{"id":2247345,"date":"2024-05-18T03:15:01","date_gmt":"2024-05-18T07:15:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/green-policies-imperil-supply-after-biden-ban-on-russian-uranium-producers-warn\/"},"modified":"2024-05-18T03:23:37","modified_gmt":"2024-05-18T07:23:37","slug":"green-policies-imperil-supply-after-biden-ban-on-russian-uranium-producers-warn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/green-policies-imperil-supply-after-biden-ban-on-russian-uranium-producers-warn\/","title":{"rendered":"Biden&#8217;s Russian uranium ban threatens supply, warn producers"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">16<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fgreen-policies-imperil-supply-after-biden-ban-on-russian-uranium-producers-warn%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2247345&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>The top uranium producers warned of supply shortages due to Biden&#8217;s ban on Russian uranium imports. They praised the ban but \u200bcautioned it might clash with land \u200dconservation efforts. Regulatory hurdles, mixed messaging, and dependence on Russian imports pose challenges. Prices surged, highlighting the need to \u2063<a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/biden-administration-puts-uranium-between-hard-rock-and-no-place-on-critical-mineral-list\/\" title=\"Biden admin classifies uranium as a 'critical mineral'\">enhance <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/house-passes-energy-and-water-appropriations-bill-with-several-controversial-riders\/\" title=\"House approves energy and water bill, including contentious riders.\">domestic uranium production<\/a><\/a> and infrastructure to secure energy independence. Permitting \u2064complexities delay\u2062 new projects and fuel concerns about resilience.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<div>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Reporter's Notebook: The international reaction to Biden's LNG pause\" width=\"600\" height=\"338\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/2VCWhm2y5UY?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Top uranium producers warned that President Joe Biden\u2019s new ban on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/russia\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title>Russian<\/a> uranium imports could result in supply shortages because of restrictions on domestic mining advanced by the administration.<\/p>\n<p>In interviews with the <em>Washington Examiner, <\/em>uranium producers praised the ban President Joe Biden <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/biden-administration\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"signed into law\">signed into law<\/a>, which also unlocked $2.7 billion in uranium conversion and enrichment funds that were allocated by Congress in December.<\/p>\n<p>But they also said that the Russian import ban might conflict with Biden\u2019s push for land conservation, which has included designating millions of federal acres as off-limits for production in a bid to mollify environmental voices within the Democratic Party, as well as an out-of-date federal permitting process that can hold up new projects for years and an lack of domestic infrastructure needed to enrich natural uranium.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI do absolutely think there\u2019s a bit of a split-screen approach\u201d in the Biden administration\u2019s push for domestic uranium production, Scott Melbye, the senior vice president of the uranium company Energy Fuels and head of the industry group Uranium Producers of America, told the <em>Washington Examiner<\/em> in an interview.<\/p>\n<p>The combination of these regulatory hurdles and the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/policy\/energy-and-environment\/3005036\/gop-senators-bidens-endangered-species-act-protections\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"administration's mixed messagin\">administration\u2019s mixed <\/a>messaging \u2014 coupled with waivers to the new ban for U.S. reactors to continue importing Russian uranium through 2027, so long there are no other alternatives available \u2014 could leave the U.S. dependent on Russian imports for years to come and vulnerable to any changes or abrupt cutoff in supplies.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPutin could wake up tomorrow and say, \u2018Yeah, this is so important to you guys, I\u2019ll forfeit the billion dollars I\u2019m getting every year just to damage U.S. energy generation.\u2019 That is a very real possibility,\u201d Melbye told the<em> Washington Examiner<\/em>. \u201cSo the faster we can get those domestic fuel capabilities back up and running, the better.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Uranium prices rose above $100 this spring, the highest point in 17 years, due to higher global demand and a shift in public opinion as countries warm toward nuclear power once again as a reliable, carbon-free source of energy.<\/p>\n<p>Prices for enriched uranium have increased even more, up to 10 to 12 times prewar levels, reflecting what Curtis Moore, a senior vice president at the Colorado-based uranium mining company Energy Fuels, told reporters is \u201ca real pinch point and bottleneck\u201d in markets more broadly.<\/p>\n<p>In recent years, the United States \u201ctore down a lot of our infrastructure because there was no support for it primarily by the government.\u201d Moore said. \u201cThe Russia-Ukraine conflict really puts a light on how we became overly dependent on Russian nuclear fuel products.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Uranium enrichment is a four-step process, requiring the extraction of natural uranium concentrates from the ground, converting the natural uranium into a gas, enriching the uranium gas through a centrifuge that heavier and lighter uranium isotopes, and, finally, fuel fabrication, or the process of turning the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/iran-rapidly-increases-production-of-near-weapons-grade-uranium\/\" title=\"Iran rapidly boosts near-weapons-grade uranium production\">enriched uranium product<\/a> into fuel arrays that can be fed into nuclear reactors.<\/p>\n<p>Russia dominates this part of the market in particular, and with it removed from the market, there is \u201cnot enough uranium conversion and enrichment capacity right now,\u201d Moore said.<\/p>\n<p>Permitting headaches are also a concern.<\/p>\n<p>It takes roughly 10 years for new mining projects to be permitted under the EPA\u2019s National Environmental Policy Act review process, <a href=\"https:\/\/nma.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/Uranium-Helping-Meet-Americas-Baseload-Power-Needs-2023.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title>according to<\/a> the most recent data from the National Mining Association.<\/p>\n<p>The permitting process effort requires significant time and monetary investment from miners, and many groups have criticized the process as being at odds with Biden\u2019s stated goals of onshoring critical minerals production and manufacturing for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/5-things-you-need-to-know-about-bidens-latest-budget-proposal\/\" title=\"5 Things You Need To Know About Biden\u2019s Latest Budget Proposal\">clean energy projects<\/a> and electric vehicles as it looks to deliver on its goal of net-zero emissions by 2050. Members of both parties have sought to advance legislation to overhaul permitting, but they have not been able to find a deal to get a bill passed.<\/p>\n<p>Melbye\u2019s uranium production company is slated to begin uranium extraction operations at an idled Wyoming mine formerly owned by Russian state nuclear company Rosatom later this year, followed by a once-idled facility in Corpus Christie, Texas.<\/p>\n<p>He told the<em> Washington Examiner<\/em> that many companies are doing the same, opting to bring back online abandoned uranium mines across the country as a means of circumventing the lengthy environmental permitting process. Five producers have announced plans to do so this year alone.<\/p>\n<p>Should conditions remain favorable for producers, Melbye, who heads up the group Uranium Producers of America, estimates that the U.S. can extract some 45 million pounds of uranium annually, about half the total domestic demand per year.<\/p>\n<p>Beyond that, there are outstanding concerns about land conservation and the Biden administration\u2019s actions.<\/p>\n<p>Since taking office, the Biden administration has set aside more than 40 million public lands for conservation, the most of any administration, and published a sweeping proposed rule that would allow the Bureau of Land Management to include conservation as a list of protected activities under its so-called multiple-use framework for federal lands, a decision that could affect one-tenth of total public acres.<\/p>\n<p>Melbye\u2019s company, Energy Fuels, owns and operates the Nichols Ranch uranium mine and processing facility in Wyoming\u2019s Powder River Basin district, the same area for which the Interior Department announced a ban one day earlier on coal mining, applying to 13 million federal acres.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title><strong>CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p>And while Melbye said he was \u201cvery encouraged\u201d by the new rule and by the bipartisan strides that lawmakers have taken to help bolster nuclear production, he also identified steps that the Biden administration has taken that have made the process of bringing energy projects online, mining or otherwise, much more difficult.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe land withdrawals do take large swaths of federal lands off the table, not just for mining but also for oil and gas and ranching,\u201d Melbye said.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Top uranium producers cautioned about potential supply shortages due to President Joe Biden&#8217;s ban on Russian uranium imports. The administration&#8217;s restrictions on domestic mining could exacerbate the issue. In response to the ban signed by President Biden, producers, in conversations with the Washington Examiner, lauded the move and the accompanying $2.7 billion unlocked for uranium conversion<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2650,"featured_media":2247346,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/AP20245650732900-1024x683.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[538],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2247345","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-washington-examiner"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/AP20245650732900-1024x683.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2247345","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2650"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2247345"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2247345\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2247346"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2247345"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2247345"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2247345"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}