Hello,
I recently drifted off the Battery Trail to check out the uranium supply flow, and what I found is giving the entire energy sector headaches. The nuclear energy fuel supply chain in the US doesn’t flow—it stutters.
We previously highlighted the absurdity of US-mined uranium having to rely on a single conversion factory in Illinois. But when we look at our foreign supply, the problem gets much bigger.
🛑 The 10,000-Mile, Eight-Hand-Off Nightmare
To get nuclear fuel, the uranium needs a few simple processes:
- Mining: Digging the raw material out of the ground.
- Conversion: Changing the raw powder into a special gas.
- Enrichment: Making the gas strong enough to power a reactor.
To move the uranium through these steps, our imported fuel (like from Kazakhstan) takes a wild journey: Eight handoffs, Five borders, and over 10,000 miles.
The uranium is handled by multiple nations—shipped across war-zones, inspected in one country, converted in another, and then finally allowed back into the US. We import uranium, but we don’t choreograph it. This is why our supply is a stutter, not a secure flow.
🕸️ SMRs: Building a Web We Don’t Control
This fragility is about to become a crisis as the US plans to build many small, advanced power plants called Small Modular Reactors (SMRs). SMRs are the key to a holistic and flexible clean energy grid.
But here’s the hitch:
- New Fuel Needed: Many SMRs need a new, extra-strong type of fuel called HALEU.
- The Control Problem: Today, the US has virtually no way to make HALEU on a large scale. The infrastructure to produce this advanced fuel is mostly controlled by Russia and China.
Think of it this way: We are setting up hundreds of new SMR power stations across the country—a gigantic spider web of clean power. But the special thread (the HALEU fuel) that holds the web together is controlled by nations who are not our friends.
We are building a gigantic spider web, but the US doesn’t control the web. Other nations are the spider, ready to control our energy future.
Making Energy Security Holistic
We must stop relying on geopolitical luck. We need to build the entire, holistic fuel supply chain right here at home:
- More domestic mining.
- A second factory to make the uranium gas (breaking the Illinois bottleneck).
- Fast-tracking the ability to make our own HALEU to power our future SMRs.
The journey starts with securing our own thread. Until we own the entire choreography, our nuclear future remains vulnerable to a 10,000-mile stutter.