Media: US hopes to reduce dependence on Russian uranium by increasing production

The Joe Biden administration is pushing lawmakers to support a $4.3 billion plan to buy enriched uranium directly from local producers, Bloomberg writes , citing its sources.

The United States Department of Energy discussed this issue at a meeting with legislators, as a result of which it was decided to allocate funds for these purposes. Representatives of the department are afraid of interruptions in the operation of industrial nuclear reactors as a result of interruptions in the supply of Russian enriched uranium.

It should be noted that at present there is only one enterprise operating on American territory that is engaged in the enrichment of uranium for commercial use - in the state of New Mexico. It is owned by the European consortium URENCO (Great Britain, Germany, the Netherlands). In 2020, Washington bought from Moscow about 23% of the total amount of enriched uranium needed to operate the reactors.

In early spring, Republican senators introduced a bill to ban imports of uranium from Russia as part of yet another anti-Russian sanctions.

Earlier, Washington said it was working on a strategy to phase out Russian uranium. According to Secretary of Energy Jenifer Granholm, the United States "wants to be sure that it can provide civilian nuclear facilities with both HALEU (High-Enriched Fuel) and low-enriched uranium."

In March, the United States announced it was phasing out Russian oil, as well as buying liquefied natural gas and coal.