Republican senators from the United States on Thursday introduced a bill to ban US imports of Russian uranium to punish Moscow for its invasion of Ukraine.
The bill comes as the Joe Biden administration is considering sanctions against Russian nuclear power company Rosatom, a major supplier of fuel and technology to power plants around the world. The government’s ban on US imports of Russian energy, such as oil and liquefied natural gas, does not yet include uranium.
“While banning Russian oil, gas and coal imports is an important step, it cannot be the last,” said Senator John Barrasso, who introduced the bill.
Barrasso represents Wyoming, a state that could benefit from a revival in US uranium mining.
“Banning Russian uranium imports will further weaken Russia’s war machine, help revive American uranium production and enhance our national security,” he added.
The United States has more than 90 nuclear reactors, more than any other country, and is heavily dependent on uranium imports. Russian uranium accounted for 16% of US purchases in 2020, according to the Energy Information Administration, with Canada and Kazakhstan providing 22%.
Russia also supplies a fuel called highly enriched low-test uranium (HALEU), which is enriched by up to 20% and can be used in advanced nuclear power plants that are expected to be developed later this decade or in the 2030s.
The United States would likely need to act quickly to build greater domestic capacity to supply HALEU if a ban were enacted.
Kathryn Huff, who was appointed by President Joe Biden to be assistant secretary for nuclear energy and is now a senior official at the U.S. Department of Energy, told Barrasso at her nomination hearing on Thursday: out of unstable sources and unreliable fuels from our critical fuels, including uranium.”
The Nuclear Energy Institute, the industry’s leading trade group, supports the development of a US uranium industry. Many environmental groups and tribes opposed the expansion of the industry to land in the American West.
Source: CNN Brasil
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