Centrus gets waiver on uranium imports from Russia

The US government gave Centrus Energy Corp a waiver for this year and next to a ban on US imports of enriched uranium from Russia, the company said in a regulatory filing this week.

Centrus got a waiver from the US Department of Energy to import low-enriched uranium from Russia for deliveries committed by the company to US customers, including nuclear plants, for this year and 2025, said the filing dated July 18.

The DOE deferred a decision on a waiver for 2026 and 2027, Centrus said.

The DOE said it granted the waiver in consultation with the Departments of State and Commerce.

“The waiver process is a short-term step to ensure there are no disruptions to the operation of US reactors as a result of the ban,” it said. “This allows time to build up a strong US capacity to supply the necessary LEU for the domestic market.”

The department said it is reviewing additional waiver requests and supports the build out of a domestic fuel supply to “sever reliance on Russia”.

President Joe Biden signed the ban into law in May in an effort to disrupt Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. The ban, which begins next month, allows the DOE to issue waivers in case of supply concerns.

Russia is the world’s top supplier of enriched uranium and about 24% of the enriched uranium used by US nuclear power plants come from the country. The law also unlocked about $2.7 billion in funding to build out the US uranium fuel industry.

Centrus declined to comment beyond the filing.

(By Timothy Gardner and Seher Dareen; Editing by Arun Koyyur)