US dependence on Russian nuclear fuel poses a critical threat to national security and climate goals. This was announced on November 7 by the head of the Office of Nuclear Energy at the US Department of Energy, Catherine Huff.
“It is really important that we get rid of our dependence, especially on Russia. Without action on our part, Russia will continue to hold this market… This is really important for national security, for the climate, for our energy independence,” she said in an interview with the Financial Times .
Huff said it is “seriously concerning” that approximately 20% of the fuel used in US nuclear reactors is supplied through uranium enrichment contracts with Russian suppliers. She clarified that the administration of US President Joe Biden has requested an additional $2.16 billion from Congress to support a strategy to encourage US companies to increase enrichment and conversion capacity, Huff said. The head of the nuclear energy department linked the success of government investment in this area with the introduction of long-term restrictions on the nuclear industry of the Russian Federation.
At the same time, to achieve U.S. climate goals by 2050, five to 10 new reactor contracts will need to be signed over the next two to three years, Huff concluded.
Earlier, on October 25, Biden asked Congress for $6 billion to strengthen energy security , including $2.2 billion for “long-term improvements to domestic enrichment capacity for low-enriched uranium and high-grade low-enriched uranium.”
At the end of August, Bloomberg reported on unsuccessful attempts by the United States and Europe to abandon uranium from the Russian Federation , since about half of its global supply comes from Russia. Agency analysts noted at the time that Rosatom remains the world’s largest uranium enrichment facility, powering nearly a quarter of America’s 92 nuclear reactors and dozens of other power plants across Europe and Asia.
Before this, it became known that the United States purchased 416 tons of uranium from Russia in the first half of 2023 , which is 2.2 times more than the same period last year. Russia, in turn, earned $696.5 million from uranium sales to the United States in the first half of 2023, which is the maximum value since 2002.
