The US can’t seem to quit Russian uranium

When the US stopped buying Russian energy products, they didn't include uranium. Russian oil, coal, and gas were banned by the president. Russia's state-owned nuclear power company,Rosatom, was considered by the administration. Biden's plans to include nuclear reactor in a transition to clean energy have left the uranium trade untouched.

Russia's invasion of Ukraine has forced the US to grapple with vulnerabilities in its supply chain. The debate over what role nuclear energy might play in the future of the power grid is heating up. The stakes have been raised quickly.

The head of the energy department at Ukrainian environmental says that the US's exclusion of uranium from energy sanctions was very frustrating. The light reflected through the tape covering his windows was what made the room bright. He explained that the tape was a preventative measure to prevent shards of glass from flying.

Putin created the state company,Rosatom, in 2007, and it now produces nearly 20 percent of the world's nuclear fuel. Russian officials denied allegations that they would take over the management of the largest nuclear power plant in the country.

Several local and environmental groups sent a letter to Biden and European leaders asking them to cut ties with Russia'sRosatom and ban nuclear fuel imports from Russia. It is not a simple request. In 2020, those imports made up about 16 percent of the US's supply. The US imports little coal and no natural gas from Russia, which is why the 7 percent of oil imports that came from Russia was larger.

Across the world, it is a fairly common metal. According to the World Nuclear Association, 85 percent of it is produced in six countries.

The yellowcake looks like yellow chalk after being refined into a solid form of uranium. There are more steps to be taken to turn that yellowcake into fuel. The yellowcake needs to be converted into gas so that it can be enriched. The concentration of U-235 in a typical reactor is between 3 and 5 percent. Fuel rods for the reactor are made from enriched Uranium.

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The conversion and enrichment processes are the biggest problem in the supply chain. According to the Nuclear Energy Institute, Russia, France, Canada, and the United States are the only places in the world that can be used for the conversion step. Only a few countries, including Russia, the US, and a few western European countries, have the ability to enrich the uranium.

There are a couple reasons why this capacity isn't more widespread. Nuclear energy or nuclear weapons can be used with enriched uranium. Not having many of these facilities around the world has been seen as a good security measure. It hasn't made sense to invest in more capacity globally because of the saturated market for conversion and enrichment services. At least until now.

Demand for a more diversified supply chain is being driven by the war in Ukraine. In the US, it has increased calls to mine domestically. The Biden administration is rushing to draft requests for two programs aimed at developing more highly enriched fuel and creating a Strategic Uranium Reserve. There is only one American uranium mill in White Mesa, Arizona. It was too small to report in 2020, according to the World Nuclear Association.

We can no longer tolerate this dependence on nuclear fuel or the flow of U.S. dollars to buy it. Scott Melbye, President of the Uranium Producers of America and Executive Vice President of Uranium Energy Corp., said in a press release that the U.S. has ample resources and the capacity to produce them at the highest global standards.

Photo by: Jon G. Fuller/VWPics/Universal Images Group via Getty Images

The Nuclear Energy Institute, a trade group that includes utilities, supports more conversion and enrichment capacity, but still supports an all-out ban on Russian uranium.

It would take a little more time before the power supply in the US would be affected by shocks to the uranium supply chain. Plans to tackle climate change could be disrupted by the loss of Russian uranium.

Next-generation nuclear reactor generally require fuel that is enriched with up to 20 percent U-235, called HALEU. This is for low-enriched uranium. LEU is short for low-enriched uranium and it is the fuel older reactor use. Nuclear power plants can go longer with higher enrichment. Smaller reactor designs can be made with the more energy-dense fuel. Russia is the only major supplier of HALEU.

Alan Ahn, a senior resident fellow for the think tank Third Way, says that any prospects of Russian supply of HALEU went down the drain after they invaded Ukraine.

Two Department of Energy-funded demonstration projects for advanced reactor will need a HALEU by the end of 2024, according to Ashkeboussi. There is some HALEU in the DOE. It would take at least four years to get a new production facility in the US.

The funding boost for the DOE is included in Biden's budget proposal. It is part of a broader push to speed up the development of technologies that can transform the US economy into one that runs entirely on carbon-free electricity.

Biden wants that done by the year 2035. It would be a huge lift and axing nuclear energy would make it even harder. Nuclear energy supplies less than 20 percent of the nation's electricity, but more than half of the US's carbon-free energy.

The climate crisis is an urgent threat. Climate scientists have found that the world has a few decades to eliminate greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuels or face a catastrophic climate crisis. Nuclear energy is more attractive to some environmentalists, who say it is needed to provide consistent power as wind and solar power ebb and flow with the weather.

Nuclear energy is a no-go for other advocates because of the risks at the beginning and end of the fuel's lifecycle. The US is still cleaning up a legacy of Cold War-era uranium mining on Navajo land that has been linked to a number of diseases. Nuclear waste at power plants is in limbo because of the federal government's inability to find a permanent storage solution.

The red flag has already been raised for tribes and activists who have pushed back against nearby uranium mines and waste sites. The site in Arizona still has leftover radioactive waste even though the US's sole uranium mill has stopped producing yellowcake. If the US ramps up its domestic supply of uranium, it could cause the mill to restart its production. The site of the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe has been pushed to close by members of the tribe.

Photo by Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

Before the current conflict in Ukraine, the Ukrainian activist was wary of nuclear energy. Fossil fuels and nuclear energy have been phased out by his environmental group. Nuclear power is more important to Ukraine than any other nation. Half of the nation's electricity is supplied by nuclear power plants. The largest plant, Zaporizhzhia, has survived Russian shelling. The site of the worst nuclear power plant disaster in history, Chernobyl, has been seized by Russia.

When the world is shaking, thinking about what will happen in Ukraine with nuclear power plants. You have to phase it out.