Energy Secretary Wright Says U.S. Will Expand Uranium Reserve As Nuclear Enters “Rapid Growth” Phase

Just moments after we noted UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer announcing a US-UK nuclear deal on Monday ahead of Donald Trump’s state visit, aiming to show “a golden age of nuclear”, and about 3 weeks after we inconspicuously pointed out that Centrus Energy was getting extremely cozy with the Trump administration, the Trump administration’s top energy official today said the US should expand its strategic uranium reserve to reduce reliance on Russia and bolster confidence in nuclear power.

Energy Secretary Chris Wright, speaking in Vienna at the IAEA conference, noted Russia supplies about a quarter of the enriched uranium for America’s 94 reactors, which generate a fifth of US electricity. Cutting that supply “could endanger about 5% of electricity” without alternatives, according to Bloomberg.

“We’re moving to a place — and we’re not there yet — to no longer use Russian enriched uranium,” Wright said. He added, “We hope to see rapid growth in uranium consumption in the US from both large reactors and small modular reactors. The size of that right buffer would grow with time. We need a lot of domestic uranium and enrichment capacity.”

Bloomberg writes that a uranium reserve was first proposed in 2020 with $150 million requested, though Congress approved half. Biden later supported the plan, and in 2022 the Energy Department began purchases from US miners. Still, US companies hold only 14 months of uranium on average, compared with 2.5 years in the EU and 12 years in China, according to IAEA data.

The US is “furiously at work” rebuilding nuclear-fuel supply chains, Wright said, noting Biden signed a law in 2024 requiring utilities to stop using Russian uranium by 2028. Russia later restricted exports in retaliation.

The US has just two enrichment facilities: Urenco Ltd. in New Mexico for traditional reactors, and Centrus Energy in Ohio, which recently began producing higher-enriched fuel for advanced reactors. A White House order in May aims to speed their deployment, with the first models expected to test next year.

Wright also urged private investment, citing Peter Thiel’s General Matter Corp. as an example: “That’s key for efficiency and innovation and pace. That’s how you drive progress.”

As we noted weeks ago, readers of ZeroHedge are well aware that we believe Centrus Energy could be the next obvious candidate for the U.S. government to cozy up to and acquire a stake(similar to how the Trump admin recently did with rare earth company MP Materials and of course Intel, both of which we correctly predicted ahead of time, here and here). 

Just weeks ago Centrus announced it had signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power (KHNP) and POSCO International to explore potential investment in expanding its enrichment plant in Piketon, Ohio.

The signing ceremony drew high-level attention, with U.S. Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick and Korea’s Minister of Trade, Industry and Energy Kim Jung-kwan both in attendance. The deal underscores a growing U.S.–Korea partnership in civilian nuclear energy — and highlights the demand for secure, non-Russian sources of uranium enrichment.