(DCWatchdog.com) – The United States and four other G7 nations have formed a “nuclear power alliance” designed to “displace” Putin’s Russia from the international nuclear energy market amid the latter’s war against Ukraine.
The alliance, including Canada, France, Japan, and Britain, was announced after Sunday’s “Group of 7” economic forum in the Japanese city of Sapporo, Breitbart News reported.
The five nuclear power-producing G7 nations (the other two being Germany and Italy, which don’t use nuclear energy) have come together in an additional Western reaction to the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine.
A statement by the British government said the five countries sought to leverage their resource to “undermine Russia’s grip on supply chains” in the international energy market.
“This agreement will be used as the basis for pushing Putin out of the nuclear fuel market entirely, and doing so as quickly as possible, to cut off another means for him to fund his barbaric attack on Ukraine and fundamentally leave Russia out in the cold,” the UK government said.
The report notes that nuclear power makes up 20% of the energy used in the United States, 15% in the UK, and almost 70% in France.
According to the UK Royal United Services Institute, Putin’s Russia has earned over $1 billion by exporting nuclear energy-related goods and materials since it attacked Ukraine in February 2022.
The Russian exports of such goods and materials increased by more than 20% last year, primarily due to Communist China’s purchases from Moscow.
“The UK has been at the very heart of global efforts to support Ukraine, defeat Putin and ensure neither him nor anyone like him can ever think they can hold the world to ransom over their energy again,” British Energy Security Secretary Grant Shapps said regarding the US-led nuclear power alliance.
“This is the next vital step, uniting with other countries to show Putin that Russia isn’t welcome anymore, and in shoring up our global energy security by using a reliable international supply of nuclear fuel from safe, secure sources,” Shapps added.
At the same time, he vowed that the Conservative Party government of Prime Minister Rishi Sunak would keep developing “green energy” such as wind and solar power.
“I want to be crystal clear that the expertise we have from having the four biggest wind farms off our shores is available to support countries looking to invest in their supplies – something that will benefit them, create green jobs and opportunities at home and boost energy security around the world,” Shapps said.
Among G7 nations, Italy and Germany have abandoned nuclear energy. Italy voted to do so in a 1987 referendum after the Chernobyl nuclear disaster in the former Soviet Union in 1986.
Germany started to phase out its last three nuclear power plants after the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan.
The Russian aggression against Ukraine has led a number of Eastern European nations, typically buying nuclear reactor fuel from Russia, to seek to replace that with supplies from their Western allies such as the United States and France.
The United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Japan, and France have announced a nuclear power alliance “aimed at displacing Putin” from the international market, following meetings of the G7 in Sapporo, Japan on Sunday. https://t.co/5ESFc7AaaJ
— Breitbart News (@BreitbartNews) April 17, 2023
