Prohibiting Russian Uranium Imports Act

Floor Speech

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 1042, the Prohibiting Russian Uranium Imports Act.

Our imports of Russian nuclear fuel date back to the megatons for megawatts disarmament program at the end of the Cold War. That program has been over for a decade now, and we have developed a dependence on Russian uranium.

Our Nation's nuclear reactors currently depend on Russia for nearly 15 percent of their enriched uranium.

This is troubling because over the last 2 years we have seen how Russia tries to wield its energy resources as a weapon. It is simply unsustainable.

I support ending our dangerous reliance on Russia for enriched uranium, but if we are serious about energy security, we cannot simply switch one foreign dependence for another. That is why we must invest in our own uranium fuel cycle here at home.

Right now, we have limited fuel facilities to provide the nuclear fuel our existing fleet needs, much less the advanced fuels that future reactors will need. Any move we make to end our reliance on Russian uranium must be partnered with a build-out of our domestic uranium supply chain. Otherwise, any action would just increase cost to consumers and impact reliability.

That is why in committee, Democrats attempted to partner this bill with authorizations to the Department of Energy to invest in U.S. domestic enrichment and conversion capacity. Unfortunately, those efforts were initially rejected by our Republican majority, therefore, I opposed this bill at that time.

Fortunately, the committee has now advanced legislation that authorizes those investments in our domestic fuel cycle, and that language will be included in the final defense authorization bill.

With that legislation set to become law, I am now much more comfortable moving this bill. After passage of the defense authorization bill, we must ensure these important programs are funded at the levels authorized so we can finally end our dangerous reliance on Russian uranium.

The combination of banning imports of Russian uranium and investing in domestic capacity will provide private industry with both the certainty and the incentives it needs to invest in the nuclear fuel supply chain. This will help us become a world leader again, not just in fuel production for our current reactors, but in fuel production for the next generation of reactors, as well.

I urge support for this bill, Mr. Speaker. I ask that we support this bill on a bipartisan basis. It is a good bill at this point, and we want to get it to the Senate as quickly as possible.

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