U.S. imports 99% of uranium it uses in power plants

Here's a first: my work cited in Congress!

Happy Monday! I heard some great news this week. On Feb. 6, Rep. Tom Tiffany (R., WI) read into the record a piece I wrote about critical minerals in a House Energy and Mineral Resources subcommittee hearing.

If you’re interested in the piece, read it here: “Mission Impossible: ‘Net-Zero’ is a non-starter without more minerals and better permitting.”

And if you watch the hearing, keep an ear open at 1:42: https://www.congress.gov/committees/video/house-natural-resources/hsii00/16MpOshK0uY

And as a bonus, Rep. Tiffany pronounced “Montalbano” right! Without further ado…

U.S. imports 99% of uranium it uses in power plants

The Energy Information Administration (EIA) published a brief on January 30, 2025, showing that the U.S. imports nearly all of the uranium concentrate used to power commercial nuclear reactors.

In 2023, U.S. nuclear generators imported 32 million pounds of uranium concentrate and used only 0.05 million pounds of domestically produced concentrate. Imports were 99 percent of the uranium concentrate used by U.S. electric generators, according to the EIA. (That overstates domestic supplies a bit: 50,000 divided by 32,000,000 comes out to 0.0015, or 0.15 percent).

The EIA shows that domestic production was a substantial portion of the uranium that domestic producers used prior to 1990.

Source: Energy Information Administration.

The U.S. primarily imports its uranium concentrate for nuclear reactors from Canada, Australia, Russia, Kazakhstan, and Uzbekistan. While Australia and Canada are largely secure supplies, Russia is another story. The U.S. banned Russian imports of uranium products beginning in August 2024, though companies may apply for waivers through January 1, 2028.

Source: Energy Information Administration.

There are opportunities to bolster U.S. domestic supplies of uranium while recycling nuclear waste into usable fuel. Spent nuclear fuel still contains 95 percent of its potential to produce electricity, and certain types of reactors can use spent fuel after some recycling steps, though commercial-scale recycling isn’t yet economical.

This piece was published at Center of the American Experiment on January 31, 2025.