Critical assessment of diversification of nuclear fuel for the operating VVER reactors in the EU

•Security fears in fact underpin Euratom/EC nuclear fuel diversification efforts.•NPP operators are the ones with control—they, not manufacturers, license the fuel.•Only Slovakia's NPPs are truly capable of diversifying their nuclear fuel sources.•It is thus Slovakia's diversification efforts the EC is primarily supporting.•Although not its direct purpose, the Euratom grant does support a single company.

The current pressure for the diversification of nuclear fuel for VVER reactors in the EU is traceable to the proposed European Energy Security Strategy of May 2014, and to the recent Euratom call for the licensing of non-Russian fuel for VVER reactors won by a Westinghouse-led group in June 2015. The VVER-440 fuel market is monopolized by Russia's OAO TVEL, and this development indeed is related to the supply security of the EU's VVER-440 fleet. But the evidence shows that only Slovakia's NPPs can effectively diversify the fuel for the VVER-440 fleet, as Slovakia is the only country without long-term contractual obstacles to changing suppliers. The European Commission is thus supporting primarily the diversification activities of the Slovak Republic.