If you’ve been wondering about the sudden blather about Secretary Clinton and uranium mines, Paul Rosenzweig on Lawfare covers the issue at length. Perhaps of most interest, though, is his reference to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s review of the matter, and his reaction to it:
NRC’s review of the transfer of control request determined that the U.S. subsidiaries will remain the licensees, will remain qualified to conduct the uranium recovery operations, and will continue to have the equipment, facilities, and procedures necessary to protect public health and safety and to minimize danger to life or property. The review also determined that the licensees will maintain adequate financial surety for eventual decommissioning of the sites. Neither Uranium One nor ARMZ holds an NRC export license, so no uranium produced at either facility may be exported.
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- Uranium One’s licenses are for mining and extraction, not for export. This makes the claim that we “gave away” 20% of America’s uranium fairly hyperbolic. The expectation, in light of the NRC’s assessment, would have been that the uranium mined would be marketed in America (with the profits going to Russia).
- It is, however, true, that the mining rights to 20% of American uranium are now held by a Russian state agency. That is troubling (and had it been me, I would have tried to generate opposition to the sale). It isn’t a “give away,” but it is the case that Rusatom has de jure and de facto legal rights that can be exercised to limit production if it wishes to do so.
Along with with this note that the purchasing entity, Rosatom, “… is reported to have promised to retain the Uranium One corporate management and corporate structure, not breaking up the company,” it’s really hard to see the current GOP-generated uproar as anything more than a frantic distraction tactic for its own base. The Uranium One corporate structure will be Canadian, or perhaps even American, so it seems unlikely there’ll be illegal export or sabotage. More likely, this is simply seen as a way to take advantage of American nuclear needs by siphoning off some profits. It’s even possible that some Russian nuclear know-how made its way into Uranium One and is being applied to the extraction of the uranium.
And will the GOP base be smart enough to do some independent research? Maybe even read Lawfare, a hard-nosed legal blog that doesn’t put up with bullshit from either political party? Probably not, but I can keep up my hopes that my fellow citizens will return to thinking for themselves.
