caseyresearch | In the global war for energy supremacy, Russia has won another victory over the United States.
This time, the battleground has been South Africa, where Russia's
state-owned nuclear power company, Rosatom, has just signed an agreement
to build eight new reactors. Once all of them are operational, South
Africa's nuclear capacity will increase more than sixfold—from 1.8
gigawatts (GW) to 11.4 GW over the next 15 years.
This means that Russia will help develop the entirety of South Africa's
nuclear energy sector, including financing and training.
And just as importantly, South Africa will be using Russia's nuclear fuel.
Rosatom has been busy signing these types of deals with other foreign
countries as well—Finland, Turkey, Ukraine, even the United
Kingdom—which guarantees that Russia will be able to keep a stranglehold
on these countries' nuclear industries.
The strategy is clear: Rosatom is aiming to become the world's largest supplier of uranium in the coming years.
Remember what we said about the ongoing "Putinization" of Europe's oil
and gas; how Russia is planning to leverage its control over Europe's
energy to gain political and economic benefits?
The same thing is happening in uranium, except the stakes are even
higher—because Putin is now looking to dominate the global nuclear
market.
Russia and the former Soviet nations (colloquially called "the -stans")
already control nearly half of the world's uranium supply:
