US company Centrus gets waiver on uranium imports from Russia
19/07/2024 16:00
By Timothy Gardner
WASHINGTON, July 19 (Reuters) - The U.S. government gave
Centrus Energy Corp LEU.A a waiver for this year and next to a
ban on U.S. imports of enriched uranium from Russia, the company
said in a regulatory filing this week.
Centrus got a waiver from the U.S. Department of Energy to
import low-enriched uranium from Russia for deliveries committed
by the company to U.S. customers, including nuclear plants, for
this year and 2025, said the filing dated July 18.
The DOE deferred a decision on a waiver for 2026 and 2027,
Centrus said.
The DOE said it granted the waiver in consultation with the
Departments of State and Commerce.
"The waiver process is a short-term step to ensure there are
no disruptions to the operation of U.S. reactors as a result of
the ban," it said. "This allows time to build up a strong U.S.
capacity to supply the necessary LEU for the domestic market."
The department said it is reviewing additional waiver
requests and supports the build out of a domestic fuel supply to
"sever reliance on Russia".
President Joe Biden signed the ban into law in May in an
effort to disrupt Russian President Vladimir Putin's invasion of
Ukraine. The ban, which begins next month, allows the DOE to
issue waivers in case of supply concerns.
Russia is the world's top supplier of enriched uranium and
about 24% of the enriched uranium used by U.S. nuclear power
plants come from the country. The law also unlocked about $2.7
billion in funding to build out the U.S. uranium fuel industry.
Centrus declined to comment beyond the filing.
(Reporting by Timothy Gardner; addional reporting by Seher
Dareen in Bengaluru; Editing by Arun Koyyur)
((timothy.gardner@thomsonreuters.com; (@timogard))