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Industry group pushes revival of Cold War-era rule to aid US uranium industry

The Nuclear Energy Institute urged the Trump administration to revive the domestic uranium industry by authorizing funds through the 1950 Defense Production Act, Reuters reported Sept. 6, citing an Aug. 18 letter from the group.

The Cold War-era rule calls for the procurement of domestic fuel for defense purposes and to boost federal reserves of uranium for nuclear power utilities, according to the newswire.

In the letter to national security adviser John Bolton and White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow, the Nuclear Energy Institute, or NEI, pushed for unspecified "direct payments to either a U.S. utility or domestic uranium producer for sale of U.S.-origin uranium to a utility."

"The most effective support the federal government can provide to the domestic mining, conversion, and enrichment industries is to fulfill the government's national security needs with long-term contracts," the letter said.

Domestic nuclear producers have expressed concern that China and Russia are spearheading the development of nuclear power overseas. The U.S. does not have a domestic technology enrichment facility, and the NEI said reviving the industry will help it compete.

However, certain experts cited by Reuters said these type of measures are unnecessary, and the country has enough stockpiles to last for decades.

"Frankly we have already taken care of our naval fuel needs for next 60 years. We are awash in enriched uranium for weapons," said Sharon Squassoni, a nuclear policy professor at George Washington University.

Bolton and Kudlow are co-chairpersons of the U.S. Nuclear Fuel Working Group created by President Donald Trump in July after he refused to impose quotas on domestic uranium production. Producers Ur-Energy Inc. and Energy Fuels Inc. had petitioned to impose quotas requiring 25% of the uranium market to be domestically sourced.

Following an investigation, the U.S. Commerce Department made recommendations that included a scaled quota system and curbing imports from certain countries.

The working group is due to make recommendations to revive and expand domestic fuel production by Oct. 10.