Washington may set a quota that would limit uranium imports and assure domestic producers provide about 25% of the nation’s supply. Local companies who have lost their market due to imports of cheap uranium from Russia, Kazakhstan, and Uzbekistan have initiated the proposed move, RBC reports.
Energy Fuels and Ur-Energy, the two remaining American uranium-producing companies, submitted a petition in January to the U.S. Commerce Department arguing that U.S. imports of subsidized uranium from foreign state-owned companies threaten to undermine American national security.
They also claimed that Moscow uses control over its energy resources as an economic and political tool, pointing to Russia’s cutoff of gas supplies to Ukraine in 2009 and 2014.
Meanwhile, a source in the TENEX company (uranium exporter, part of the Rosatom State Nuclear Energy Corporation) said the primary objective of that petition is to “protect U.S. producers of natural uranium, which is not supplied from Russia to the U.S.”
The company said it saw no immediate threat to its interests.
According to Atominfo head Alexander Uvarov, the introduction of quotas by Washington is quite feasible, since dependence on uranium imports is a security risk.
Industry sources note that quotas in the U.S. would result in growing domestic prices and create difficulties for U.S. nuclear power plants.
