One of the main points of the Global Nuclear Energy Partnership (GNEP), announced by the United States in 2004, was to limit spread of enrichment (as well as reprocessing) technology. At the core of the strategy was the idea that countries that don't have fuel cycle facilities would refrain from acquiring them and accept the status of "fuel customers". Fuel services would then be provided by "fuel suppliers", who already have the necessary technology.

There were doubts about the viability of this strategy from the very beginning - it was unclear why uranium suppliers like Australia or Canada would want to forgo the option of moving up the chain and getting into uranium enrichment business, rather than being just suppliers of raw material. Eventually, this is exactly how the GNEP strategy fell apart - Canada, a member of GNEP, apparently secured an arrangement that would allow it to build a uranium enrichment facility.