The US has produced the first 90 kilograms of enriched uranium and plans to increase the volume to one ton by the end of the year, US President Joe Biden said on Friday.
“I can announce today that a plant in southern Ohio has already produced the first 200 pounds (about 90 kilograms.) of high-powered enriched uranium, the first produced in America, and the facility is working to produce almost a ton by the end of the year,” Biden said.
He emphasized that such a volume is “enough to power a hundred thousand homes in this country.” He noted that the production of enriched uranium will help the US “reduce dependence on oil imports.”
Earlier in January this year, the head of the US Department of Energy’s Office of Nuclear Energy, Catherine Huff, said that the US intends to work with allies to make it possible to produce low-enriched uranium, which is used to fuel nuclear power plants, in order to free itself from dependence on Russian supplies. She said the US, in co-operation with Japan, Britain, France and Canada, intends to create an international supply network to free itself from dependence on Russia.
Now the share of nuclear power in the US is 20 per cent, the US can provide fuel on its own for 30 per cent, fuel supplies from Russia account for about 20 per cent.