On May 13, 2024, President Biden signed two bills into law. The first bill, H.R. 593, renamed the Department of Veterans Affairs community-based outpatient clinic in Hinesville, Georgia as the John Gibson, Dan James, William Sapp, and Frankie Smiley VA Clinic. Representative Carter and the Georgia delegation led on this legislation.
The second bill, H.R. 1042 or the “Prohibiting Russian Uranium Imports Act,” prohibits the importation of unenriched uranium that is produced in the Russian Federation or by a Russian entity. This ban aims to cut off one of the last significant flows of money from the US to Russia during the Ukraine war.
President Biden signed this bill into law on May 13, 2024, along with H.R. 593.
The US is heavily reliant on Russian uranium for its nuclear power plants as it is the world's top supplier of enriched uranium and about 24% of the enriched uranium used by US nuclear power plants comes from Russia. The ban on imports allows the Department of Energy to issue waivers in case of supply concerns until 2028.
The delay in banning Russian uranium was due to the US's reliance on Russia's state-owned nuclear power company, Rosatom and its subsidiary Tenex. The US has been preparing since 2022 for the possibility that Putin could stop selling it uranium by working to boost domestic capacity to process uranium fuel.
The legislation also unlocks about $2.7bn in funding to increase capacity in the US uranium fuel industry. One US conversion facility is already restarting and will be able to supply the equivalent of about 40% of US market demand in the near term.
Countries including Canada, France, and Japan will help the US deal with an “allied alternative” to Russian uranium. Rosatom's diversification into other areas that benefit Russia's war efforts have been highlighted as a reason to cut off the flow of US funds to the Russian state enterprise.
