US Utilities Depend on Foreign Suppliers for 90% of 2018 Uranium Purchases - EIA

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) - Uranium mined in the United States accounted for just 10 percent of the nuclear fuel purchased by owners and operators of civilian reactors in 2018, the US Energy Information Administration (EIA) said in a release on Thursday.

"Nearly 10 percent of the 40 million pounds of U3O8e [uranium] delivered in 2018 was US-origin uranium at a weighted-average price of $45.26 per pound," the release said. "Foreign-origin uranium accounted for the remaining 90% of deliveries at a weighted-average price of $38.11 per pound."

Canadian-origin uranium and Australian-origin uranium together accounted for 42 percent of total uranium purchased for US civilian reactors in 2018, the release said.

Uranium originating in Kazakhstan, Russia and Uzbekistan accounted for 40 percent, the release added.

READ MORE: UK Transports 700 Kg of Highly Enriched URANIUM to US

US uranium producers, which claim that just 7 percent of the uranium used in the United States is home grown, are lobbying for a quota system that would guarantee 25 percent of uranium used in US reactors is supplied by domestic producers, according to published reports.

Major utilities that operate nuclear reactors fear that quotas would increase costs in an industry already burdened by competition with other energy sources.