The world argues about uranium mines and enrichment plants, but even fully enriched uranium can't just be “plugged into a reactor.” It's still only a gas or a powder that has to be pressed into tiny ceramic pellets, sealed inside metal tubes, and bundled into a “fuel assembly” tailored to fit one specific reactor design exactly. This is fuel fabrication — the quietest final step of the nuclear fuel cycle, where Russia has an almost total grip on Soviet-design reactors, and the real chokepoint of the SMR era.