On Thursday, RIA Novosti, citing data from the US statistical service, reported that in the first half of the year, the United States purchased 416 tons of uranium from Russia, an amount which more than doubled the purchases over the same period in the previous year.
The report noted that Russia was only supplying the United States with enriched Uranium, the crucial fuel necessary to power civil nuclear power generators.
According to RIA calculations, Washington paid $696.5 million for Russian uranium deliveries, the highest amount since 2002. The cost of the supplies increased by 250 percent over the first half of 2023, and Russia’s share of America’s imports rose by 13 percentage points, reaching 32%.
The US also increased its purchases of UK uranium over the first half of 2023, purchasing 28% more, bringing the total purchased to $383.1 million, and just below 18% of all imports. French imports rose from $1.9 million over the first half of 2022, to $319 million, or 15% of total imports.
Rounding out the top five suppliers of the United States were Germany, at 13% of imports, and Canada, at 11% of total imports.
A recent New York Times report noted that about a third of the enriched uranium which is used in the United States comes from Russia. One out of every 20 American homes and businesses was powered by Russian uranium last year, according to data from GHS Climate, a clean-energy consulting company.
Russia produced almost half of the world’s enriched uranium, and as a result the US has proven unable to reduce its reliance on imports from the nation so far. Following the Cold War, American enrichment plants were shut down due to it being far cheaper to simply import Russian uranium. Presently the United States has only two facilities, one in Ohio and the other in Mexico, which are licensed to manufacture high-grade nuclear fuel.
Although the Western powers sanctioned Russian oil, petroleum products, gas, and coal due to the conflict in Ukraine, they have not done anything to restrict the purchase of enriched uranium from Rosatom, the Russian state energy giant, due to the push to restrict the West’s reliance on fossil fuels.
