The military takeover in Niger last week raises concerns about Europe's reliance on uranium extracted from the country's mines for its nuclear power facilities. A uranium mine in the country's north is run by Orano, a French company that produced nuclear fuel and was originally a subsidiary of Areva. It employs about 900 people, largely from Niger.
The firm stated last week that it was constantly watching the situation but that for the time being, the military's seizure of power has not interfered with the supply of uranium. Only a small portion of the world's natural uranium output comes from Niger. According to Euratom Supply Agency (ESA), which secures Europe's supply of nuclear materials, it generated 4.7% of the world's total in 2021, far behind Kazakhstan's 45.2%.
"In 2022, Niger was the second largest supplier of natural uranium to the EU, with a share of 25.38 percent," ESA told AFP. "Kazakhstan, Niger, and Canada were the top three countries delivering natural uranium, providing 74.19 percent of the total," it added.
The European Union declared on Tuesday that the coup did not pose a threat to the bloc's supply. "EU utilities have sufficient inventories of natural uranium to mitigate any short-term supply risks and for the medium and long term there are enough deposits on the world market to cover the EU needs," European Commission spokesman Adalbert Jahnz said.
The third largest source of power for France from 2005 to 2020, which runs 56 reactors that generate more than two-thirds of the country's electricity, was Niger, which accounted for 19% of the total, after Kazakhstan and Australia.
The foreign ministry of France stated that the country's suppliers were "extremely diversified," whilst the energy transition ministry of France claimed that the situation in Niger does not pose any concern for natural uranium supplies since EDF, the operator of France's park of nuclear reactors, has sought to diversify its sources.
Teva Meyer, a researcher at the University of Upper Alsace who specializes in the civilian nuclear energy industry, claimed that EDF has been attempting to diversify its suppliers for the past ten years, looking to countries in Central Asia like Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan as well as Australia.
According to the energy transition ministry, EDF has also made it a policy to stockpile enough supplies for many years' worth of needs and to advance the recycling of old nuclear fuel.