Australia and India finalise arrangement to enable Australian uranium exports
India and Australia have finalised the administrative arrangements to allow Australian uranium exports to India for exclusively peaceful use, announced during Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit. Australia is the world's fourth-largest uranium producer, while India plans to reach 100 GW of nuclear capacity by 2047.
India and Australia have finalised the administrative arrangements needed to allow exports of Australian uranium to India, opening a new market for one of the world's largest producers of the fuel. The announcement came during an official visit to Australia by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, according to World Nuclear News.
The arrangement
The deal completes steps left outstanding under a bilateral nuclear cooperation agreement that was signed in 2014 and came into force in November 2015 during a state visit to India by then-Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott. Australian uranium will be supplied to India exclusively for peaceful purposes and under safeguards administered by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
"The arrangement facilitates Australian uranium exports to India to help increase the share of non-fossil fuel power capacity, providing an additional market for the Australian resources sector," the Australian government said in a statement.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said Australia looked forward to "becoming a reliable, trusted supplier of uranium to India," describing the country's natural resources as "vital for other countries' energy security and stability." Modi said the agreement would "open the way for uranium supplies from Australia to India and give new impetus to our clean energy objectives." Speaking during the visit, he described the relationship as offering "historic opportunities" for cooperation in nuclear energy and critical minerals, Reuters reported.
Why the market matters
Australia is the world's fourth-largest producer of uranium, behind Kazakhstan, Canada and Namibia. Almost all of its output — nearly 4,600 tU in 2024 — is exported under strict controls to ensure civilian-only use. India, which runs an ambitious nuclear programme but has few domestic uranium resources, represents a potentially significant new customer.
India currently operates 24 reactors and plans to deploy dozens more to reach 100 GW of nuclear capacity by 2047. That build-out will require large and sustained volumes of imported fuel, making secure supply agreements central to its energy strategy.
Trade context and safeguards
Australia is a signatory of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and requires any buyer to put in place a rigorous bilateral safeguards treaty. India is not an NPT signatory but has what World Nuclear News described as an impeccable non-proliferation record. India was effectively cut off from global nuclear trade until 2008, when it signed a safeguards agreement with the IAEA and the 45-member Nuclear Suppliers Group exempted it from rules barring trade with states outside the treaty.
Australia's own approval process took years. Its Joint Standing Committee on Treaties recommended that sales begin only after conditions on India's regulatory regime, routine inspections and reactor decommissioning plans were met, and a bill on Civil Nuclear Transfers to India passed both houses of the Australian parliament in November 2016.
A competitive supply race
Australia is not the only supplier courting India. In March, Canada's Cameco entered a long-term agreement to supply uranium ore concentrate to India's Department of Atomic Energy (DAE). Under that deal, Cameco will supply nearly 22 million pounds of uranium ore concentrate (U3O8) between 2027 and 2035 on market-related price terms, with a total contract value estimated at about CAD2.6 billion (USD1.9 billion). Cameco had previously supplied India under a five-year contract that began in 2015.
