BlindBoo
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- Sep 28, 2010
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Instead, it concerned American dependence on foreign uranium sources. While the United States gets one-fifth of its electrical power from nuclear plants, it produces only around 20 percent of the uranium it needs, and most plants have only 18 to 36 months of reserves." The story quotes Republican Senator John Barrasso expressing the worry that the agreement “would give the Russian government control over a sizable portion of America’s uranium production capacity.” And so it did.
Russia had been selling us uranium (from 500 tones of highly enriched uranium from decommissioned nuclear weapons) since 1993. The mines only produce 4% of our annual needs. Probably why it was determined that the sale represented no national security threat.