Russia and China are alarmed over the G-7 nations’ increasing support for Ukraine. Beijing is concerned about the West’s (and India, Japan, and Australia’s) challenge to its claims to the South China Sea. The U.S. and its allies are resisting the autocrats’ supply chain pre-eminence, while Moscow worries about Kyiv receiving more military support, including F-16 fighter-bombers. It is only a matter of time until the West starts targeting one industry that has remained untouched by U.S.-led sanctions thus far: civilian nuclear power, including fuel.

Despite all sanctions, Russia remains a leader in enriched uranium production. Russian state-owned behemoth Rosatom alone controls 38% of the enriched uranium market, with Russia as a whole holding 46%. Although the sanctions hit the Russian hydrocarbon energy empire hard, which has led to the loss of the European market, nuclear power remains one of the few industries not targeted. As you read this, many nuclear power plants in the West are running on Russian-enriched uranium.

Moscow’s dominant position in the nuclear supply chain grants Russia influence over the nuclear renaissance in the West, vital for the transition to low-carbon energy generation and helps fund its war machine in Ukraine. To redress these challenges, last month the United States, France, Japan, Canada, and the United Kingdom formed the Nuclear Fuel Alliance (NFA) to develop a shared supply chain for nuclear fuel. It is 23 years overdue, but better late than never.

The NFA will help protect the atomic energy supply chain by dislodging Russian influence over the international nuclear energy market. Companies such as the British-Dutch consortium Urenco Group, Cameco in Canada, Framatome in France, and Westinghouse Electric Company in the US stand to benefit from this move. This measure also aims to secure the net-zero targets to mitigate the impact of climate change by promoting nuclear power.

The uranium trade has been highly scrutinized around the globe because of its dual-use nature. For decades the US Atomic Energy Council was the only legal purchaser of uranium. Similar arrangements prevail globally, meaning that in every country the uranium market is usually a monopsony, a situation where there is only one purchaser of a good. The NFA aims to create a global monopsony. This would provide member states with collective bargaining power that would otherwise be overshadowed by Russia’s tight grasp on the enriched uranium market.

Directly hindering Russia’s ability to profit from the uranium trade is another critical takeaway from the announcement made at the G7 summit. With ongoing sanctions, Russia has been concentrating its investments on key industries where it can still legally make money. Uranium enrichment is a major one. ROSATOM alone contributes more than 1 billion dollars annually to Russia’s economy. Despite financial obstacles that caused an energy crisis in Europe, we are still indirectly funding the Russian army for lack of alternatives. A global monopsony on uranium could be enough to develop alternative sources of uranium and the capacity to enrich it for civilian uses outside of Russia.

The timing is right for an alliance of this kind. Nuclear power’s share is expected to expand in energy markets in the near future due to its lower emission capabilities. Nuclear reactors currently provide about 18% of all energy needs in OECD countries. With electricity demand outpacing overall energy use by almost double, we should be adding more nuclear energy to the mix. The political and environmental pressure to abandon fossil fuels has already made investments in atomic power reach over 35 billion dollars in the last five years alone. Western leaders finally understand that the dependence on an increasingly aggressive Russia for uranium is unacceptable.

The NFA may address more than just the many strategic and proximate problems. It could fundamentally reshape the international geoeconomics balance between consumers and producers. This will make resource cartels like OPEC+ weary while providing a path forward to mitigating import dependency in other strategic sectors, such as Western dependence on Chinese rare earth elements.

If a demand-side alliance can ensure a steadier market and a more diversified uranium supply, then the NFA will be more than successful. Displacing Russia’s influence on uranium enrichment is necessary to protect the significant infrastructure investments countries have committed to, ensure the global green energy transition continues, and starve the Russian war machine of cash to the extent possible. The NFA’s establishment is a promising step in shielding individuals, civilian nuclear power generators, government actors, and the international system as a whole from Russia’s uranium-fueled aggression.