By Parker Shea | Arizona Mirror
Three of Arizona’s four Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives called on President Donald Trump to “revive and expand” the atrophied domestic uranium industry through government subsidies just days before his Nuclear Fuel Working Group released its recommendations.
Because “free market uranium companies in the U.S. are unable to compete” with companies backed by foreign governments, the U.S. government must step in to boost the industry, they wrote on Oct. 8
Photo by Energy Fuels Inc. via Nuclear Regulatory Commission | Flickr/CC BY 2.0
U.S. Reps. Andy Biggs, Paul Gosar and Debbie Lesko signed a letter with nine other House Republicans lamenting the nation’s reliance on foreign uranium imports, particularly those from Russia and countries in its sphere of influence. Rep. David Schweikert was the only Arizona Republican representative who did not sign the letter.
“While the United States was once a global leader in uranium production and is home to vast uranium deposits, the domestic industry is currently supplying less than one percent of the uranium needed to power the U.S. nuclear fleet,” the letter reads.
The letter focuses on uranium production for defense purposes, but it also mentions subsidizing uranium for domestic energy production.
“We also risk becoming entirely dependent on uranium imports to power 20 percent of the electricity generated in the United States,” according to the letter.
A few of these claims are misleading.
