Energy security

Uranium imports from foreign producers: A clear threat to national security

The clock is ticking.

A too-often ignored threat to U.S. national security has been looming for decades. If ignored, that dangerous threat will become even more dire in 2018 and beyond.

Increasingly, the 20 percent of America’s electricity supplied by carbon-free nuclear power is controlled by autocratic, unaccountable states – Russia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, and soon, China.

These countries, sharing neither our democratic values nor our competitive markets, import uranium that is the key element for nuclear fuel. Although uranium occurs naturally and abundantly in soil and rock, American uranium miners provide less than 3 percent of what is needed to power U.S. homes and businesses, based on our industry estimates.

Given today’s geopolitical tensions, insecure and unreliable uranium imports can jeopardize our energy infrastructure.

That is why America’s two primary uranium mining companies, which we represent, jointly submitted in January a petition to the U.S. Department of Commerce (DOC) for relief under Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962, a section of trade law designed by Congress to allow the president to adjust trade for national security purposes. We are certain that in the history of Section 232, no investigation has been more clearly linked to national security than this one.