The U.S. House of Representatives approved a bill on Monday to ban the import of enriched uranium produced by Russia. The bill would ban the imports 90 days after enactment, subject to waivers. House Energy and Commerce Committee Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers said it would strengthen the country’s energy and national security by prohibiting imports of Russian uranium for nuclear power plants, and she warned about the risks of continuing dependence on Russia for nuclear fuels.
McMorris said Russia’s uranium production is controlled by Rosatom, a state-owned nuclear energy company formed by Russian President Vladimir Putin in 2007. She also mentioned that Rosatom and its fuel subsidiaries received over $800 million from the U.S. nuclear power industry last year and expressed concern that these resources could be going towards funding Putin’s war efforts in Ukraine. McMorris added how Putin has weaponized Europe’s reliance on Russian natural gas, and she warned that there’s no reason to believe Russia wouldn’t do the same with the U.S. nuclear fuel supply if Putin saw an opportunity.
The United States has more nuclear reactors than any other country and last year imported about 27 percent of their uranium from Canada, 25 percent from Kazakhstan, and 12 percent from Russia. The bill must pass the Senate and be signed by President Joe Biden before becoming law. Republican senator John Barrasso, who represents the state of Wyoming, which leads in uranium production, applauded the House for passing a bipartisan companion bill to Ms. Rodgers’s proposal in the upper chamber to ban imports of Russian uranium. He indicated that the U.S. spends roughly $1 billion per year on nuclear fuel from Russia and stated that the proposed legislation aims to end the country’s dependence on Russian nuclear fuel.