As part of its budget plan, the Trump administration proposes spending $150 million for a new uranium reserve. That could help struggling uranium mining companies in the Mountain West. But the idea has its critics.
U.S. nuclear plants need uranium, but uranium companies here have a hard time competing on the global scale. So we import about of our uranium from other countries like Canada, Kazakhstan and Russia.
The Trump administration wants to pay for a U.S.-mined uranium reserve in case of international turmoil 鈥� and to boost an industry that in 2018 saw production drop to its .That year, as the U.S. Energy Information Administration , uranium concentrate was produced at seven facilities in the U.S.: one uranium mill in Utah and six and Nebraska.
鈥淭he uranium industry is vital to Wyoming and the national security of the United States,鈥� Wyoming Gov. Mark Gordon the Casper Star-Tribune. 鈥淚 support President Trump鈥檚 bold and forward-thinking proposal to establish a domestic uranium reserve.鈥�
But Geoff Fettus, an attorney with the Natural Resources Defense Council, is quick to pan the plan.
鈥淚t鈥檚 a terrible idea,鈥� he said. 鈥淎nd it鈥檚 a wasteful solution that鈥檚 in search of a problem.鈥�
Fettus said the U.S. relies on other countries鈥� uranium because it鈥檚 higher grade, and notes that we have stable relationships with top producers like Canada and Australia. He opposes creating demand for more uranium mining in the West, which has a checkered past including water and land contamination.
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