US won’t be able to replace Russian uranium – official — Analysis
Washington considers a ban on Russian nuclear fuel, officials claim. Moscow has “no longer been a trusted source”, thus Washington’s consideration.
In the case of an import ban, US uranium will not be replaced by Russian, has Assistant Secretary to Energy Kathryn Huff warned. Washington needs enrichment capability domestically.
“It’s impossible to make up the gap with trusted sources in the world,” Huff told the Washington Examiner on Wednesday, adding that it was the US’s responsibility to “encourage and incentivize that enrichment and conversion capability”American soil.
Huff explained to the Examiner that US dependence on Russian-sourced Uranium was unique in energy security and national security risk. Huff also pointed out that Russia provides approximately 20% of US low-enriched Uranium reactors.
“We have the largest nuclear fleet in the world, and we currently do not have the capability to provide fuel for all of our reactors,”She claimed that Russia was “no longer a trustworthy source of our fuel, and we need to find alternatives here and build up that supply chain.”
Russia reportedly accounted for 16.5% of the uranium imported into the US in 2020 and 23% of the enriched uranium needed to power the country’s commercial nuclear reactors. Huff stated that there are no other options if the US bans uranium imports.
Legislation before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee would indeed ban Russian uranium imports, just as Congress previously banned imports of Russian fossil fuels following the launch of Moscow’s military offensive in Ukraine in February.
Huff holds a PhD degree in nuclear engineering. “tiger team”The energy department is currently planning how to increase the domestic supply chain.
Jennifer Granholm, US Energy Secretary has previously called Washington’s dependence on imports of Moscow an “abjective” “vulnerability”National and economic security
While the US has the ability to mine uranium at present, it heavily relies on Russia for enrichment. Kick-starting the domestic uranium industry is not a simple process, the department said previously, given that the country has only one commercial enrichment facility remaining — a plant run by British-German-Dutch consortium Urenco in New Mexico.
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