The Hill: "[W]e have largely ceded U.S. nuclear energy leadership to Russia and China.
"The failure to invest in nuclear infrastructure along with a sclerotic nuclear regulatory system has led to premature plant closures, construction challenges for new reactors, increased regulatory burdens and operational costs, as well as an atrophied domestic supply chain for uranium and nuclear fuels. Russia now provides 20 percent of the enriched uranium that fuels our reactors and Russia’s TENEX is currently the world’s only commercial supplier of high-assay low-enriched uranium (HALEU) that many of the next generation of American reactors will run on. Russia also currently operates the only facility capable of testing the materials and components that can keep the United States on the cutting edge of commercial nuclear energy technology.
"America’s short-sighted neglect of its nuclear energy sector has also weakened our nation’s power and global influence relative to Russia’s authoritarian regime."