Trump declines to set U.S. uranium production quotas (updated)
13/07/2019 16:01
(Updates July 12 story with comment from utility group)
By Valerie Volcovici and David Shepardson
WASHINGTON, July 12 (Reuters) - President Donald Trump
declined to issue quotas for domestic uranium production late on
Friday and instead ordered a 90-day governmental review, a
decision praised by U.S. nuclear power generators who fear curbs
on fuel imports would boost costs.
Trump said in a written memorandum he did not concur with a
U.S. Commerce Department investigation that found uranium
imports threaten to impair U.S. national security.
Trump wrote that while findings "raise significant concerns"
he was ordering a deeper review by several government agencies.
"A fuller analysis of national security considerations with
respect to the entire nuclear fuel supply chain is necessary at
this time," he wrote.
The United States sourced just 7% of its uranium
domestically in 2017, with most of the rest coming from Canada,
Australia and Russia, according to the Energy Information
Administration.
U.S. uranium mining firms, as well as more than two dozen
western state lawmakers, have argued that nuclear generators
rely heavily on adversaries such as Russia, China and Kazakhstan
for uranium supply from their state-owned companies, who flood
the market.
Petitions from Colorado-based Energy Fuels Inc UUUU.A and
Wyoming-based Ur-Energy Inc URG.A seek quotas requiring 25% of
the U.S. uranium market be sourced domestically.
Last year, the Bureau of Land Management and U.S. Forest
Service approved the expansion of Energy Fuels’ La Sal and
Daneros mines, the latter of which is located just outside the
Bears Ears National Monument in Utah.
Electric utility companies with nuclear power plants,
including Duke Energy DUK.N and Entergy ETR.N , fought hard
against the miners' petitions, arguing that their costs would
spike if they were forced to source uranium domestically.
A group of nuclear power generators, called the Ad Hoc
Utilities Group, said it was pleased with Trump's decision. "It
is clear the Trump administration recognizes the enormous
economic and resiliency benefits that the U.S. nuclear energy
industry provides to Americans," the group said in a release.
Utilities had pushed back against the miners' argument that
the utilities relied on Russia, China and Kazakhstan, saying
that the United States, Canada and Australia together accounted
for nearly 60 percent of the U.S. uranium supply in 2017.
Trump said the working group would make "recommendations to
further enable domestic nuclear fuel production if needed."
(Reporting by David Shepardson, Valerie Volcovici and Timothy
Gardner
Editing by Jacqueline Wong and Chizu Nomiyama)
((timothy.gardner@thomsonreuters.com; +1 202 898-8360 (Twitter
@timogard); Reuters Messaging:
timothy.gardner.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))