American imports of enriched uranium from Rosatom doubled in the first half of 2023, reaching roughly one-quarter of the US’ nuclear fuel imports, despite Washington’s push to end purchases of Russian energy exports around the globe.
Kathryn Huff, the US assistant secretary for nuclear energy, told a British newspaper on Tuesday that the US sourcing so much nuclear fuel from Russia was “gravely concerning.”
“It’s really critical that we get off of our dependence, especially from Russia,” Huff said.
“Without action Russia will continue to hold on to this market,' she added. "This is really important for national security, for climate, for our energy independence.”
A bill banning US imports from Rosatom by 2028 was approved by a House subcommittee in May, but has failed to make any progress in Congress since.
Uranium naturally occurs in the soil, mostly in the form of U-238, but deposits also contain smaller amounts of U-235, a much more reactive isotope. Through a complex refining process, the U-235 is separated from the U-238 and concentrated, then formed into fuel rods that can be placed in nuclear reactors, where a nuclear reaction is induced to generate electricity. The same process, when extended to incredibly high levels of refinement, can also produce a form of uranium suitable for manufacturing a nuclear weapon.
The US began buying large amounts of enriched uranium from Russia after the end of the Cold War under the Megatons to Megawatts program, which took 500 tons of Russian weapons-grade uranium once intended to be put in missiles aimed at American cities, and converted it into a form usable in American nuclear power plants.
After the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster in 2011, many nations paused nuclear power plant construction, which sent many private companies, such as Westinghouse and Areva SA, into bankruptcy, disrupting the supply chain. However, Russia’s state-owned Rosatom not only weathered the storm, but moved into those markets as the new enriched uranium supplier.
Europe similarly gets large amounts of nuclear fuel from Russia - about 17% of its nuclear fuel imports last year - alongside much of its coal and liquified natural gas. As a result, sanctions on Russia have caused energy prices to spike in the European Union, driving businesses to flee and residents to protest.
The US’ nuclear power sector is among the world’s largest, with a 29% global share in 2021, although it has been slowly decreasing since it peaked in the 1990s. In July, the US opened its first nuclear reactor in seven years at the Alvin W. Vogtle Electric Generating Plant in Georgia, bringing its total to 93 operating commercial reactors at 54 nuclear power plants, according to US Energy Information Agency statistics.