Urenco Annual Report 2022

9 Urenco Annual report and accounts 2022 • Gronau (Germany) has continued to focus on its centrifuge refurbishment programme. Recent asset health evaluations overall have proved that the site infrastructure as well as the plants are in excellent condition. As part of enhanced site resilience and our net zero strategy, modifications were made to reduce any reliance or need for natural gas heating. • Capenhurst (UK) has continued the path towards more closely aligning the three businesses based at the Capenhurst site – Urenco UK; Urenco Nuclear Stewardship and Urenco ChemPlants. This has been done for the benefit of both Urenco as a business and employees based there. This will enable the site to be more efficient, flexible and resilient. The operational lifetime of two of the three enrichment plants has been extended as part of the capacity programme. In addition, the team at Urenco ChemPlants, which operates the Tails Management Facility (TMF), has been commissioning a second kiln and the ramp up of the plant is progressing well. Strategic report 01 Boris Schucht Chief Executive Officer Priorities for 2023 Our key priority for 2023 is our capacity programme to refurbish and potentially expand our plants at all four of our sites. Our other priorities will help to enable this and are closely associated with the capacity programme. Given that the demands for nuclear energy are expected to substantially increase, it is imperative that the industry retains its talent and nurtures the next generation of scientists and engineers. Urenco is strongly committed to investing in our current workforce, and in reaching out to a diverse range of recruits. This includes encouraging internships, apprenticeships and graduate placements, of which we have 62 across the organisation. We are supporting the evolution of the nuclear fuel cycle for future energy needs, to supply the next generation of nuclear reactors, including AMRs and SMRs from our US and UK sites. Therefore, we are currently expanding our product portfolio to LEU+ (enriched uranium up to 10%) and are planning for a new plant which allows us to produce HALEU (High-Assay Low-Enriched Uranium, enriched up to 19.75%) for the next generation of nuclear power plants. Our stable isotopes facility in the Netherlands has increased its capacity, serving the market and delivering good financial returns.We now have plans to further extend this facility, which are progressing well, to support the fast growing demand of stable and medical isotopes in the world. We achieved sustainable production levels at our Tails Management Facility at Capenhurst while commissioning a second kiln. This is a high quality, long term facility which shows our commitment to responsible uranium stewardship through the deconversion services provided to ensure tails stocks are responsibly managed. This year the ramp up will further continue. Urenco Nuclear Stewardship celebrated 10 years of operation in 2022 and is our centre of excellence for the environmentally responsible management and storage of waste, including recycling and decommissioning services.We have initiated the creation of a global capability to deploy new technologies and solutions that will enable safe and efficient decommissioning of our plant and equipment. This is therefore now being mobilised and will directly support our larger refurbishment campaign. We will monitor and respond to the various political uncertainties that could impact us next year. In relation to Ukraine, we will focus on supporting our customer, while at the same time ensuring we can meet increasing requests for our services from other customers as a consequence of the conflict.We are encouraged by the actions of several countries to actively support nuclear. For example, the introduction to the UK Parliament of the Energy Security Strategy with the objective of up to 25% of the UK’s electricity demand being met by nuclear by 2050, up from circa 16% currently. The European Parliament’s decision to support the Taxonomy Complementary Climate Delegated Act (CDA), covering certain gas and nuclear activities, now puts the European nuclear industry on an equal footing with other parts of the world and will encourage investment.We will continue our advocacy efforts in 2023 to help ensure the valuable role that nuclear can and must play in achieving net zero and energy security is understood and acted upon.