Because the US still imports uranium from Russia
The United States almost immediately stopped Russian gas and oil supplies, but did not include uranium in the embargo. Here because. Facts, numbers and comments
Not without difficulty, the EU countries (including Italy) are doing everything possible to interrupt any commercial relationship with Russia, especially with regard to the energy dependence of gas and oil.
The United States too. Indeed, they were the first to announce the embargo on the purchase of hydrocarbons and invited the allies to follow their example.
However, there is one supply they just can't give up: uranium.
US DEPENDENCE ON RUSSIAN Uranium
While it was possible to stop buying gas and oil from Moscow thanks to a much more limited dependence on countries like Italy or Germany, the United States is having the same problems with uranium as we do.
According to the US Energy Information Administration , the US Department of Energy's statistical and analytical agency, the country imports 22% uranium from both Canada and Kazakhstan and 16% from Russia, followed by Australia (11%). , Uzbekistan (8%) and Namibia (5%). The remaining 14% comes, however, from the US itself and from 5 other countries.
But apart from dependence on Moscow, the presence among the importing countries of Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, which are close allies of the Kremlin, and combined provide the United States with 46% of the uranium it needs, is no less relevant. Almost half.
WHAT IT IS USED FOR AND WHERE IS URANIUM
While uranium is a common metal found in rocks around the world, 85% of it is produced in just six countries, according to the World Nuclear Association : Russia, Kazakhstan, Canada, Australia, Namibia and Niger.
Most of the imported uranium, according to the US Energy Information Administration, is used by the United States as a fuel, it is in fact the most used by nuclear power plants for nuclear fission.
HOW MUCH US NUCLEAR PLANTS SPEND ON URIUM
In 2020, US nuclear reactor owners and operators purchased the equivalent of approximately 48.9 million pounds of uranium, according to data from the Department of Energy Agency.
HOW MUCH ELECTRICITY THE USA GETS FROM NUCLEAR
Furthermore, the United States derives about 19% of its electricity from nuclear power.
HOW MUCH IT WOULD COST THE US TO GIVE UP PUTIN'S Uranium
According to the US Department of Energy's estimate, giving up Putin's uranium does not seem a viable option, at least in the immediate future.
In fact, the American industry is not only dependent on it today but, according to the New York Times , the Biden administration – to facilitate the energy transition – intends to invest in a new type of nuclear reactors that require a particular type of enriched uranium produced on a commercial scale only by Russia.
Calculations have predicted that replacing Russian uranium could cost more than a billion dollars.
WHY IT IS DIFFICULT TO REPLACE RUSSIA
The main bottleneck in the supply chain, explains The Verge , is in the uranium conversion and enrichment processes.
For the conversion phase, according to the Nuclear Energy Institute , you can only turn to Russia, France, Canada and the United States.
And for enrichment only to Russia, the United States and some Western European countries.
The reasons for these limited capabilities are two: first, enriched uranium can be used not only for nuclear energy but also for nuclear weapons and therefore not having many of these facilities in the world has been seen as a safety measure; and then, the market for conversion and enrichment services was considered, at least until now, to be saturated.
THE UKRAINIAN DISAPPOINTMENT
The US exclusion of uranium from energy sanctions "has been very frustrating because we understand that this is part of the Russian war machine," Kostiantyn Krynytskyi, head of the energy department of Ukrainian environmental organization Ekodia, told The Verge . .
Ekodia, the article reports, was one of several local and environmental groups that sent a letter to Biden and European leaders asking them to ban nuclear fuel imported from Russia and cut ties with Rosatom, the Russian state-owned company. from Putin in 2007, which produces nearly 20% of the world's nuclear fuel – thus providing an important revenue stream for Moscow just like fossil fuels do.
EXIT STRATEGY
“We can no longer tolerate this dependence on nuclear fuel or the flow of US dollars for uranium purchases that support the Putin regime. The United States has extensive uranium resources and the ability to produce them to the highest global standards, ” commented Scott Melbye, president of Uranium Producers of America and executive vice president of Uranium Energy Corp.
A position shared by both Democratic and Republican members. Both factions have in fact presented two bills: one coming from the Republican John Barrasso, representative of Wyoming (where, among other things, there are many uranium mines) and another bipartisan.
The desire to isolate Moscow and stop financing its war in Ukraine therefore remains the priority even if it will not be easy to run the activity of 90 nuclear reactors, the highest number in the world owned by the United States.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/energia/perche-gli-stati-uniti-non-possono-rimpiazzare-uranio-russo/ on Fri, 22 Apr 2022 10:20:27 +0000.