International Nuclear Cooperation of Russia: Regions and Strategic Priorities

   Energy security has become a defining factor in contemporary international relations, with nuclear energy playing a critical role in long-term diversification strategies. Today, Russia possesses one of the most geographically diversified portfolios of cooperation in the peaceful use of nuclear energy.

   The purpose of this study is to identify how Russia influences different regions in the field of energy security through its nuclear projects.

   The basic research method is content-analysis of the annual reports of Atomenergoprom JSC for 2018–2023, conducted in MAXQDA. More than 1,300 text segments referring to 41 partner countries were coded and grouped into eight regional clusters. Each cluster was further classified by the main areas of cooperation: nuclear projects; nuclear fuel and the fuel cycle; technological innovation; operation and maintenance. The results show that Russia’s nuclear strategy exhibits regional variation. Post-socialist Eastern and Central Europe countries as well as post-Soviet Eastern European countries remain the core of the strategy, ranging from the construction of new power units to the modernization of existing plants. The Middle East and North Africa, as well as South Asia, form the most active clusters with large multi-unit projects that support diversification of the energy mix in Turkey, Egypt, India, and Bangladesh. In East and Southeast Asia, extensive cooperation with China stands out on water-water energetic reactors and fast reactors. In Central Asia, traditional formats of uranium mining are combined with plans for nuclear power plants construction and the deployment of Small modular reactors. Latin America and sub-Saharan Africa represent new directions, focused on research centers, while in Western Europe and North America, after 2022, limited cooperation has shifted to structural competition.

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