Two cooling towers of a nuclear power facility in Tennessee.
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The Trump administration is hastening measures to spur domestic production of enriched uranium to counteract a full ban on Russian imports that will take effect in 2028.
In 2024, President Joe Biden signed into law H.R.1042: Prohibiting Russian Uranium Imports Act. Consequently, imports of unirradiated low-enriched uranium and natural uranium produced in the Russian Federation or by a Russian entity are against the law unless the Secretary of Energy grants a waiver.
Exceptions can be granted to American companies except under certain circumstances such as a critical support for the nuclear energy fuel supply chain. The waivers stop Jan. 1, 2028.
Commercial nuclear power reactors currently provide 20% of the U.S. energy supply each year.
The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission recently discussed the need to curb domestic nuclear power plants’ reliance on imported uranium during a May 7 in a strategic programmatic meeting.
Chairman Ho K. Nieh said “the United States depends too heavily on foreign uranium and enrichment, and that has to change.”
Andrea Kock, director of the commission’s Office of Nuclear Materials Safety and Safeguards, echoed this sentiment. “The ban on the use of Russian uranium, which the chairman mentioned, goes into full effect in 2028, and has resulted in an urgent need to increase the domestic capacity for enriched uranium.”
The problem is that American nuclear power plants rely mainly on imported uranium concentrate (U3O8) for nearly all of their fuel.
This heavy reliance was illustrated by the U.S. Energy Information Admiration figures for 2023 showing U.S. nuclear generators needed to buy 99% of their U3O8 from other countries—namely Canada, Australia, Russia, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan.
U.S. Agencies Taking Action
U.S. Department of Energy headquarters in Washington, DC.
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Both the U.S. Department of Energy and the NRC have been taking multiple actions to facilitate the development of more domestic nuclear power and encourage investments to strengthen the nuclear fuel supply chain.
The NRC announced May 21 it is reviewing a request for “a major new uranium enrichment facility” in Tennessee that would help alleviate the need for imports. The commission noted it will accelerate a technical review to be completed within 12 months as part of its licensing process modernization efforts.
“NRC is safely enabling America’s efforts to reduce U.S. dependency on foreign enrichment,” Nieh said. “Credible, predictable and timely safety reviews—this is how NRC supports American leadership in nuclear energy.”
Orano Enrichment USA LLC is asking for a license to build and operate a new uranium enrichment facility called Project IKE, near Oak Ridge, Tenn.
The facility “will use gas centrifuge technology to produce low-enriched uranium for commercial nuclear power plants, reducing U.S. dependence on foreign uranium enrichment, a critical vulnerability that policymakers and industry leaders have flagged as a national energy security concern,” according to the NRC.
In January, DOE revealed it would invest $2.7 billion to bolster American enrichment services during the next 10 years.
Secretary of Energy Chris Wright announced grants have been awarded for low-enriched uranium and high-assay low-enriched uranium (HALEU) projects.
Three ventures each receiving grants for $900 million were:
- American Centrifuge Operating (a wholly owned indirect subsidiary of Centrus Energy Corp.) and General Matter to create domestic HALEU enrichment capacity, and
- Orano Federal Services to expand national low-enriched uranium capacity in a 750,000-square-foot facility aiming to be ranked among North America’s largest uranium enrichment plants.
Japan Transfers HALEU Shipment to U.S.
The DOE’s National Nuclear Security Administration recently hailed Japan’s transfer of 1.7 metric tons of HALEU as the largest single international shipment of uranium to the U.S. in NNSA’s history.
“NNSA is breaking records with rapid approvals and decision making to support America’s nuclear industry,” Administrator Brandon Williams noted in a press statement May 7. “Supplying advanced reactor designs with HALEU fuel is vital to making America energy dominant in pursuit of President Trump’s vision to strengthen our nuclear industrial base.”
The joint NNSA announcement was made by Japan’s Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology and the Japan Atomic Energy Agency.
“Through this partnership with Japan, we are fueling the next generation of nuclear power, and solidifying America’s energy dominance,” remarked Dr. Matthew Napoli, NNSA’s deputy administrator of Defense Nuclear Nonproliferation.
Trump Administration’s “Nuclear Energy Renaissance”
The DOE recently heralded its accomplishments within the last year to unleash more nuclear power into the U.S. energy mix. It cited four executive orders issued by Trump to promote the nuclear energy industry.
“Next-generation reactor designs are moving toward key tests with impressive speed. Licensing for new reactors has been streamlined. Our nuclear fuel supply is being reinforced to meet our future energy demands. Retired nuclear plants are on target to restart, and utilities are gearing up to boost the power output of existing plants,” DOE noted May 23.
It summed up the administration’s focus on what it calls “America’s nuclear energy renaissance” and underscored that the momentum continues.
