![]() That program expired in 2013, though Russia still sells uranium to U.S. electricity was coming from dismantled Russian nuclear warheads that used to be pointed at the United States," said Bunn, who worked on this issue at the White House during President Bill Clinton's administration. Under a program known as Megatons to Megawatts, Russia reduced its excess by dismantling nuclear weapons and sending the blended-down uranium to U.S. "Despite this, both the United States and Russia remain awash in highly-enriched uranium." "Both the United States and Russia, for some time, have had self-imposed moratoria on the production of weapons-grade nuclear material," said Kingston Reif, director of disarmament at the Arms Control Association in Washington, D.C. Both still have leftover stockpiles of highly enriched uranium that date to the Cold War. The countries have more than 4,000 deployed or stockpiled weapons each, far more than the rest of the world combined. nor Russia needs highly enriched uranium for nuclear weapons. Rosatom's more likely motivation for purchasing Uranium One was to gain access to the company's far larger uranium production in Canada and in Kazakhstan, which borders Russia.Ĭlaim: U.S. But there is no evidence that any of it has gone to Russia. uranium has gone to Canada and Europe, according to The Hill newspaper. Think of Uranium One's share as 2 percent of 2 percent. Last year, it mined just 23 tons in the U.S. Uranium One produces a small and dwindling amount of that U.S. production is less than 2 percent of the global total. produced 1,126 tons of uranium last year out of global production of more than 62,000 tons, according to the World Nuclear Association. is a tiny player in the world uranium market. ![]() Uranium One's share of mining rights is now far less than 20 percent of the U.S. It was based on uranium production capacity in 2010, which has since greatly expanded. The Washington Post reports that it is also outdated. Nuclear Regulatory Commission estimated that Uranium One held the rights to about 20 percent of U.S. uranium supply.Īt the time of the 2010 sale, the U.S. It's a totally normal purchase."Ĭlaim: Uranium One controls 20 percent of the U.S. Some of the companies that do the buying are controlled by foreign governments," said Matthew Bunn, who heads the Project on Managing the Atom, a nuclear policy research group at Harvard's John F. "It's a commercial market it's a global market. One of her deputies handled the matter, which was not considered controversial because uranium is widely bought and sold around the world for a range of purposes, from nuclear power plant fuel to medical treatments and research. All are part of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States and included Clinton's State Department.īy all accounts, she was not actively involved. government departments and agencies signed off. For that reason, President Barack Obama's administration had to approve the deal.
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