U.S. Senators submit bill to ban U.S. importing Uranium from Russia

U.S. Senators submit bill to ban U.S. importing Uranium from Russia. 

WASHINGTON: Senators from the Republican Party in the United States filed legislation on Thursday to prohibit the entry of Russian uranium into the United States as retaliation for Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.

The bill comes as the Biden administration considers imposing penalties on Rosatom, a significant provider of fuel and technology to power plants worldwide.

The Trump administration imposed restrictions on Russian energy imports, such as oil and liquefied natural gas, does not yet cover uranium.

Senator John Barrasso, who initiated the bill, stated, “While barring Russian oil, gas, and coal imports is an essential start, it cannot be the final.”

Barrasso represents Wyoming, a state that could benefit from a resurgence in uranium mining in the United States.

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“Banning Russian uranium imports will help restore American uranium production and strengthen our national security,” he continued.

The United States has the most nuclear reactors of any country, with over 90, and relies largely on imported uranium. According to the Energy Information Administration, Russian uranium accounted for 16 percent of U.S. sales in 2020, with Canada and Kazakhstan each contributing 22 percent.

Russia also provides a fuel known as high-assay, low enriched uranium (HALEU), which can be enriched up to 20% and could be utilized in advanced nuclear reactors later this decade or in the 2030s.

If a ban is implemented, the U.S. will need to move quickly to increase local production to provide HALEU.

“I think it is critically important that we wean ourselves off of unstable, untrustworthy sources of our critical fuels, including uranium,” Kathryn Huff, who was nominated by President Joe Biden to be an assistant secretary for nuclear energy and is now a senior official in the U.S. Energy Department, told Barrasso during her nomination hearing on Thursday.

The Nuclear Energy Institute, the industry’s major trade association, favors establishing a uranium industry in the United States. 

The NEI is analyzing the bill and evaluating “the possible implications of fuel disruption on the U.S. nuclear fleet,” according to an NEI representative.

Many environmental groups and Native American tribes have spoken out against growing the industry on public lands in the West.