The Energy Department is considering options to expand U.S. uranium supplies to nuclear reactors that rely on Russian imports for current operation and next-generation research, the DOE’s top science official told senators Tuesday.
The Russian invasion of Ukraine last week has made the agency’s uranium-development efforts “even more urgent,” Geraldine Richmond, undersecretary for science and innovation, said in testimony to the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee.
The department’s Office of Nuclear Energy and the National Nuclear Security Administration are discussing “different ways and different sources of uranium so we’re not dependent on Russia,” Richmond said. “It is a rapidly ...