US Congress approves ban on nuclear fuel import from Russia

The US Congress has approved a bill prohibiting the United States from buying nuclear fuel from Russia. Source: European Pravda, citing Bloomberg Details: The bill, approved earlier this week by the Senate, passed the House of Representatives on Thursday.

President Joe Biden must now sign it.

The nuclear fuel provision is part of a broader plan to restore the US domestic uranium supply chain and gradually reduce dependence on the Russian Federation, America's largest foreign supplier of uranium. It would require the Department of Energy to buy at least 20 tonnes a year of reactor fuel, known as HALEU, from US companies until the end of 2027. However, billions of dollars of funding for the effort stalled in the Senate after Republicans blocked a bill to help Ukraine that would have provided the money.

At the same time, the law passed by the House of Representatives, which prohibits all imports of Russian uranium after 2028, is under consideration in the Senate.

Background:

• Earlier, it was reported that the European Union again increased the import of Russian nuclear fuel and services for Russian reactors in 2023 compared to 2021, that is, with the period before the Russian full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
• Before that, it became known that Slovakia plans to switch from Russian nuclear fuel to American and French fuel, despite previous criticism from pro-Russian nationalists from the ruling Slovak National Party.
• The US has also said that dependence on Russian nuclear fuel poses a critical threat to national security and climate goals.

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