Energy Communities Alliance’s Post

Transcript

There's another market the US is trying to keep in balance: American nuclear energy. The US is still paying Russia $1 billion a year for enriched uranium to help fuel 94 nuclear reactors to provide about 1/5 of America's energy needs. In May, Congress took notice and banned the import of Russian enriched uranium, but the ban won't go into full effect for four years. Does the US have the capacity right now that it needs for enriched uranium? No. So unfortunately about 25% of it to 30% has been imported from Russia. We don't have it. Right -- we are dependent. That's because the United States stopped making enriched uranium a decade ago. Amir Vexler runs Centrus Energy. Last year, Centrus began enriching uranium inside this Piketon, Ohio facility, the only American company with that capability. Vexler showed us how it's done. Those 40 foot tall centrifuges Spin uranium gas until it's enriched and can be used as nuclear fuel. But these 16 centrifuges can only make a fraction of the enriched uranium the US needs. See those squares on the ground? Those are placeholders for 11,000 more centrifuges Centrus wants to build. And how long, in the best case scenario, would it take to get those up and running? It we'll take about six to seven years to get to full capacity. And to not be reliant on Russia? That is correct.