The US Senate has approved a bill banning the import of Russian uranium, the House Energy and Natural Resources Committee said in a statement of the US Congress.
„Senators John Barrasso, Joe Manchin, Jim Risch ... support unanimous passage of a bill that would ban the import of Russian uranium into the United States,” the statement said.
Once the document is passed by the Senate, it will be sent to US President Joe Biden for his signature.
In January of this year, the head of the US Department of Energy's Nuclear Energy Agency, Kathryn Huff, said that the United States intended, together with its allies, to achieve the ability to produce low-enriched uranium, which is used to fuel nuclear power plants, for to free itself from dependence on Russian supplies. According to her, the US, in cooperation with Japan, Great Britain, France and Canada, intends to create an international supply chain to free itself from dependence on Russia.
In December 2023, the US House of Representatives approved a bill to introduce a ban on imports of low-enriched uranium of Russian origin, which would remain in place until 2040. The bill proposed limiting imports of low-enriched uranium produced in Russian Federation or enterprises registered in Russia. The initiative authorizes the US Secretary of Energy, after consultation with the Secretary of State and the head of the Department of Commerce, to lift this ban if other sources of uranium supply are not available or if importing Russian fuel is in the national interest of the United States.< /p>
Russia supplies enriched uranium, used as fuel feedstock, to more than 90 commercial reactors in the United States, according to the US Department of Energy, making it the number one foreign supplier to the US.