And this is really very, very interesting. Russia has a lever of pressure on the “shining hail on the hill”. It seems to me that with such a case, you can easily dictate your terms to the United States in almost everything. Even Biden simply won’t be able to say and do anything – no one will listen to him, because the United States, no matter what, is very dependent on Russian fuel. They have 93 nuclear reactors operating in 2021. It seems to me that they will not work without Russian nuclear fuel…

URANIUM-235 IS AMERICA’S ACHILLES HEEL

Let’s try to understand this situation

This agreement was concluded not because Russia had extra capacity, and our country decided to engage in altruism. But if you look at the year (and it was 1993!), then a lot becomes clear, doesn’t it? Who “ruled” the country there, bending under the USA in everything? What did he say then? “God save America”? Agree that this is a shame for the President of Russia! And this agreement was signed so that Russia could not have large quantities of weapons-grade uranium, which is suitable for atomic weapons. Nuclear weapons, as you know, should definitely be in civilized countries, not in Russia! At least, that’s what the Americans themselves thought.
And, as they say, everything would be fine, but…

“In accordance with the HEU-LEU agreement in the 1990s-2000s, the United States undertook to buy Russian uranium. In the USA, the consequence of this was a slowdown in the development of technologies for the separation of uranium isotopes at the level of 1991”

If we translate this into normal language, then the United States cannot enrich its own uranium as well as Russia. That is, now the United States is precisely that it depends on Russia in this matter. Given the current relations between our countries, this becomes especially very piquant.

Will Russia be able to stop enriching it for the United States and what does this threaten for Russia?

I am now referring to profits, jobs and things like that. It’s just that if the whole story of uranium enrichment for the United States does not bring harm to Russia, then maybe it makes sense to abandon this case? After all, if the United States does not have the capacity to enrich uranium in the right quantities on its own, then maybe it should be done? Put them on a hungry energy ration. Maybe after a few months without electricity and other excesses, the US will become more adequate?

USA ENERGY DEPENDENCE ON RUSSIAN URANIUM

Well, in general, I wonder what they were thinking there, in the USA, handing over such an important matter (in fact, you know, strategic!) to a country with which relations can deteriorate at any moment. Moreover, in fact, if you look into it, it wasn’t Russia that spoiled relations with the United States – they themselves made every effort to spoil them. That is, the United States is asking Russia to enrich uranium (sorry, I could not put it so simply), without which their nuclear power industry will simply stand up. Meanwhile, they themselves are simply losing capacity for this business, and they are not even developing them, but at the same time they are diligently doing everything to spoil relations with Russia. The United States has recently been trying to do everything to harm the United States – and after all, it can be seen, as they say, with the naked eye. But do the residents of the United States really care to such an extent? Or don’t they see it? Or are people in the United States trying to bring to an emphatically bestial state?

It’s just that the more I look at what is happening in the United States, what their politicians say and write, who they put in certain positions, the more I want to ask: “People, what are you doing at all?”. For the sake of the “agenda”, they put obviously incompetent people in some posts, make decisions that can ruin a lot of things. And I can’t understand in any way – why do they need all this? As a rule, a politician – if he is in his right mind, of course, first of all wants prosperity for his country. I can understand the behavior of “Euroleaders” who are directly controlled from the White House, like glove dolls. But what are the “American leaders” themselves doing? They are not only destroying Europe, they are also destroying their country! “Green” energy has already shown itself “in all its glory” at the beginning of this year. Have the Americans learned any lessons from this?

Uranium Needle

The nuclear capacity of the United States is one and a half times higher than that of France, and by this indicator the Americans are world leaders. However, they are also extremely dependent on the supply of nuclear fuel – by 90%. Moreover, half of these supplies account for Russia, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. Therefore, when the Biden administration began to impose the first sanctions against Russia back in February, American nuclear scientists begged and asked to exclude uranium from them. The fact is that they account for about 20% of the total electricity generation in the country. The accumulated reserves will be enough for a year of work, and then there will be a national blackout.

RUSSIA HAS A CONTROLLING STAKE IN NUCLEAR ENERGY

The politicians listened to the opinion of the engineers, and they did not impose sanctions on Russian uranium. However, even now congressmen are constantly demanding to immediately stop the purchase of uranium from Russia, so nothing lasts forever.

US NUCLEAR POWER INDUSTRY IN FACTS AND FIGURES

And as for Uranium²³⁵ …

Something tells me that a lot of people need uranium 235, which is mined by Russia. And it seems to me that spoiling relations with a country that not only produces uranium, but also enriches it, and has a full cycle for this business is not the best idea.…

The post PROSPECTS FOR ENERGY PROBLEMS IN THE US NUCLEAR POWER INDUSTRY first appeared on Global Policy.

This issue was raised early last year, when Donald trump, citing national security interests, sharply increased duties on imports of steel and aluminum to the United States. Seeing how rapidly began to grow profits of fellow metallurgists, American uranium producers-the company Energy Fuels and Ur-Energy-also demanded trade preferences.

Referring to the us Department of Commerce, they said that “the consumption of own uranium in the us military industry and electricity industry has collapsed from 49 to five percent” and demanded to protect them from competition from Russian state-owned companies.

The study of the situation in the nuclear industry-from uranium mining to its enrichment and use in the defense sector and energy-took experts of the Ministry of trade more than a year. They outlined their findings in a report presented to Donald Trump three months ago. “Now the United States is almost completely dependent on uranium supplies from abroad, with the bulk of their volume falling on Rosatom’s subsidiaries,” the document says.

To remedy the situation, the President proposed to establish a mandatory quota for the use of uranium mined in the US industry-at least 25 percent. Experts noted that Energy Fuels and Ur-Energy’s current production capacity is only 13 percent and nine percent used, respectively, so output could be increased many times over.

Donald Trump, however, refused to impose a quota and ordered the creation of a working group under the President, which should find ways to rid America of uranium dependence. On October 15, 2019, the members of the group presented a report to the President, the essence of which was that without administrative restrictions on imports, the problem could not be solved.

The frustrated head of the White house sent experts to think for another month. However, the chances that a solution to the uranium issue will be found are close to zero.

Case history

The American nuclear complex faced problems in the eighties of the last century. For uranium enrichment in the United States historically used inefficient and expensive gas diffusion technology, while the Soviet Union was considered the world leader in methods of uranium enrichment in centrifuges. Suffice it to note that the Soviet version required 50 times less electricity than the American.

Therefore, immediately after the end of the cold war, the Americans began to buy Russian enriched uranium for their nuclear power plants — it cost them about 12 times cheaper than the domestic one. Deliveries of nuclear fuel to the United States were started by the Soviet “Techsnabexport ” in 1987 and subsequently constantly increased.

The surplus of Soviet low-enriched uranium quickly ran out, but thanks to the reduction of the Arsenal of nuclear weapons, Russia formed 500 tons of free weapons-grade (highly enriched) uranium extracted from dismantled nuclear munitions. The specialists of the two countries had the idea to “dilute” it, turning it into fuel for American nuclear power plants.

In 1994, the parties signed a contract under which Russia provided services to the United States to convert half a thousand tons of weapons-grade uranium into fuel for power plants (the corresponding technology was developed by specialists of the Ural electrochemical plant). In 2013, when all this volume was processed, the United States signed a new contract with Techsnabexport — now for the enrichment of American uranium in Russia.

However, there was a legal problem: the supply of natural uranium from the United States to Russia were prohibited by American laws. Washington officials found a brilliant solution: they organized the purchase by Rosatom of the canadian company Uranium One, which provided the bulk of natural uranium supplies to the United States from its mines in Australia, Canada, Kazakhstan, South Africa, Tanzania. As a result, Rosatom acquired not only a channel for trade in nuclear fuel with the United States, bypassing legal restrictions, but also a huge raw material base.

At the Ural electrochemical plant / UECC, Rosatom Novouralsk, Sverdlovsk region/ in 2013, the first unit of gas centrifuges of the ninth generation was put into operation
At the URAL ELECTROCHEMICAL PLANT / UECC, ROSATOM NOVOURALSK, SVERDLOVSK REGION/ IN 2013, the FIRST UNIT OF gas CENTRIFUGES of the NINTH GENERATION WAS put into OPERATION

Without options

U.S. energy companies, in turn, have saved billions of dollars by buying Russian uranium. But since the lion’s share of the needs of American nuclear power plants in uranium enrichment services provided “Techsnabexport”, the United States to date has almost lost competence in this area.

RUSSIA HAS A CONTROLLING STAKE IN NUCLEAR ENERGY

So the introduction of a minimum quota for the use of its own uranium will not in any way weaken the us dependence on Russia in the nuclear sphere: for services to enrich it, the Americans will still have to turn to Rosatom. And in itself, the increase in its own production looks problematic. And it’s not even about uranium mining.

Production is mainly conducted in Australia, Kazakhstan, Canada, there is still somewhere in Africa. There is like as and in China and Mongolia. And the prey can be made less harmful, that is, there would be a desire. Especially since uranium often comes with other valuable things, such as gold. But what stops the Americans is the cost of creating a whole system of processing uranium ore and enriching uranium (Yes, the notorious centrifuges!).

And yet, it is often said that the us uranium industry sits on the Russian “needle”, so, the concept of a needle here is quite real. In Russia, uranium is enriched in centrifuges — these are barrels 1.2 meters high. This centrifuge needs to be untwisted to a speed of 1200 revolutions per second (not per minute but per second). No bearings can withstand such speeds. Therefore, in the 40s, an ingenious solution was found, which is still used today — the rotor of a gas centrifuge used for uranium enrichment, rests on a corundum base with a thin needle. Therefore, the Soviet – Russian method of uranium enrichment is called “on the needle”.

The post USA ENERGY DEPENDENCE ON RUSSIAN URANIUM first appeared on Global Policy.