Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Nuclear energy appears poised for a remarkable comeback.
Interest in restarting mothballed nuclear reactors and building a new generation of small modular reactors has soared. And most promising of all, big words have been followed by big financial commitments from tech companies hungry for power for data centers, and the federal government focused on boosting reliable, emissions-free power.
Yet, for all of the wind in the sails for commercial nuclear power, enormous hurdles remain.
The logistics of restarting closed nuclear power plants are daunting. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has never approved a reactor restart, and the process is a much bigger deal than just obtaining a permit.
A small modular reactor has never been built and connected to the grid.
Furthermore, perhaps most concerning, the U.S. nuclear fuel supply chain, from uranium production to fuel fabrication, is a shell of itself.
According to the Department of Energy, the U.S. relied on imports for 95% of its uranium needs in 2022, up from 86% in 2009 -- and our dependence on imports has continued to increase.
Much of the uranium originates in Russia and two former Soviet states, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. Moreover, uranium imports from China are growing.
Although the U.S. has some of the world’s largest and highest-grade uranium deposits, imported uranium is cheaper. Russia and China have been flooding the global market with government-subsidized uranium.
While Congress has implemented a ban on Russian uranium imports, that alone will not be enough to jumpstart the largely dormant uranium industry. If the U.S. hopes to rebuild its nuclear power capacity, reshoring uranium production must be a priority.
We need a robust uranium policy that recognizes the strategic importance of this critical material. Although nuclear plants generate the largest share of the nation’s emission-free power, they will not be able to operate for long in the event of a sudden cutoff of uranium imports.
The damage from the loss of this key mineral would extend to radionuclides needed for medical diagnosis and treatment and a variety of technologies used in manufacturing and environmental monitoring.
Of course, there are alarming implications for weapons systems central to national defense, including the Navy’s fleet of nuclear-powered aircraft carriers and submarines. A strategic uranium reserve exists for defense requirements, but absent a forceful policy shift, U.S. dependence on imported uranium will remain a critical economic and national security liability.
Scaling up U.S. uranium mining and milling is possible but difficult. While the U.S. has one of the world’s greatest repositories of uranium, our ability to get these minerals into the supply chain is limited by permitting delays. Investment in uranium mining is throttled by a Byzantine web of federal, state, and regional regulators who, over the years, have, in effect, pushed production overseas.
What’s more, this regulatory system was not designed to handle the increased need for uranium from a nuclear plant fleet that’s expected to grow as old plants are restarted and new nuclear plants are built.
Reforming our mining regulatory policy and making strategic investments in domestic producers is essential if we hope to reshore uranium production and build the secure supply chains that this moment demands. A new era for American nuclear power is here. It’s now time to build a solid footing for it to stand on.
Jim Constantopoulos is a geology professor at Eastern New Mexico University. Contact him at:
