US cites security, climate goals in Russian uranium ban

US cites security, climate goals in Russian uranium ban
by AFP Staff Writers
Washington (AFP) May 14, 2024

The United States on Tuesday voiced confidence it was boosting both its security and climate goals after it banned uranium imports from Russia, whose nuclear industry has been a key moneymaker.

President Joe Biden on Monday signed legislation, broadly supported in Congress, that will prohibit any imports of Russian uranium into the United States as of August 12.

Russia, despite facing wide sanctions over its invasion of Ukraine, provides about 20 to 30 percent of the enriched uranium used in the United States and Europe and 44 percent globally, according to the US Energy Department.

"Russia continues to use its military-industrial base in its war against Ukraine and to undermine international and US national security, in part with proceeds from its uranium exports," State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said in a statement Tuesday.

The legislation will release $2.72 billion in funding for the Energy Department to invest in uranium enrichment inside the United States -- a boon sought by the domestic nuclear industry.

President Joe Biden's administration has enthusiastically embraced nuclear energy as a way to fight climate change.

The technology emits no carbon dioxide responsible for the planet's fast-rising temperatures -- but it is deeply divisive among environmentalists, including due to the possibility of accidents.

At the COP28 climate summit in Dubai last year, the United States alongside Britain, Canada, France and Japan committed jointly to mobilize $4.2 billion in public and private money over three years to enhance the uranium supply chain for nuclear power.

The new law "will provide assurance to industry, allies and partners that the United States has made a clear decision to establish a secure nuclear fuel supply chain, independent of adversarial influence, for decades to come," Miller said.

Under the new law, the Energy Department will still be able to waive the prohibition on Russian uranium under special circumstances until the end of 2027.

Separately on Tuesday, the Treasury Department announced sanctions over what it said was an "opaque and complex" scheme to evade sanctions and unfreeze $1.5 billion in shares belonging to Russian billionaire Oleg Deripaska.

Deripaska made his fortune in aluminium but has been hit by US sanctions on the Russian energy sector dating back to Moscow's smaller invasion of Ukraine in 2014.

He is suing Washington over the sanctions. Unusually for a Russian oligarch, he has also faced pressure at home, where a hotel he owned was reportedly seized by authorities after he described the invasion of Ukraine as a "war" and not a "special operation," the euphemism preferred by the Kremlin.

The Treasury Department said it was imposing sanctions on one Russian national, Dmitry Beloglazov, his financial services company and two other firms involved in the alleged plot to unfreeze Deripaska's shares.