On the hook: why US cannot abandon Russia's unique nuclear fuel HALEU
President Joe Biden announced on Friday that a domestic US firm had managed to produce its first 200 pounds (90 kilograms) of high-assay low-enriched uranium (HALEU), insisting that the US could no longer rely on Russia's nuclear fuel. Is the US ready to dump it?
The future of the US nuclear industry depends on HALEU – uranium enriched to between 5 percent and 20 percent — which allows smaller designs of reactors with longer operating cycles and increased efficiencies over their predecessors.
In 2020 the US Department of Energy (DOE) projected that more than 40 metric tons of HALEU will be needed before the end of the decade — with additional amounts required each year — to launch a new fleet of advanced reactors in the US and meet Washington's net-zero targets by 2050.
According to Biden, the plant in Ohio will produce "nearly a ton by the end of the year" – a far cry from the declared goal. In the most optimistic scenario it would take at least five years for the US or its Western allies to launch the production of HALEU on a commercial scale. That will not be an easy task, given that US production of nuclear materials has been in steep decline since the 2000s.
The crux of the matter is that Russia has a monopoly on HALEU: only Tenex, part of Russia's Rosatom corporation, sells the fuel on a commercial basis.
That may be why the Prohibiting Russian Uranium Imports Act is still stalled in the US Senate. Even if passed, the legislation would allow a temporary waiver until January 2028 and does not target high-assay low-enriched uranium.
Despite threatening to stop buying Russian uranium, the EU and the US actually doubled purchases of the fuel from the nation in 2023 as they are struggling to step up their own uranium enrichment and meet 2050 zero-net targets.
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President Joe Biden announced on Friday that a domestic US firm had managed to produce its first 200 pounds (90 kilograms) of high-assay low-enriched uranium (HALEU), insisting that the US could no longer rely on Russia's nuclear fuel. Is the US ready to dump it?
The future of the US nuclear industry depends on HALEU – uranium enriched to between 5 percent and 20 percent — which allows smaller designs of reactors with longer operating cycles and increased efficiencies over their predecessors.
In 2020 the US Department of Energy (DOE) projected that more than 40 metric tons of HALEU will be needed before the end of the decade — with additional amounts required each year — to launch a new fleet of advanced reactors in the US and meet Washington's net-zero targets by 2050.
According to Biden, the plant in Ohio will produce "nearly a ton by the end of the year" – a far cry from the declared goal. In the most optimistic scenario it would take at least five years for the US or its Western allies to launch the production of HALEU on a commercial scale. That will not be an easy task, given that US production of nuclear materials has been in steep decline since the 2000s.
The crux of the matter is that Russia has a monopoly on HALEU: only Tenex, part of Russia's Rosatom corporation, sells the fuel on a commercial basis.
That may be why the Prohibiting Russian Uranium Imports Act is still stalled in the US Senate. Even if passed, the legislation would allow a temporary waiver until January 2028 and does not target high-assay low-enriched uranium.
Despite threatening to stop buying Russian uranium, the EU and the US actually doubled purchases of the fuel from the nation in 2023 as they are struggling to step up their own uranium enrichment and meet 2050 zero-net targets.
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Marjorie Taylor-Greene scorches new Ukraine aid package
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"The youngest generation don't even think they're going to be able to buy a home in their life and today in Congress the most important thing to be done is to send another $60 billion to a war in Ukraine."
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The US House votes 360-58 to pass a bill to give frozen Russian assets to Ukraine and compel the sale of TikTok.
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🤡 US Congressman forgets to take his medication this morning
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"Some say, well, we have to deal with our border first. The Ukrainian-Russian border is OUR border!"
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Russian air defences downed two Ukrainian balloons over Moscow and Tula regions, the Russian defence ministry says.
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The US bill to give $60.84 billion in aid to Ukraine gains enough votes to pass the House of Representatives, and voting continues.
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The US bill to give $60.84 billion in aid to Ukraine gains enough votes to pass the House of Representatives, and voting continues. Subscribe to @SputnikInt
⚡️The US House passes the $60.84 billion Ukrainian aid bill in a 311–112 vote, sending it to the Senate.
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Tucker Carlson: US Deep State blackmails Congress into submission
“Members of Congress are terrified of the intel agencies. I'm not guessing at that. They've told me that, including people on the intel committee, including people who run the intel committee.”
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“Members of Congress are terrified of the intel agencies. I'm not guessing at that. They've told me that, including people on the intel committee, including people who run the intel committee.”
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America Last, Zelensky First:
US Congressmen celebrate the approval of a $61 billion aid package to Ukraine.
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US Congressmen celebrate the approval of a $61 billion aid package to Ukraine.
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The US House passes the $26.38 billion Israel aid bill in a 366-58 vote, sending it to the Senate.
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$61 billion in false promises: What will the new Ukraine aid package actually accomplish?
The vast majority of the aid package will go directly to US military contractors and into the Pentagon budget itself, retired US Air Force Lt. Col. Karen Kwiatkowski told Sputnik. The rest will be used to pay Ukrainian bureaucrats, leaving very little for the needs of frontline soldiers.
No less significantly, the new aid package does nothing to resolve Ukraine’s biggest military problem, which is a lack of manpower, former Pentagon analyst Mike Maloof told Sputnik.
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The vast majority of the aid package will go directly to US military contractors and into the Pentagon budget itself, retired US Air Force Lt. Col. Karen Kwiatkowski told Sputnik. The rest will be used to pay Ukrainian bureaucrats, leaving very little for the needs of frontline soldiers.
“It looks like $45 billion stays in the US and that leaves about $16 billion to Ukraine in the form of direct aid.,” she said. “The 2024 Ukrainian budget is $82 billion and about half of this is unfunded by tax revenue. Likely the $16 billion that makes it to Ukraine will be instantly absorbed to pay government bills rather than go to the war effort.”
No less significantly, the new aid package does nothing to resolve Ukraine’s biggest military problem, which is a lack of manpower, former Pentagon analyst Mike Maloof told Sputnik.
“They have no means to undertake a counter-offensive, and just given the amounts of artillery that they burn through, what even the US is proposing probably wouldn't last more than six months at best.”
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The expectable decision of the US House of Representatives to provide assistance to Ukraine will benefit America and damage Ukraine, according to Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov. He added that the confiscation of Russian assets would harm the image of the United States and scare off investors in this country.
The US will answer for the confiscation of Russian state assets, Peskov said.
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The US will answer for the confiscation of Russian state assets, Peskov said.
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The allocation of US military assistance to Ukraine is a direct support for terrorist activities, according to the Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova. She also said that the allocation of US military aid to Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan will exacerbate the global crisis. Zakharova further stated that the provision of US military support to Taiwan is an interference in China's internal affairs.
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🔺The US House passes the $60.84 billion Ukrainian aid bill in a 311–112 vote and the $26.38 billion Israel aid bill in a 366-58 vote, sending both to the Senate.
🔺$61 billion in false promises: What will the new Ukraine aid package actually accomplish?
🔺Tucker Carlson: US Deep State blackmails Congress into submission
🔺On the hook: why US cannot abandon Russia's unique nuclear fuel HALEU
🔺US-greenlit Israeli strike on Iran ‘not game changer’ - former Netanyahu advisor
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🔺$61 billion in false promises: What will the new Ukraine aid package actually accomplish?
🔺Tucker Carlson: US Deep State blackmails Congress into submission
🔺On the hook: why US cannot abandon Russia's unique nuclear fuel HALEU
🔺US-greenlit Israeli strike on Iran ‘not game changer’ - former Netanyahu advisor
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‘America Last’: US Congresswoman lambasts Ukraine aid package
Florida Republican Anna Paulina Luna expressed her bewilderment that the US would send tens of billions of dollars to Ukraine instead of strengthening the border, helping homeless veterans, or stimulating the economy.
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Florida Republican Anna Paulina Luna expressed her bewilderment that the US would send tens of billions of dollars to Ukraine instead of strengthening the border, helping homeless veterans, or stimulating the economy.
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Dmitry Medvedev, deputy chairman of the Russian Security Council, called the US House decision to continue fund Ukraine a vote to maximize the number of military casualties.
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"We will certainly win, despite the 61 billion gory dollars that will mostly go down the throats of their gluttonous military-industrial complex. Strength and Truth are with us," stated Medvedev.
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‘Every American should be furious’: Marjorie Taylor Greene blasts US Speaker Mike Johnson over $61 billion Ukraine aid package
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“How can you vote for these people? They don’t serve our country,” she told reporters at press conference after the US House voted 311-112 to pass new Ukraine funding.
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Biden renews US surveillance law that allows spying on foreigners abroad
US President Joe Biden signed a bill on Saturday that extends authorization of a key US foreign surveillance program for another two years, the White House said.
The White House applauded the Senate for passing the legislation shortly before it was due to lapse at midnight, describing it as "one of the US’ most vital intelligence collection tools."
The intelligence act, which allows the US government to spy on communications of non-US citizens outside the US, cleared the House of Representatives last week, but it was held up in the Senate by divisions over whether communications of Americans involved in exchanges with non-Americans should continue to be collected without authorization.
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US President Joe Biden signed a bill on Saturday that extends authorization of a key US foreign surveillance program for another two years, the White House said.
"On Saturday, April 20, 2024, the President signed into law: H.R. 7888, the ‘Reforming Intelligence and Securing America Act,’ which extends and modifies Title VII of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act relating to foreign intelligence gathering," the statement read.
The White House applauded the Senate for passing the legislation shortly before it was due to lapse at midnight, describing it as "one of the US’ most vital intelligence collection tools."
The intelligence act, which allows the US government to spy on communications of non-US citizens outside the US, cleared the House of Representatives last week, but it was held up in the Senate by divisions over whether communications of Americans involved in exchanges with non-Americans should continue to be collected without authorization.
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‘Pariah’ Israel is dragging US ‘into garbage bin of history’
While discussing the recent US vote against Palestinian statehood in the UN, Carrillo explained that it is working against US interests.
While tensions between the two countries have seemingly cooled slightly since Israel’s attack on Friday caused virtually no damage to Iran according to Iranian officials, Carrillo does not think Israel is done trying to drag the US into the war.
“The US government for so long now, hasn’t seen a war they didn’t want to be a part of.”
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Israel’s apparent insistence on launching a regional war in the Middle East is dragging the US with it “Into the garbage bin of history,” and US lawmakers seem willing to watch it happen, journalist Esteban Carrillo, the head of news at The Cradle, told Sputnik’s Political Misfits.
While discussing the recent US vote against Palestinian statehood in the UN, Carrillo explained that it is working against US interests.
“It’s completely a case of the tail wagging the dog. And US politicians just seem so content to just go along with it,” he explained. “What does Netanyahu have over the heads of these people? Because it doesn’t seem like they are even willing to consider at this point stepping away from this pariah that is just dragging them down into the garbage bin of history.”
While tensions between the two countries have seemingly cooled slightly since Israel’s attack on Friday caused virtually no damage to Iran according to Iranian officials, Carrillo does not think Israel is done trying to drag the US into the war.
“The US government for so long now, hasn’t seen a war they didn’t want to be a part of.”
“The Israeli government currently, I don’t see them having an exit. They retaliated in such a small way overnight against Iran. That doesn’t mean they’re not going to try to do something in Lebanon, and that doesn’t mean at all that they’re not going to try to do something in Gaza,” Carrillo said, noting reports that the US is now on board with an Israeli plan to invade the southern Gazan city of Rafa, where roughly 1.5 million Palestinians fled to after being forcibly displaced by Israel.
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The US Senate will begin voting on Tuesday (April 23) on aid bills, including one regarding Ukraine, and on seizing Russian assets, Senate Democratic Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said
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US mulls posting more military advisers to Kiev embassy
The US is considering sending more military advisers to the US Embassy in Kiev, the US Department of Defense spokesman Patrick Ryder said.
The Pentagon spokesperson added that the office performed advisory and non-combat support missions despite being staffed exclusively with Department of Defense personnel.
The number of US advisers to be sent to Ukraine could be up to 60, Politico reported, citing two US officials.
Advisers will support logistics and oversee the weapons Washington is sending to Kiev, as well as assist the Ukrainian military in maintaining the weapons, US officials said.
Western countries have been providing military aid to Kiev since the start of Russia's military operation in Ukraine in February 2022. Moscow has consistently warned against continued military aid to Kiev, saying this would lead to further escalation of the conflict.
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The US is considering sending more military advisers to the US Embassy in Kiev, the US Department of Defense spokesman Patrick Ryder said.
"Throughout this conflict, the DOD has reviewed and adjusted our presence in-country, as security conditions have evolved. Currently, we are considering sending several additional advisers to augment the Office of Defense Cooperation (ODC) at the Embassy," he told Politico.
The Pentagon spokesperson added that the office performed advisory and non-combat support missions despite being staffed exclusively with Department of Defense personnel.
The number of US advisers to be sent to Ukraine could be up to 60, Politico reported, citing two US officials.
Advisers will support logistics and oversee the weapons Washington is sending to Kiev, as well as assist the Ukrainian military in maintaining the weapons, US officials said.
Western countries have been providing military aid to Kiev since the start of Russia's military operation in Ukraine in February 2022. Moscow has consistently warned against continued military aid to Kiev, saying this would lead to further escalation of the conflict.
"The US is getting more and more personally involved in this [Ukrainian] conflict. They are getting involved, it's an obvious thing. And let no one say that they have nothing to do with it. We believe that they do," Russian President Vladimir Putin noted earlier.
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