The U.S. government is probing whether China is supporting Russia’s nuclear industry by importing enriched uranium from its neighbor and exporting its own production to the U.S., which recently banned Russian uranium imports, Reuters has learned.
U.S. House lawmakers passed the ban on Russian enriched uranium in December 2023 as part of a U.S. effort to disrupt President Vladimir Putin’s ability to fund Russia’s war on Ukraine.
That month, shipments of enriched uranium from China to the U.S. shot to 242,990 kilograms (535,700 lb), according to data from the U.S. International Trade Commission. The imports are significant because from 2020 to 2022 China did not send any enriched uranium to the U.S.
In May this year, the month that Biden signed the ban, China again sent the U.S. a large amount of uranium – this time totaling 123,894 kilograms (273,139 lb).
The U.S. Department of Energy “along with other relevant agencies is closely tracking imports from China to ensure the proper implementation of the recently enacted Prohibiting Russian Uranium Imports Act,” a department spokesperson said, a development that has not been previously reported.
U.S. officials are watching the imports from China and other countries to “ensure they are not importing Russian uranium as part of a scheme to export material produced domestically that they would otherwise have used in their own reactors,” the spokesperson said.