Officials in Britain, Belgium and other European countries have said they will adjust their policies to boost nuclear power as the conflict between Russia and Ukraine continues to affect energy markets.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said Monday he was "extremely frustrated" at the slow pace of development of the country's nuclear power industry, which aims to generate 25 percent of its electricity by 2050.

Belgium announced last week that it would delay by a decade its plan to abolish nuclear power by 2025, citing a sharp rise in energy prices caused by the russia-Ukraine conflict that disrupted supplies.

The Belgian government agreed to extend the life of reactor 4 at the Dur nuclear power plant near the port city of Antwerp and reactor 3 at the Tienger nuclear power plant near Liege to 2035.

The Federal government has decided to take the necessary steps to extend the life of the two nuclear reactors by 10 years, Prime Minister Yair De Coleux said. Belgium's energy ministry is due to present a draft by the end of the month and plans to invest 1.1 billion euros ($1.2 billion) to finance the energy transition.

Belgium's commitment to phase out nuclear power was written into law in 2003, initially to switch to natural gas, with plans for a gas-fired power plant north of Brussels.

France last month announced a revival of its nuclear power plans with six new EpR reactors, the first of which is expected to come online by 2035. At the same time, the feasibility plan of building eight more nuclear reactors will be studied. On the basis of ensuring safety, the service life of existing nuclear reactors will be raised to more than 50 years. As long as safety conditions permit, France will not shut down existing nuclear reactors.

In December 2021, the Dutch forward nuclear energy can effectively supplement the solar, wind and geothermal energy, through the construction of nuclear power plant, reducing gas import dependence, plans to build two new nuclear power plants, and let the existing plants on the premise of safe operation for a longer time, at the same time, 2025 years ago, will provide 500 million euros for new plant construction financial support.

Meanwhile, in Germany, Europe's largest economy, there are calls to rethink the phase-out of nuclear power.

The price of uranium has risen about 40 percent since the conflict between Russia and Ukraine escalated and is at an 11-year high. While the conflict has not directly affected uranium supplies, industry insiders say the surge in prices has been fuelled by Europe's rethinking of nuclear power as it tries to wean itself off Russian oil and gas.

The price of uranium, a key ingredient used to generate nuclear power, recently climbed to about $60 a pound, its highest level since March 2011, according to UxC, a nuclear fuel consultancy. Until the conflict between Russia and Ukraine escalated on Feb. 24, the price of uranium remained around $43.

Mr. Hanzer, president of UxC, noted that the russia-Ukraine conflict would not have an immediate impact because no one is going to build new nuclear reactors overnight to make up for the shortfall in oil or gas. However, there are signs that some European countries may change their stance on nuclear power, keeping existing reactors longer or building new ones sooner as they seek to diversify away from dependence on Russian oil and gas.

According to data from Eurostat in 2022, 13 EU member states, including France and Germany, have nuclear power plants, which account for about 25% of the eu's total electricity generation. There are 109 nuclear reactors in operation in the EU, of which France is the largest nuclear power producer, accounting for 52% of the total nuclear power generation in the EU. Germany, Spain and Sweden are next, together accounting for more than three-quarters of the EU's nuclear capacity. Slovakia, Hungary, Bulgaria and the Czech Republic also have nuclear plants in central and eastern Europe.