AGL 40.00 No Change ▼ 0.00 (0%)
AIRLINK 129.06 Decreased By ▼ -0.47 (-0.36%)
BOP 6.75 Increased By ▲ 0.07 (1.05%)
CNERGY 4.49 Decreased By ▼ -0.14 (-3.02%)
DCL 8.55 Decreased By ▼ -0.39 (-4.36%)
DFML 40.82 Decreased By ▼ -0.87 (-2.09%)
DGKC 80.96 Decreased By ▼ -2.81 (-3.35%)
FCCL 32.77 No Change ▼ 0.00 (0%)
FFBL 74.43 Decreased By ▼ -1.04 (-1.38%)
FFL 11.74 Increased By ▲ 0.27 (2.35%)
HUBC 109.58 Decreased By ▼ -0.97 (-0.88%)
HUMNL 13.75 Decreased By ▼ -0.81 (-5.56%)
KEL 5.31 Decreased By ▼ -0.08 (-1.48%)
KOSM 7.72 Decreased By ▼ -0.68 (-8.1%)
MLCF 38.60 Decreased By ▼ -1.19 (-2.99%)
NBP 63.51 Increased By ▲ 3.22 (5.34%)
OGDC 194.69 Decreased By ▼ -4.97 (-2.49%)
PAEL 25.71 Decreased By ▼ -0.94 (-3.53%)
PIBTL 7.39 Decreased By ▼ -0.27 (-3.52%)
PPL 155.45 Decreased By ▼ -2.47 (-1.56%)
PRL 25.79 Decreased By ▼ -0.94 (-3.52%)
PTC 17.50 Decreased By ▼ -0.96 (-5.2%)
SEARL 78.65 Decreased By ▼ -3.79 (-4.6%)
TELE 7.86 Decreased By ▼ -0.45 (-5.42%)
TOMCL 33.73 Decreased By ▼ -0.78 (-2.26%)
TPLP 8.40 Decreased By ▼ -0.66 (-7.28%)
TREET 16.27 Decreased By ▼ -1.20 (-6.87%)
TRG 58.22 Decreased By ▼ -3.10 (-5.06%)
UNITY 27.49 Increased By ▲ 0.06 (0.22%)
WTL 1.39 Increased By ▲ 0.01 (0.72%)
BR100 10,445 Increased By 38.5 (0.37%)
BR30 31,189 Decreased By -523.9 (-1.65%)
KSE100 97,798 Increased By 469.8 (0.48%)
KSE30 30,481 Increased By 288.3 (0.95%)
World

Trump declines to set US uranium production quotas

WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump declined to issue quotas for domestic uranium production late on Friday and inste
Published July 13, 2019

WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump declined to issue quotas for domestic uranium production late on Friday and instead ordered a 90-day governmental review, a decision praised by US nuclear power generators who fear curbs on fuel imports would boost costs.

Trump said in a written memorandum he did not concur with a US Commerce Department investigation that found uranium imports threaten to impair US national security.

Trump wrote that while findings "raise significant concerns" he was ordering a deeper review by several government agencies. "A fuller analysis of national security considerations with respect to the entire nuclear fuel supply chain is necessary at this time," he wrote.

The United States sourced just 7% of its uranium domestically in 2017, with most of the rest coming from Canada, Australia and Russia, according to the Energy Information Administration.

US uranium mining firms, as well as more than two dozen western state lawmakers, have argued that nuclear generators rely heavily on adversaries such as Russia, China and Kazakhstan for uranium supply from their state-owned companies, who flood the market.

Petitions from Colorado-based Energy Fuels Inc and Wyoming-based Ur-Energy Inc seek quotas requiring 25% of the US uranium market be sourced domestically.

Last year, the Bureau of Land Management and US Forest Service approved the expansion of Energy Fuels' La Sal and Daneros mines, the latter of which is located just outside the Bears Ears National Monument in Utah.

Electric utility companies with nuclear power plants, including Duke Energy and Entergy, fought hard against the miners' petitions, arguing that their costs would spike if they were forced to source uranium domestically.

A group of nuclear power generators, called the Ad Hoc Utilities Group, said it was pleased with Trump's decision. "It is clear the Trump administration recognizes the enormous economic and resiliency benefits that the US nuclear energy industry provides to Americans," the group said in a release.

Utilities had pushed back against the miners' argument that the utilities relied on Russia, China and Kazakhstan, saying that the United States, Canada and Australia together accounted for nearly 60 percent of the US uranium supply in 2017.

Trump said the working group would make "recommendations to further enable domestic nuclear fuel production if needed."

Copyright Reuters, 2019

Comments

Comments are closed.