President Biden shows off first US-made nuclear fuel

On April 19, US President Joe Biden announced that a US facility had produced its first 90kg of highly enriched low-level uranium (HALEU), while emphasizing that the US cannot depend on imported nuclear fuel from Russia.

Moscow is currently the sole commercial source of HALEU for the United States, the world's largest annual importer of nuclear fuel.

“Today, I can announce that the IBEW plant in southern Ohio has produced its first 200 pounds of enriched uranium. This is also the first HALEU produced in the United States,” Biden said at an event in Washington.

US President Joe Biden. (Photo: White House)

Mr Biden also stressed that “advanced nuclear fuel” is needed for the “next generation of reactors” in the US, and that the Ohio facility is expected to enrich at least one ton of uranium by the end of the year, enough fuel to power 100,000 US homes.

The United States has relied on importing enriched uranium from countries like Russia to power its nuclear reactors, according to President Biden. Washington wants to change that and has pledged to invest more than $3.4 billion in new nuclear fuel production.

Previously, in June 2023, the US government approved a HALEU enrichment project at the Piketon, Ohio, facility. The facility, established in 1954, enriched uranium for power plants and nuclear weapons until it was closed in 2001.

In October 2023, the White House asked Congress for $2.2 billion in funding to increase U.S. energy independence by establishing domestic production of HALEU and low-enriched uranium. The Biden administration has called uranium enrichment a national security issue, arguing that dependence on Russian uranium poses risks to the U.S. economy and the civilian nuclear sector.

In late 2023, the US House of Representatives passed a ban on Russian uranium imports as part of sanctions against Moscow over the conflict in Ukraine. However, the bill stalled in the Senate.

Washington has limited its imports of Russian uranium to 20 percent of its annual needs. Last year, it imported nearly $1.2 billion worth of Russian uranium, a record high since 2009. Russia remained the top supplier of uranium to the United States by value, increasing its share of imports from 26 percent to 27 percent year-on-year.

Tra Khanh (Source: russian.rt.com)

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