The Russian government has imposed temporary restrictions on exports of enriched uranium to the United States. Companies can still export uranium to the United States with one-time licenses issued by the Federal Service for Technical and Export Control.
The Biden administration signed a law banning imports of Russian uranium until 2040, with exemptions allowed until 2028, despite warnings that the move could backfire on the U.S. economy.
What impact could a ban on Russia have?
- Russia is the world’s largest supplier of enriched uranium.
- It accounts for about 44 percent of the world’s capacity to separate the uranium isotopes needed to power nuclear reactors.
- Its share of the enriched uranium market is estimated at $2.7 billion in exports.
- Russia’s move could pose potential supply risks to utilities that operate U.S. reactors.
- Russia met 27% of U.S. demand for enriched fuel in 2023, with exports worth $574 million.
- That’s down nearly 32% from a year earlier, according to U.S. statistics.
- Russia was America’s top foreign supplier of fuel for its commercial nuclear reactors in 2022.
- Some reactor operators may struggle to find an alternative supplier.
- The U.S. has its own uranium deposits, but its domestic enrichment capacity has been reduced.
- Biden’s bill banning imports of Russian enriched uranium also provided about $2.7 billion in federal funding to build new uranium enrichment capacity in America.
The United States currently has only one commercial enrichment facility in New Mexico, owned by a British, Dutch and German consortium, Urenco Ltd. Urenco’s U.S. facility supplies about a third of the enriched uranium used in U.S. reactors.
Restrictions on uranium supplies can affect prices because they automatically increase demand from other sources, where enriched fuel for nuclear power generation has not yet been produced in sufficient quantities.
Contracts for delivery of uranium in November 2025 jumped to $84 a pound, according to UxC. Shares of other uranium or uranium-related companies are also up.
Shares of Canada’s Cameco Corp. jumped 6 percent, and those of Ur-Energy Inc. and Uranium Energy Corp. US stocks rose 10% and 13%, respectively.
Russia’s influence on nuclear reactor operations could overturn US ban on uranium imports
Russian President Vladimir Putin has asked the government to consider restrictions on exports of strategic raw materials such as nickel and titanium in response to Western sanctions, saying restrictions should be considered as long as “this does not harm us”.
