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US reliance on Russia’s nuclear fuel poses a critical threat to national security and climate goals, said a senior Biden administration official, who urged Congress to provide funds to rebuild its domestic supply chain and restrict imports from the country.
Kathryn Huff, assistant secretary for nuclear energy, told the Financial Times it was “gravely concerning” that about 20 per cent of fuel used by the US nuclear reactor fleet is supplied through enrichment contracts with Russian suppliers.
Russia controls almost 50 per cent of global enrichment capacity and had worked successfully to undermine the US nuclear supply chain over many years by dumping cheap enriched uranium products on world markets, she said.
“It’s really critical that we get off of our dependence, especially from Russia,” Huff said in an interview.
“Without action Russia will continue to hold on to this market . . . this is really important for national security, for climate, for our energy independence.”
The US and its allies imposed sanctions against Russia’s oil and gas industries following Vladimir Putin’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine last year, costing Moscow tens of billions of dollars in lost revenues. But Washington has refrained from preventing Russia’s nuclear giant Rosatom from selling nuclear fuel and enrichment services to US and western power plant operators, as there are few alternative supply sources.
The nuclear fuel supply chain begins with mining and milling uranium ore. But it is the chemical process of converting the ore into uranium hexafluoride gas and then enriching the uranium-235 isotope to a level of about 5 per cent that is required for standard forms of nuclear fuel — and this is dominated by Rosatom, experts say.
There are only a handful of western suppliers of enrichment for nuclear fuel, including France’s Orano and Urenco, a UK, German and Dutch consortium. Tenex, a subsidiary of Rosatom, is the only company in the world providing commercial sales of a new type of fuel called Haleu — high-assay low-enriched uranium — that is enriched to between 5-20 per cent and could power a new generation of smaller, more efficient reactors.
Huff said the Biden administration had asked Congress for an extra $2.16bn to support a strategy to incentivise US-based companies to boost enrichment and conversion capacity. The plan would make the Department of Energy a long-term buyer of last resort for companies to assure adequate fuel supply for the expanding future nuclear reactor fleet, she said.
However, the success of this public investment would depend on imposing long-term restrictions on Russian nuclear products and services, she said.
“We have seen in the past that the dumping of cheap Russian enriched uranium products has historically really damaged our fuel cycle and has brought us to where we are today,” said Huff, adding there was bipartisan support for nuclear energy in Congress.
A bill banning uranium imports from Russia passed a subcommittee in the House of Representatives in May. A similar bill is before the Senate.
Concerns about the west’s reliance on Russian nuclear products have helped push up the price of uranium and related products, as utilities seek alternative sources of supply.
“There is alignment in our industry to step away from Russia, but you need something to step to. We really need to increase capacity in that part of the supply chain,” said Maria Korsnick, chief executive of the Nuclear Energy Institute, an industry group in Washington.
The nuclear industry is growing as China and others expand their reactor fleet to meet emissions reduction targets while increasing baseload power capacity.
Huff said five to 10 contracts to build new reactors needed to be signed within the next two to three years if the US were to meet its 2050 climate goals.
“In the next two or three years we need to see those contracts in hand, or else we will not reach the commercial lift-off that is required to get to the amount of clean power we need for 2050,” she said.
The US is working closely with allies — Canada, France, Japan and the UK — to secure the supply chain and has begun funding some projects. It is supporting an expansion of capacity at Urenco’s enrichment plant in New Mexico, which is expected to be complete by 2027.
The Department of Energy has also co-funded a pilot project led by Centrus, which expects to produce its first batch of Haleu fuel within weeks.
“Legally, Russian materials are still available and being bought and sold,” said Daniel Poneman, Centrus chief executive. “But the politics around it have transformed dramatically and not all, but many of the current importers of Russian enriched uranium would like to move to other sources of supply.”
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