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SI 2026/543 amends the Russia (Sanctions) (EU Exit) Regulations 2019 by inserting a new Chapter 4KA (regulations 46Z23A-46Z23G) covering "uranium" as defined by reference to a new Schedule 3HA (HS commodity codes 2844.10, 2844.20 and 2844.30 — unirradiated natural, enriched and depleted/plutonium uranium). It creates four separate criminal prohibitions: import of uranium originating in or consigned from Russia; acquisition of uranium that originates in or is located in Russia; supply or delivery of uranium from a place in Russia to any third country (closing a cross-trade/transshipment route); and the provision of technical assistance, financial services/funds, or brokering services in connection with any of the above. Each carries a "did not know and had no reasonable cause to suspect" defence — a knowledge-based liability standard consistent with the rest of the UK Russia sanctions regime. The register has zero prior GB uranium-specific actions; UK civil nuclear operators (EDF-owned Sizewell B, and the under-construction Hinkley Point C / Sizewell C) and fuel-cycle intermediaries have relied on diversified but not fully Russia-free enrichment/conversion supply since 2022, unlike the US which legislated its Russian-LEU ban a year earlier (Public Law 118-50, May 2024, already filed in this register).
The same instrument bundles unrelated measures — an extension of the Russian-crude import ban to third-country-refined oil products (new regulations 46Z9F-46Z9I), new maritime-transportation-of-LNG prohibitions, and construction-services exception amendments — reflecting the UK's practice of periodic omnibus amendments to the 2019 Regulations rather than single-purpose instruments.
uranium/enrichment source and this is the first GB action targeting that axis specifically, rather than metals/energy broadly.
jointly tighten Western nuclear utilities' access to Russian-origin natural/enriched uranium and TENEX-linked conversion/enrichment services.
transshipment/relabelling routes, not just direct UK imports — relevant to any UK-linked trader or financier in the global uranium trade, not only domestic nuclear operators.
uranium and oil-products chapters; the specific carve-outs for pre-existing nuclear-fuel supply contracts or continued operation of reactors already running were not isolated in the text reviewed here and should be checked against OFSI licensing guidance if a specific UK operator's exposure needs scoping.
instrument itself; severity is qualitative pending any OFSI/DESNZ impact assessment publication.