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Russia is temporarily limiting exports of enriched uranium to the US, creating potential supply risks to utilities operating American reactors that generate almost a fifth of the country’s electricity.
The Russian government didn’t provide details of the restrictions or their duration in a Friday statement on Telegram. Utilities tend to make purchases well in advance, so any impact is unlikely to be immediate.
As Russia’s prolonged war in Ukraine has made it increasingly unpopular on the world stage, the nation has repeatedly signaled a willingness to use its vast energy resources as geopolitical bargaining chips. The Kremlin also announced on Friday it’s throttling gas supplies to Austria, interrupting a six-decade supply agreement because of a legal dispute.
The latest move targets a particularly vulnerable US link in the nuclear fuel cycle. Russia controls almost half the world’s capacity to separate the uranium isotopes needed in reactors, and last year supplied more than a quarter of the US’s enriched fuel.
“The cumulative risks to the supply of nuclear fuel are significant and that to break the dependence on Russia and other state-owned enterprises, coordinated western responses are required,” said Veronica Baker, a spokeswoman for Canada’s Cameco Corp., one of the world’s biggest uranium miners.
Russia said the move was a response to a ban imposed by the US on imports of Russian enriched uranium. President Joe Biden signed the legislation in May, but it allows for shipments to continue until 2028 under a system of waivers. The exceptions underscore a simple fact about the industry — that the US has allowed its domestic enrichment capacity to languish.
“We don’t have enough enriched uranium here,” Chris Gadomski, head nuclear analyst for BloombergNEF, said in an interview. “They should have been stockpiling enriched uranium in anticipation of this happening.”
While the Biden administration has launched a multibillion-dollar effort to restart the nation’s domestic uranium enrichment capabilities, it is still in its nascent form. The US has just one commercial enrichment facility in New Mexico, which is owned by a British, Dutch and German consortium, Urenco Ltd.
While the Biden administration has launched a multibillion-dollar effort to restart the nation’s domestic uranium enrichment capabilities, it is still in its nascent form
Urenco’s US unit supplies about one-third of the enriched uranium used in American reactors, and is working to expand capacity 15% by 2027.
The company “recognizes the critical need to ensure a reliable, secure and domestically supported supply of enriched uranium for the US nuclear energy industry, particularly as geopolitical tensions highlight the risks of reliance on unstable sources,” Rebecca Astles, Urenco’s head of communications, said by email.
Among the recipients of waivers to import Russian reactor fuel are Constellation Energy Corp., the biggest US nuclear operator, and Centrus Energy Corp., a nuclear fuel supplier. Other requests are pending.
Shares of uranium or uranium-related companies rose Friday. Cameco gained more than 6%, while the US miner Ur-Energy Inc. surged as much as 10% and its rival Uranium Energy Corp. jumped 13%. Constellation Energy fell as much as 1.7%.
While most deliveries have already been made this year, a ban could have implications from 2025, said Jonathan Hinze, president of UxC, which tracks uranium-fuel markets. That may leave some reactor operators without an alternative supplier.
“There would be some utilities maybe that would be expecting that material and now might not get it,” he said.
(By Jonathan Tirone, Ari Natter and Will Wade)
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