“Nuclear energy is believed to continue to play an important role in the future for carbon-free Unfortunately, compared to the 4 out of 4 score for its importance to energy, the DOE only rates the overall risk of supply chain disruption of uranium at a 2 out of 4. This low score does not align with the industry\u2019s current state. There are a few reasons the DOE may have underestimated the potential for supply chain disruption. First, the political, regulatory, and social factors (PRS) metric relies on 2021 data which was released prior to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Secondly, the assessment takes a global view of material demand and does not necessarily reflect how important certain materials are to the U.S. energy sector or economy. From the report\u2019s data and assumptions, the DOE has underestimated the potential of a uranium supply disruption from the American perspective.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Source: Department of Energy, 2023 Critical Material Assessment<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n Transforming uranium ore into nuclear fuel requires a number of steps. In order to make nuclear fuel<\/a>, the uranium must be mined, milled, converted to a gas, isotopically enriched, deconverted to a powder, and then fabricated into fuel pellets. Enrichment is a necessary step that increases the concentration of usable energy in nuclear fuel so it is compatible with U.S. reactors. However, in 2022, U.S. nuclear plants<\/a> purchased almost 75% of our enrichment services from other countries, and more than 20% of total enrichment services were provided by Russia. In fact, the report\u2019s limited post-Ukraine invasion data likely undervalues the severity of the supply chain bottleneck in Russia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
energy generation although with higher uncertainties compared to other power sources.”
– DOE, 2023 Critical Material Assessment
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