Russia 'ready to keep supplying enriched uranium to USA'

Friday, 23 May 2025

The comments to media, reported in multiple news outlets in Russia including the official Tass news agency, also included Likhachev saying that "despite all bans, the Americans buy it" because price-wise "it makes sense for them".

He was speaking after addressing the Federation Council of the Federal Assembly, where he set out the state of the nuclear energy sector and the state corporation's future plans, including to build 38 large, medium and small nuclear power units by 2042 and increase nuclear's share of energy generation to 25% by the mid-2040s.

He was asked during the Federation Council session about the impact of sanctions, and said that although "it doesn't make our lives easier" it had not stopped its developments - apart from in Finland - adding: "We will be present in the European market one way or another, and will cooperate in uranium supplies with the United States of America, unless another decision is made." He said that about 20% of Rosatom's overseas earnings came from "unfriendly" countries, while trade with "friendly" countries grows. 

The then US President Joe Biden's Prohibiting Russian Uranium Imports Act came into force in August 2024 and lasts until 2040. Until 2028 waivers may be granted to allow the import of limited amounts of Russian-origin low enriched uranium. According to US Energy Information Administration data, while US facilities provided 28% of the uranium enrichment services - measured in separative work units, or SWU - purchased by US owners and operators in 2023, 27% came from Russia, more than any other foreign supplier.

The US legislation was followed by Russia responding by imposing a ban on exports of enriched uranium to the USA, although exemptions would be made for deliveries under one-off licences issued by the Russian Federal Service for Technical and Export Control.

Since those tit-for-tat measures were imposed there has been a change of president in the USA and there have been detailed contacts and talks between the USA and Russia relating to the Ukraine war and wider relations. 

 

Khokhlovskoye uranium deposit
 

Meanwhile JSC Rusburmash, part of Rosatom's mining division, announced it had finished the construction of facilities for developing the Eastern deposit of the Khokhlovskoye uranium deposit in the Shumikhinsky District of the Kurgan Region which lies on Russia's southern border with Kazakhstan. It said that over two years "the Vostochnaya local sorption unit, an underground water intake site, utility network overpasses and process pipelines, and other facilities were built".

"Currently, the Central and Western deposits are being developed, and production has begun in the Eastern one. Further plans include developing the Far Eastern and Dyuryaginskaya deposits," said Dinis Ezhurov, General Director of JSC Dalur, which is developing the Khokhlovskoye deposit and which is the first enterprise in the country to mine uranium using the borehole in-situ leaching method.

The company said that digital tools are being used to manage the development of uranium deposits which makes it possible "to identify and evaluate the additional volume of uranium reserves  ... and allow for a reliable assessment of the mining and geological conditions of the developed areas of deposits, modeling development options, conducting an accurate analysis of the work performed, promptly making decisions when analysing and forecasting the development of the deposit, geological modeling and planning".