America can stop importing Russian oil and gas, but we can’t embargo Russian uranium.
The Obama-Biden administration handed Russia a virtual monopoly on enriched uranium, which is why no matter how stridently we oppose Russian dictator Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, we continue to line the pockets of the Russian oligarchs who constitute Putin’s power base.
In 2008, President George W. Bush notified Congress that there was "no basis for further consideration" of the so-called "123 Agreement" with Russia, which would allow Russia to sell uranium directly to U.S. companies. In 2010, President Barack Obama reversed that decision and opened American markets to Russian uranium.
Around the same time, the Obama-Biden administration approved the sale of Uranium One, a major uranium mining company responsible for about 20% of all uranium mined in the United States, to Russian energy giant Rosatom.
That’s significant, but much more significant are Uranium One’s mining operations outside the U.S., which have allowed Russia to engage in "dumping" by selling uranium mined in other countries to U.S. energy companies at a rate far below what it costs to mine uranium in the U.S. As a result, domestic uranium production has fallen, and our reliance on Rosatom for enriched uranium has grown.
During the 2016 presidential campaign, the Obama-Biden administration’s nuclear giveaways to Russia became a major scandal, largely because then-U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton sat on the Committee on Foreign Investments, which signed off on the sale of Uranium One to Rosatom after major investors in the sale contributed $145 million to the Clinton Foundation and gave former President Bill Clinton a $500,000 speaking fee.
At the time, the national security implications of the deal were largely subordinated to the appearance of corruption.
Today, it is clear that the national security risks presented by giving Russia such a large share of global uranium mining deserved much more attention.
Our ability to sanction Russian energy is severely hampered by our dependence on Russia for enriched uranium.
A standard nuclear reactor has to refuel every two years, at an average cost of about $50 million. As of Dec. 31, 2021, there are 93 operational nuclear reactors in the U.S., which means that domestic energy companies must spend over $2 billion per year, on average, to keep the power flowing to major cities in 28 states.
Russia dominates the uranium enrichment market, accounting for almost half of global enrichment capacity.
While it's possible to wean ourselves off our dependence on Russian uranium, it can’t be done overnight without causing major disruptions to U.S. energy production.
The Obama-Biden administration was responsible for initiating that dependence with the 123 Agreement and the Uranium One sale, and it further aggravated the situation with the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, better known as the 2015 Iran nuclear deal.
Under the terms of the JCPOA, Russia agreed to purchase Iran’s excess uranium, giving Putin and his oligarch backers an even stronger hold on the global uranium market.
As vice president, Joe Biden had his fingerprints all over the Obama-Biden administration’s repeated capitulations to Russia.
As president, he now finds himself caught in a trap of his own design.
Cutting off imports of Russian oil and gas wasn’t enough, because the Democrats gave Vladimir Putin a virtual monopoly on the global uranium market.
As a result, American dollars will keep flowing into the pockets of Russian oligarchs and padding Putin’s military budget as the Russian military continues to commit war crimes in Ukraine.
Mike Huckabee was the 44th governor of Arkansas and a 2016 Republican candidate for president. He is currently host of "Huckabee" on TBN and host of “The People's Podcast" on Quake Media. Read Mike Huckabee's Reports — More Here.
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