Russian uranium made up 16% of US purchases in 2020.
Washington:
US Republican senators 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 Biden administration is weighing sanctions on Russian nuclear power company Rosatom, a major supplier of fuel and technology to power plants around the world.
Uranium is not yet included in the administration’s ban on US imports of Russian energy such as oil and liquefied natural gas.
“Banning imports of Russian oil, gas and coal is an important step, but it may not be the last,” said Senator John Barrasso, who introduced the bill.
Barrasso represents Wyoming, a state that could benefit from a revitalization in US uranium mining.
“Banning Russian uranium imports would further weaken Russia’s war machine, help revive US uranium production and enhance our national security,” he said.
The United States has more than 90 nuclear reactors, more than any other country, and is heavily dependent on imported uranium. According to the Energy Information Administration, Russian uranium made up 16% of US purchases in 2020, with Canada and Kazakhstan each providing 22%.
Russia also supplies a fuel called highly enriched, low-assay uranium (HALEU) that is enriched by up to 20% and could be used in advanced nuclear plants to be developed by the end of this decade or in the 2030s.
If sanctions are implemented the United States will need to move quickly on building large domestic capacity to supply Halleu.
Katherine Huff, who was nominated by President Joe Biden to be the Assistant Secretary of State for Atomic Energy and is now a senior official at the US Department of Energy, told Barrasso at her nomination hearing on Thursday, “I think it’s serious. It is critically important that we wean ourselves away from volatile, unreliable sources of our vital fuel, including uranium.”
The Atomic Energy Institute, the industry’s main trade group, supports the development of the US uranium industry. An NEI spokesman said the group was reviewing the bill and assessing “the potential impacts of fuel disruption on the US nuclear fleet.”
Several environmental groups and tribes have opposed the expansion of industry on land in the US West.
(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)