U.S. President Donald Trump late Friday declined to issue quotas for domestic uranium production but instead ordered a new 90-day review by a group of federal agencies, Report informs citing the Reuters.
Trump said in a written memorandum he did not concur with a U.S. Commerce Department investigation that found uranium imports threaten to impair U.S. national security. Trump wrote that while findings “raise significant concerns” he was ordering a deeper review. “A fuller analysis of national security considerations with respect to the entire nuclear fuel supply chain is necessary at this time.”
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.
U.S. uranium mining firms, as well as more than two dozen western state lawmakers, have argued that nuclear generators rely heavily on countries such as Russia, China and Kazakhstan for uranium supply from their state-owned companies, who flood the market.