular basis in the framework of an ongoing commercial contract.”"

Export of uranium gas centrifuge technology, used in uranium enrichment, is strictly restricted by all the major powers. If you have the technology you can easily develop nuclear weapons. So, no, there are no centrifuges in Kazakhstan.

gelgoog said:

Yes, China has its own enrichment capacity. But not Kazakhstan.

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my point is that they got kazakhstan uranium and then enriched it.

gelgoog said:

Did you read the article you linked to?
"It made no mention of the fuel division of Russian nuclear giant Rosatom, TVEL, which said in November 2021 that it had supplied Ulba-TVS LLP with a first delivery of LEU and would be ensuring further deliveries from its plant in Novouralsk, Russia “on a regular basis in the framework of an ongoing commercial contract.”"

Export of uranium gas centrifuge technology, used in uranium enrichment, is strictly restricted by all the major powers. If you have the technology you can easily develop nuclear weapons. So, no, there are no centrifuges in Kazakhstan.

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I'm not sure where you are getting to with that, just pointing out this line

The French-designed assemblies were manufactured at an Oskemen plant controlled by a company called Ulba-TVS LLP, which is 51 percent owned by Kazakhstan’s state uranium giant Kazatomprom and 49 percent by CGNPC – China's largest state-owned nuclear company.


The plant has the capacity to produce up to 200 tons of LEU equivalent per year in the form of ready-to-use rods loaded with processed uranium fuel pellets. The CGNPC will employ them in nuclear reactors.

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