Despite efforts to reduce dependence on supplies from Moscow, the US is still importing a large part of Russia's nuclear fuel. Speaking at an event organized by the Atlantic Council on January 15, US Assistant Secretary of State Geoffrey Pyatt, a former US Ambassador to Ukraine in 2014, revealed: The US still imports about 20% of its nuclear fuel from Russia. It will take time to build a replacement supply chain.
According to the US Energy Information Administration (EIA), Russia will provide about 27% of the enriched uranium that US civil nuclear reactors will purchase in 2023.
Although President Joe Biden signed a law banning uranium imports from Russia last year, special exemptions still allow the US to continue buying, in some cases, until 2028. In response to the ban, the Russian government in November imposed a temporary ban on exports of enriched uranium to the US.
Although the US owns uranium mines, domestic mining and enrichment activities have declined significantly over the past decades due to competition from cheap foreign producers and environmental concerns. According to online platform Nuclear Insider, this has caused domestic production facilities to fall to the brink.
There are many important policy decisions that need to be made regarding uranium supply chains and nuclear fuel, Nick Lawson, CEO of Ocean Wall, told the Financial Times. Building new facilities will take many years and require huge costs".
Russia currently holds about half of the global uranium enrichment capacity, playing a key role in the supply of this fuel. This helps Russia maintain its leading position in the market, according to the latest figures.
Notably, the price of enriched uranium has skyrocketed to a record high this month, as major technology companies such as Microsoft and Amazon seek to use this fuel to operate energy-consuming data centers, in the context of the heating up race for artificial intelligence.
Washington has pledged billions of dollars to expand domestic nuclear fuel production, including allocating $2.72 billion from the Law banning Imports of Uranium from Russia to invest in uranium enrichment facilities in the US.
However, escaping dependence on Russia remains a major challenge for the US in the coming time.
