Washington, D.C. -- Senate Energy Committee Chairman Pete Domenici, with three other Senators, today outlined opposition to changing two international agreements with Russia on enriched uranium that could result in pulling the plug on an increasingly resurgent U.S. nuclear energy industry.

In prelude to President Bush’s participation this weekend in the G-8 summit in Russia, Domenici and Senators Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.), Mike DeWine and George Voinovich (both R-Ohio) issued a letter opposing any changes to the Suspension Agreement and Highly Enriched Uranium (HEU) Agreement with Russia.  The letter was prompted by indications that Russia would like to alter the agreements in order to ship more enriched uranium to the United States.

In the letter to the President, the lawmakers say allowing Russia to dump more enriched uranium on the U.S. market would make the nation more reliant on foreign energy and imperil construction of two planned uranium enrichment facilities in the United States—including the National Enrichment Facility near Eunice, N.M.

"Any changes proposed in either agreement would have the potential of making the U.S. more dependent on foreign sources of nuclear fuel at a time when domestic sources are being developed.  Additionally, Russian access to the U.S. market at this time is likely to result in market destabilization potentially jeopardizing resurgence of the nuclear-related industry,” the letter to Bush stated.

The two proposed uranium enrichment facilities—planned by the Louisiana Energy Services in New Mexico and by the U.S. Enrichment Corp. in Ohio—involve the investment of roughly $3.2 billion.  By 2013, the two facilities could have combined capacity to provide just half of the enriched uranium required by U.S. nuclear power reactors.

In addition to these two facilities, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission is considering applications to construct more than 20 new nuclear power plants in the United States.

“Additional Russian nuclear fuel supplies generated at dual military/civilian use enrichment facilities originally built by the Soviet Union were not anticipated.  This could have a very chilling effect on the massive investments needed to resurrect a healthy domestic U.S. enrichment industry and grow that industry to meet the fuel supply requirements of new nuclear power reactors in our country,” the letter said.

The Senators recommended that the U.S. government undertake an initiative to examine the options for uranium fuel supply options after 2013 while accounting for domestic and international commercial nuclear expansion and sources of fuel for those reactors.  This assessment should consider a balance between nonproliferation objectives and market factors. 

“Pending completion of such an initiative, we support maintaining, with no modifications, the existing Suspension Agreement and HEU Agreement between the U.S. and Russia,” the Senators wrote.

Russia signed an agreement with the United States in 1992, amended in 1994, 1996, and 1997, which currently stipulates that no additional Russian nuclear fuel supplies beyond those derived from dismantled Russian nuclear weapons will be delivered to U.S. utilities.  Russia is now the single largest supplier of uranium enrichment services to U.S. utilities, providing 44 percent between 2001 and 2005.