Trump wants $1.5B over 10 years to revive US uranium mining
Source: Associated Press
Trump wants $1.5B over 10 years to revive US uranium mining
By BRADY McCOMBS and ELLEN KNICKMEYER
14 February 2020
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) The Trump administration is asking Congress for $1.5 billion over 10 years to create a new national stockpile of U.S.-mined uranium, saying that propping up U.S. uranium production in the face of cheaper imports is a matter of vital energy security.
But some Democratic lawmakers, and market analysts across the political spectrum, charge that the Trump administrations overall aim is really about helping a few uranium companies that cant compete in the global market. Demand for the nuclear fuel has languished worldwide since Japans 2011 Fukushima disaster. U.S. uranium production has plummeted 96% in the last five years, the U.S. Energy Information Administration reported Thursday.
Trump made the request for a new national uranium reserve in his 2021 budget request this week the latest illustration that trying to rescue the U.S. nuclear and coal industries is a political priority for the Republican president, who often invokes national security as justification.
Its not the responsibility of the taxpayer to bail out an industry, whether thats uranium, solar, coal, what have you, said Katie Tubb, a senior energy policy analyst at the conservative Washington Heritage Foundation.
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Read more: https://apnews.com/06d99ee066302f91dded79a83ea21b19