Rep. Lummis: Congress May Take Up Legislation If DOE Doesn?t Limit Uranium Transfers

Legislation could be on the table to cap the Department of Energy’s uranium transfers if DOE does not limit the transfers on its own, Rep. Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.) said yesterday at a House Oversight Interior Subcommittee hearing yesterday’s on DOE’s uranium management program. DOE uses the transfers to help fund cleanup activities at Portsmouth and the highly enriched uranium downblend program. But DOE last year increased its transfers above a previously self-imposed guideline of 10 percent of the domestic nuclear fuel market, leading to opposition from the uranium mining industry. Lummis believes that if a cap is necessary to preserve a market price, “that would be something I would be willing to consider, making that cap an absolute cap so lenders and uranium miners and the companies that employ them could be ensured that the federal government is not artificially depressing the price of domestic uranium,” she told reporters following the hearing.

 

The Department is currently preparing a new secretarial determination governing the uranium transfers, expected out “fairly soon,” and is reviewing public comment on the issue, DOE Office of Nuclear Energy Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary John Kotek said at the hearing. Lummis said she hopes that DOE can address the issue on its own. “I think that this could be handled through the executive branch at the administrative level, but if it’s not I would consider legislation,” she said.