What Happens to Uranium in 17 Months When America Formally Cuts Off Imports from Moscow?
As the 17-month window on Russian enrichment waivers closes, a structural supply bottleneck is forcing U.S. utilities into the Athabasca Basin.

Washington's grand ambitions for a zero-carbon power renaissance face an uncomfortably ironic bottleneck: the atomic grid powering America’s artificial intelligence revolution remains quietly hitched to the Kremlin.
As energy-hungry data centers and nationwide electrification push U.S. power demand to record highs, nuclear power plant operators are grappling with a relentless clock.
Only 17 months remain on the temporary Department of Energy waivers that allow American utilities to import Russian-enriched nuclear fuel before a strict statutory embargo shuts the door entirely until 2040.
Data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) highlights the sheer scale of America's reliance on Russian nuclear processing. U.S. reactor operators bought roughly 3.28 million Separative Work Units (SWUs), the standard physical unit measuring uranium enrichment, from Russian entities in 2025. That accounted for nearly 26 percent of all enrichment services purchased by U.S. commercial plants, up from 17 percent a decade ago.




