Biden signs bill banning imports of Russian uranium as nuclear fuel

The United States will ban imported Russian uranium starting August 11, the Energy Department said announced Tuesday.

Russia controls almost half According to the Energy Department, it’s the world's supply of enriched uranium and supplies a couple of quarter of the United States' needs enriched uraniumwhich supplies the country with electricity 94 nuclear reactors.

The BanThe laws, which President Joe Biden signed Monday, also frees up $2.72 billion in federal funding to expand the country's uranium industry.

Exchange-traded funds that track uranium prices rose barely after the announcement Global X Uranium ETF and that Sprott Uranium Miners ETF Trading was about 1% higher on Tuesday.

Because implementing the ban could affect supplies to reactors within the U.S., the law allows some exemptions for utilities that may otherwise be forced to shut down reactors without them. However, all exemptions will expire on or before January 1, 2028.

“Our country’s clean energy future will not depend on Russian imports,” Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said in an announcement. “We are investing in building a secure nuclear fuel supply chain here in the United States.”

While the US continues to import greater than 20% of that enriched uranium from Russia's state-owned nuclear power plant Rosatom sanctioned greater than 35 of the corporate's subsidiaries since February 2022, when the Kremlin invaded Ukraine.

Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., the rating member of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, said this latest move marks an end to U.S. dependence on Russia for the raw material.

“An import ban on Russian uranium will boost America’s nuclear fuel industry, further ease pressure on Russia’s war machine and help revitalize American uranium production for decades to come,” Barrasso said in a letter opinion on Monday following the passage of the bill.

Reacting to Biden's signing of the ban, Russia's ambassador to the US, Anatoly Antonov, said in an announcement post on Telegram that it was one other “failed” attempt by the Biden administration to “inflict strategic economic defeat on us.”

“The current attack – not only on Russia, but also on the world market for uranium fuel for nuclear power plants – is leading to new shocks in international economic relations,” he said. “The delicate balance between exporters and importers of uranium products is being disrupted.”