Commerce Secretary Ross said he would investigate whether to impose quotas on uranium imports because of national security, but military stockpiles will last decades and utilities fear rising costs
I smell a large, stinky dead rat surrounding this move. The trump tariff-crazy people want to limit the import of uranium from those enemy countries such as Canada and Australia, so that at least 25% of the uranium used in the US is domestically mined and processed. Keep in mind that the trump administration is energetically trying to open up the Grand Canyon ecosystem area to expanded uranium mining, notwithstanding the public health risks and the effect of mining on one of the most visited national parks in the country. In addition, there are veins of uranium apparently ripe for mining in the Bears Ears National Monument. Impose, and then push for more domestic mining which will be protected economically by those quotas. Smell the dead rat?
Excerpt:
Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross took a first step to expanding the trade war to uranium Wednesday, saying that he would launch an investigation into whether quotas should be used to restrict imports in the name of national security.
But utilities with nuclear plants fear such actions would raise the cost of electricity and nuclear experts said the military already has stockpiles big enough to last for decades.
“Our production of uranium necessary for military and electric power has dropped from 49 percent of our consumption to 5 percent,” Ross said in a statement. That change took place over 30 years, he said.
Much of the imported uranium comes from friendly nations. In 2017, Canada and Australia provided more than half of U.S. uranium consumption, Commerce said. Russia provided 16 percent.
Ross announced the investigation six months after a petition by two uranium mining companies, Energy Fuels and Ur-Energy, seeking quotas under Section 232 of the 1962 trade law that deals with national security. The companies want the Trump administration to cordon off 25 percent of the U.S. uranium market for U.S. companies.
Independent nuclear experts said that the U.S. military can rely on large stockpiles. The United States has 574.5 metric tons of highly enriched uranium, according to the International Panel on Fissile Materials. A 2015 Energy Department study on security of supply said that “new sources of fuel for naval reactors will be needed in approximately 2060.” The United States is seeking to reduce the number of nuclear warheads worldwide, so there is little need for uranium imports for U.S. nuclear weapons.
“The national security argument is ridiculous,” said Edwin Lyman, a nuclear proliferation expert at the Union of Concerned Scientists. “Ill-advised policies such as bolstering the floundering nuclear industry by declaring it a national security asset is just taking us in the wrong direction as far as having a sensible energy policy.”
