By Dallas Morning News Editorial

2:00 am on May 28, 2022 CKT

For Ukrainian democracy, the United States has taken vital and courageous steps to pressure Russia by preventing imports. After Russia invaded its neighbor, the United States stopped buying Russian oil and herbal fuel and encouraged European allies to do the same.

But the United States continues to import a critical fuel from Russia: uranium. We buy about 16% of the uranium we use in our nuclear power plants in Russia. In many parts of the country, besides Texas, those plants are critical to electricity. .

Biden’s management will have to make a courageous decision to steer the United States away from Russian uranium, thereby preventing the sending of money to a regime that aggressively attacks democracy. Surely there are dangers to this movement. Domestic uranium mining is not a popular concept, and driving away the U. S. force generation fleet. UU. de the nuclear force is much more complicated than it seems. Still, isolating Russia and taking control of our own resources of force are laudable goals, and the paintings to achieve them can also benefit the country in other ways.

There are nuclear reactors in the United States at 55 power plant sites in 28 states. They produce about 20% of the electricity of the United States.

Texas has 4 reactors on two plants: the South Texas assignment in Bay City, between Houston and Corpus Christi; and Comanche Peak near Glen Rose. About 10% of Texas’ electric power comes from nuclear power.

All of those nuclear reactors will have to refuel about every 18 to 24 months. Where does the fuel come from? Very little uranium oxide is mined in the United States; Domestic production peaked in 1980 and fell to 170,000 pounds last year, according to the Energy Information Administration, the lowest point since production began. Compare that to the 42. 9 million pounds of uranium oxide that the U. S. The U. S. imported in 2020.

Canada and Kazakhstan account for 22% of U. S. uranium purchases. USA; Russia ranks third, with 16% of U. S. demand. USA Imports also come from Australia, Uzbekistan and Namibia. Could the owners of nuclear power plants exploit those resources to offset Russian uranium?We hope so.

Republican Senator John Barrasso of Wyoming has introduced legislation to stop Russian imports and create a stockpile of uranium into the United States to make sure there is enough source and domestic production. That’s a smart idea. The only traditional uranium plant in operation in the United States is in Utah, and the honorable senator actually sees an opportunity to expand mining and domestic production.

The challenge with radioactive fabrics is that they make the public nervous. Americans can’t agree on where to dispose of nuclear waste, so the waste is temporarily stored in nuclear power plants across the country. It’s hard to believe that the public welcomes other miners operations.

We’re going to have to deal with that because the demand for electric power isn’t cooling. Instead, more and more people are plugging in their cars, adding transportation to the list of human needs that feature electric power, from heating and cooling to cooking, to watching Mavs on TV.

This country is unlikely to build a nuclear reactor. This is unfortunate, as the nuclear force can be a valuable resource in the transition to fully renewable energy.

But given the political reality, as energy demands increases, we will want to raise an effective and reliable mix of natural gas, renewables and batteries.

This will require much more infrastructure; Americans will want to familiarize themselves with more pipelines, transmission lines, and wind turbines in their backyards.

CORRECTION, May 28, 2022: An earlier edition of this editorial misidentified the state represented through U. S. Senator John Barrasso.

Dallas Morning News editorials are written through the newspaper’s editorial board and serve as the newspaper’s voice and point of view. The board reviews a wide variety of topics and is overseen by the editorial page editor.