The last-minute deal comes against a backdrop of diplomatic tensions and enormous interest in the illicit movement of Russian money. FBI Director James Comey was fired last week in the midst of a probe of Russia’s influence over the U.S. presidential elections and U.S. prosecutors are also looking into how wealthy Russians may have moved as much as $10 billion out of the country earlier this decade through Deutsche Bank AG, which has since conceded massive compliance lapses.
In a letter to Energy Secretary Rick Perry and Nuclear Regulatory Commission Chairwoman Kristine Svinicki, Senate Environment & Public Works Committee Chairman John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) is demanding an explanation for how U.S. uranium left the country after the Uranium One deal.
The senator, who represents the home state of three of the company’s uranium recovery facilities, said he registered “strong concerns” about the 2010 deal with President Barack Obama. He said he now believes the response he received, and the “process” through which he received it, were “misleading.”
He notes that in March of 2011, then-NRC Chairman Greg Jaczko said that neither Uranium One nor the subsidiary of the Russian-government-owner Rosatom held the necessary export license to ship U.S. uranium out of the country. That assessment was repeated in the NRC’s recommendation to approve the Uranium One sale.
However, beginning in 2012, Uranium One was able to begin exporting uranium without an export license in a move called “piggy-backing,” where it was listed merely as a supplier on another company’s export license.
However, that uranium that left the country was supposed to return for “future processing.”Not only did that uranium leave the U.S., but it was eventually exported out of Canada (home base of Clinton crony Frank Giustra).