Putin Nukes America

In May 2024 President Joe Biden signed the Prohibiting Russian Uranium Imports Act. The legislation bans the import of Russian-produced unirradiated LEU as well as unirradiated LEU that has been swapped for banned uranium.

The bill came into effect on 11 August 2024, and will last until the end of 2040. Waivers may be granted to allow the import of limited amounts of LEU until 1 January 2028 if one of the following criteria is met:

The import is necessary to maintain the viability of a US nuclear energy company that is critical to the US nuclear energy fuel supply chain.
The import is intended to support an existing arrangement to provide fuel for a nuclear power plant in another country and thus minimize the likelihood of that country seeking a non-US fuel supplier.
Russia has pulled export licenses to ship enrich uranium to the United States.
The USA ranks 14th in the world for known uranium resources in the category up to $130/kgU ($50/lb U3O8), with 59,400 tU (reasonably assured resources, 2021), about 1% of world total.

In the 1950s, the USA had a great deal of uranium mining, promoted by federal subsidies. Peak production since 1970 was 16,800 tU in 1980, when there were over 250 mines in operation. This abruptly dropped to 50 in 1984 when 5,700 tU was produced, and then there was a steady decline to 2003, by which time there were only two small operations producing a total of under 1000 tU/yr, or about 5% of the uranium consumed by US nuclear plants. So, for the first step in the nuclear fuel cycle, the US must rely on imports of uranium from countries such as Canada and Australia. For some time the country's reactors also used downblended weapons-grade uranium from Russia (see section on Military surplus and other government stocks below).

As the price of uranium increased from historic lows, there was a revival in exploration and plans to reopen old mines. Exploration expenditure increased over 2007-08 to $50.3 million, but then dropped again with uranium prices. Since 2022, exploration activity has increased again, and decisions have been made to restart many mines.

Most US production has been from New Mexico and Wyoming. Some 40% of resources are in New Mexico and amenable to in-situ leaching (ISL). Resources on the western Colorado Plateau require conventional mining and milling, as does high-grade breccia pipe mineralization in northwest Arizona. Smaller resources are in Utah, Nebraska and Texas. Production potential is about 50% underground mining, 26% open pit and 24% ISL.