Posted on 10/28/2023 4:41:54 AM PDT by FarCenter
Uranium enrichment and the nuclear fuel industry make up a globally integrated complex concentrated in the hands of a few key players. A geopolitically-driven divorce is on the horizon, however.
At the outset of the invasion of Ukraine last year, US Senator John Barrasso, a Republican of Wyoming, led an effort to ban Russian-origin uranium and nuclear products following the West’s break with the fossil fuel industries that had been filling the Kremlin’s war chest.
The bill stalled, but it highlighted America’s reliance on Russian nuclear imports and the need for a comprehensive supply chain rework. When countries are already scrambling to secure supply for nationally critical materials like rare earths or semiconductors, doing so for nuclear fuel – which powers one-fifth of US electricity generation– is not a bold proposition.
Rosatom, Russia’s sprawling state-owned champion, dominates chokepoints in the front end of the nuclear fuel cycle – 38% of global uranium conversion and 46% of enrichment. This not only gives Moscow leverage over downstream “critical infrastructure” abroad but supports its wider energy statecraft agenda.
Since 2007, nuclear reactor exports have become a key channel in Russia’s foreign influence strategy, accounting for about half of the 53 units under construction worldwide.
Additionally, leading US small-modular reactor companies like TerraPower and X-energy require high-assay, low-enriched uranium (HALEU) for their designs, and that is only commercially available from Russia.
(Excerpt) Read more at asiatimes.com ...
outrageous that the US, the most advanced country in the World, is dependent on a terrorist-supporting gangster regime like Russia for nuclear fuel
This is the real reason for Ukraine war is to replace Putin.. a bad guy with another zelensky puppet in order to access all the resources of Russia with slave labor pay that the dems pay all around the globe.
Imagine the wonderful person the globalists will replace Putin with.
Canuck’s daily two-minutes of neocon hate.
He’s always first in line.
just pointing out the uncomfortable truths you don’t want to talk about
Define "advanced".
Fixed it.
technologically advanced
that’s why other countries keep trying to steal America’s ideas
I believe that labelling the U.S. as the world’s most technologically advanced country is painting with a wide brush.
"Uncomfortable truth' or mindless propaganda?
Even your replies are meaningless slogans
lol, you’re one to talk
blaming everything on your imaginary “neocon” bogeymen, without EVER providing any proof
instead of just admitting that real, malicious monsters like Putin, Xi, Iranian mullahs, and Hamas exist
It is completely consistent that a decadent, failing and corrupt Empire would be dependent on its major enemy.
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