Energy Fuels’ White Mesa uranium processing facility.
The U.S. National Mining Association (NMA) applauded the bipartisan passage in both the Senate and House of a bill banning Russian uranium imports into the United States. U.S. Senators John Barrasso (R-Wyo.), Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), Jim Risch (R-Idaho), Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.), Chris Coons (D-Del.), and Roger Marshall (R-Kan.) took the lead in the Senate with a bill that passed unanimously yesterday, and Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.) who authored the bill, which passed the House in December and is now headed to the President’s desk.
“The U.S. needlessly suffers from a near complete import reliance for uranium and in recent years that deficit has been fed in large part by imports from Russia and its former satellites,” said Rich Nolan, NMA president and CEO. “We are home to abundant uranium resources and the world’s largest fleet of nuclear power plants. We simply must do better to support domestic production for our energy and mineral needs and this decisive, bipartisan action in Congress is a significant first step.”
Energy Fuels is the largest producer of uranium in the U.S. and was already ramping up uranium extraction and production at its U.S. mines and its White Mesa Mill in Utah—the nation’s only operating conventional uranium mill.
“The Senate’s passage of a ban on Russian uranium imports is a smart, strategic move that will finally bring uranium into the same category of other sanctioned Russian products such as oil, natural gas and coal,” said Curtis Moore, senior vice president for marketing and corporate development, for Energy Fuels. “U.S. utilities have already been moving away from Russian uranium since the invasion, and this move will also unlock $2.7 billion of funding recently allocated by Congress to re-establish U.S. leadership in nuclear fuel production.”
