Alghadeer TV Alghadeer TV
The United States is reportedly mulling sanctions on Russian nuclear supplier Rosatom, a move that could considerably impact the nuclear power and uranium mining industries.
A senior US administration official anonymously told Bloomberg on Wednesday that the White House was consulting with those involved in the nuclear power industry about the potential impact of imposing punitive measures against Russia’s atomic energy company.
Established in 2007, the state-owned Rosatom Corp., also known as Rosatom State Nuclear Energy Corporation, is considered one of the world’s largest nuclear energy companies and is a major supplier of fuel and technology to power plants across the globe.
Rosatom, which controls Russia’s uranium production, is an important source of revenue for the Russian Federation. The company and its subsidiaries account for some 35 percent of the world’s uranium enrichment. It has agreements to ship nuclear fuel to countries across Europe, and supplies 16.5 percent of the uranium imported into the US.
The US official said Washington had put all options on the table.
A day earlier, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters that although US President Joe Biden had placed a ban on American imports of Russian oil and other energy products, sanctions had not been introduced to imports of uranium for nuclear power plants.
Any restrictions on Rosatom, if imposed, would be part of Washington’s sweeping punitive measures against Moscow in response to the Russian military offensive against Ukraine, which started last month.
On Tuesday, Biden imposed bans on Russian oil and other energy imports, a move that was condemned by Moscow as an “economic war on Russia.”
Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Washington “is de facto waging this war.” Peskov also said the Western sanctions “force… us to think seriously” about potential countermeasures.
