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Stand up for your own: Slovakia will keep purchasing nuclear fuel from the Russian Federation
Bratislava does not intend to terminate the contract with Moscow for the supply of fuel for nuclear power plants, Deputy Speaker of the Slovak Parliament Tibor Gaspar told Izvestia. However, according to him, the country is working on the diversification of supplies. Meanwhile, the European Commission plans to ban the import of Russian nuclear materials. Experts believe that some states are likely to be able to negotiate exceptions for themselves. For more information, see the Izvestia article.
Slovak nuclear fuel purchases
After approving the ban on the purchase of Russian gas from 2027, the European Commission announced the preparation of similar measures for nuclear fuel. The EC representative expressed hope that a decision would be made soon. The roadmap of the European Union, published in May last year, provided for the termination of contracts for the supply of nuclear materials from the Russian Federation.
Slovakia has no plans to suddenly terminate the agreement with Russia on the supply of fuel for nuclear power plants, Deputy Speaker of Parliament Tibor Gaspar told Izvestia.
— The current nuclear fuel supply contract is the result of long—term technical solutions and security arrangements, and its sudden termination could jeopardize the stability of electricity production. Therefore, Slovakia is acting pragmatically — at the same time it is working to diversify nuclear fuel suppliers, but at the same time it ensures the safe and uninterrupted operation of nuclear power plants. Decisions in this area should be based on professional, not ideological criteria," Gaspar replied to a question from Izvestia.
A division of the Rosatom state corporation TVEL and the Slovak national electricity generating company Slovenské elektrarne signed an agreement on the supply of fuel for nuclear power plants in 2019. Five years later, Bratislava took the opportunity to extend the contract until 2030.
Nuclear power plants are extremely important for the Slovak economy, as they generate half of the country's electricity. There are currently five nuclear reactors operating in the country at two nuclear power plants built with the participation of specialists from the USSR and the Russian Federation — Mokhovce in the center of the country and Bogunice in the west. Russia supplies fuel for both of them.
Bogunice NPP in Slovakia
In July 2024, the Slovak authorities signed a large long-term contract with the French company Framatome for the purchase of fuel for VVER-440 reactors. The first deliveries are expected in 2027.
The country is also trying to reach an agreement with American companies: in August 2023, an agreement was signed with Westinghouse for licensing and supplying fuel assemblies for Slovak nuclear power plants. In 2025, Bratislava announced its intention to involve Westinghouse in the construction of a new power unit at the Bogunice NPP, and an intergovernmental agreement with Washington is currently being prepared. Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico discussed this issue with Donald Trump during his visit to the United States in January. Moreover, Fico expressed regret that due to EU sanctions it is impossible to involve partners from Russia and its technology in the development of nuclear energy in the country.
— Theoretically, Slovakia can choose something else. American and European companies have been developing fuel that is suitable for Russian-Soviet design reactors," Igor Yushkov, a leading analyst at the National Energy Security Foundation and an expert at the Financial University under the Government of the Russian Federation, told Izvestia.
But, according to the expert, this option will be less profitable than further work with Rosatom. Comprehensive cooperation — the construction, maintenance of nuclear power plants and the supply of nuclear fuel — is always much cheaper than switching to another supplier.
EU plans to abandon Russian supplies
Slovakia is one of the EU countries whose nuclear industry was created with the support of the USSR and Russia. In 2023, the Russian Federation provided 38% of the supply of enriched uranium and about 23% of natural uranium for unification. There are currently 101 nuclear reactors operating in the European Union, of which 19 are Soviet VVER (water—water power reactors), they are located in Hungary, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Bulgaria and Finland.
At the same time, Hungary not only maintains cooperation with Russia, but even develops it: the countries are jointly building the Paks-2 nuclear power plant. Budapest managed to achieve the exclusion of this project from the sanctions. According to recent reports, the first concrete is scheduled to be poured in February.
Forging of blanks from which the reactor vessel elements of the new Paks-2 NPP power unit will be made
France also maintains ties: in 2018, Techsnabexport and Electricite de France signed contracts on the processing of French regenerated uranium from spent nuclear fuel. In November 2025, the AFP news agency reported that the countries had resumed operations to export spent French nuclear fuel to Russian nuclear plants for its reprocessing.
On the contrary, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic and Finland have almost completely abandoned the supply of nuclear materials from Russia. Sofia decided to terminate the contract with Moscow in 2024, and instead the Kozloduy NPP switched to American and French fuel. The Czech stations Temelin and Dukovany have also signed contracts with Westinghouse and Framatome. A significant part of the fuel in the reactors of the Finnish Loviisa nuclear power plant is now of Western origin.
The most active supporters of abandoning Russian nuclear fuel were Germany, Poland and the Baltic states. Berlin shut down the last nuclear power plants in 2023, Warsaw is still planning to create its own nuclear power plant, and Vilnius shut down the Ignalina NPP in 2009.
Politically, it is important for the European Union to find areas of Moscow's activity that are relatively sensitive to sanctions. The specific timing of the introduction of restrictions against the Russian nuclear industry will strongly depend on the state of the Ukrainian conflict and the economies of the EU countries themselves. In addition, there are at least two countries in the union from which serious objections can be expected: Hungary, where Rosatom builds Paks-2 power units, and France, whose energy balance is tied to nuclear energy (about 70% of electricity generation). Yegor Sergeev, a senior researcher at the MGIMO Institute of International Studies at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia, told Izvestia about this.
— In the near future, I do not exclude the adoption of some kind of declarative, framework decision in this area, which, however, will not set strict legal conditions, - the expert predicts.
Sergeev believes that in the long term, it is possible to create a more serious restrictive regime, but most likely, as is often the case in the practice of the European Union, with reservations and exceptions regarding the energy security of individual markets. By the way, Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico warned that he would block any EU sanctions against Russia if they harm his country's national interests.
Recall that when a decision was made in 2022 to ban the import of Russian oil, an exception was made for supplies via the Druzhba oil pipeline for Hungary, Germany, Slovakia, Poland and the Czech Republic. Currently, only Budapest and Bratislava continue to purchase.
It is worth noting that in 2024, at that time, US President Joe Biden signed a law prohibiting the import of Russian uranium, retaining exceptions until 2028 for enterprises that will be forced to shut down nuclear reactors after the cessation of supplies from the Russian Federation. Moscow responded by imposing temporary restrictions on the export of enriched uranium to the United States.
The pragmatism of Slovakia and Hungary shows that the complete ousting of Russia from the European nuclear market is still impossible without catastrophic losses for the EU itself. For the Russian budget, this means maintaining a stable export channel for high-tech products at least until 2030.
Переведено сервисом «Яндекс Переводчик»
