U.S. Nuclear Reactors Still Depend on Russia. That’s Becoming a Problem.

By Avi Salzman – Barron’s

On Nov. 14, Russia pulled the export license for the company that sends enriched uranium to the U.S. for use in nuclear reactors. For now, it looks like all shipments of enriched Russian uranium, which accounts for 40% of the global supply, are stalled. It’s not clear if or when they’ll be back again.

The Russian ban doesn’t mean that America’s 94 existing nuclear reactors will stop working immediately. They have supplies of enriched uranium stored up. The future of U.S. nuclear plants could be in jeopardy, however, if imports from Russia are banned indefinitely and the U.S. can’t develop a domestic uranium supply chain.