Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., chairman of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, wrote in a letter to the Energy Department and the Regulatory Commission that he was repeatedly misled by the Obama administration about a Russian company’s ability to export uranium.
Barrasso wants to know more about the sale of Uranium One and how uranium made its way out of the country.
“Beginning in 2012, Uranium One exported U.S. uranium by ‘piggy-backing’ as a supplier on an export license” held by a shipping company, Barrasso wrote.
In 2011, then-NRC Chairman Gregory Jaczko assured the senator that the companies did not hold a specific “NRC export license” and would not be able to export uranium from the U.S. without one.
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The Hill reported last month and the NY Times reported in 2014 that “yellow cake uranium” was approved for sale out of the country to Canada. We know that from there it went to Europe and possibly Asia.
The Hill report described an alternative way of approving those exports. It said that the NRC, rather than grant a direct export to Rosatom, in 2012 “authorized an amendment to an existing export license” for a trucking firm “to simply add Uranium One to the list of clients whose uranium it could move to Canada.”
Barrasso said he was misled by Jaczko.
The Department of Energy also lied and “chose to hide its role in approving exports,” by claiming at the time the issue did not fall within its “purview.”
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