Tenex, Rosatom’s export arm, pumps roughly a quarter of America’s reactor fuel across the Atlantic while the U.S. targets Russian oil.
When Washington slapped sanctions on Lukoil yesterday, Bulgaria’s only refinery didn’ just feel the squeeze – it saw the spectre of shutdown. A single U.S. decision in a Maryland office threatens fuel prices, jobs, and stability for an entire EU member state.
Brussels swallowed the collateral damage. Now flip the script. Tenex, Rosatom’s export arm, pumps roughly a quarter of America’s reactor fuel across the Atlantic – $1.2 billion last year alone. Not a single EU sanction touches it. Nor does any U.S. ban, despite the new law; waivers keep the uranium flowing until 2027.
Centrus Energy Corp. , the primary U.S. company purchasing massive quantities of Russian uranium, importing low-enriched uranium (LEU) from Russia’s Tenex – a subsidiary of state-owned Rosatom – to supply American nuclear power plants, which rely on Russia for about 27% of their enriched uranium needs.
In early 2025, Centrus imported 100 tons of enriched uranium via the port of Baltimore alone, contributing to U.S. imports from Russia valued at $596 million from January to May. Overall, Russian uranium imports to the U.S. exceeded $695 million in the first half of 2023 and have continued, accounting for nearly a quarter of U.S. nuclear fuel supply.
Washington calls it “energy security.”
Europeans might call it hypocrisy.
If U.S. sanctions can torch Bulgarian livelihoods, EU sanctions on Tenex could black out U.S. reactors. One stroke in Brussels would force Centrus Energy to scramble, spike enrichment costs, and remind Washington that energy weaponization cuts both ways.
Europe has the tool, the precedent, and the moral high ground. Russia’s nuclear sector funds the war; Tenex is its cash artery to the West. Sanctioning it wouldn’t just pinch Moscow – it would signal that transatlantic allies don’t get a free pass to burn each other’s economies while preaching solidarity.
The question isn’t whether the EU can sanction Tenex.
It’s why it hasn’t – and whether it’s finally time to light the match.