(paper and plastic crinkle)

(upbeat music)

- [Woman] So Matt, why do you have a piece

of uranium ore in the studio?

- Well, because it's cool.

It's also a little freaky,

and because it was left off of a very important list

that made the news.

- Today, I'm announcing we're banning all imports

of Russian oil and gas and energy.

- It turns out the Russian Ukraine war is exposing a problem

that doesn't get that much coverage,

the nuclear fuel supply chain,

and that could have major impacts

on the future of nuclear power in the United States.

(counter clicks)

(upbeat music)

In response to the invasion of Ukraine,

the U.S. and other countries have placed sanctions on Russia

including energy resources like oil and gas,

but not uranium.

- Russia is a huge player on the global stage

when it comes to nuclear energy

and particularly when it comes to the uranium supply chain.

- Justine Calma is a science reporter at "The Verge"

who wrote a story about why it's so hard for the U.S.

to quit Russian uranium.

- The U.S. can pretty easily turn its back

on Russian oil and gas and has,

and has not been able to pull the trigger on uranium,

because we rely on Russia for a significant chunk

of our uranium.

(soothing music)

- Uranium is a common nuclear fuel, because its isotope,

U-235, is easily split during fission,

releasing tons of energy.

Nuclear power is highly contested,

but it still makes up about half

of our carbon-free electricity in the U.S.

Right now, the Biden administration is investing heavily

in nuclear energy to meet the U.S.' climate goals,

which is why we're talking about uranium.

So when we talk about nuclear power,

it all kind of starts with this, uranium ore,

which is radioactive.

That's why we're wearing gloves.

We did speak to professionals about how to properly

handle this stuff, (counter clicks)

so we're taking all the necessary precautions,

but you know, don't try this at home.

(upbeat music)

Most uranium ore is like this sample.

It's overwhelmingly not uranium.

Low grade uranium ore only has about 0.1% of uranium in it.

The rest of this ore is just regular rock

plus some elements like lead, thorium, and bismuth

that the uranium is slowly decaying into.

It's actually those daughter products

that are tripping our Geiger counter.

We need a much (counter clicks)

more sensitive device to sniff out the uranium.

Somewhere in this sample (dramatic music)

is a very small amount of this,

a mineral that's rich in uranium called uraninite,

which is for lack of a better expression

just a lot of uranium packed in very tightly.

This stuff is one of many minerals that has uranium in them,

and even that small bit of uranium tucked inside

tons of useless rock, most of that is the wrong isotope

for uranium fuel.

- Naturally occurring uranium,

like the stuff that you dig out of the ground,

has very low levels of U-235.

- The point is we need a lot of uranium ore

to produce a relatively tiny amount of fuel,

and it takes a lot of work to make that happen.

(soothing music)

To be useful as nuclear fuel, uranium has to go

through a conversion and enrichment process,

which basically means taking a bunch of U-235

and packing it in really tight.

- So uranium needs to be mined,

it needs to be turned into yellow cake,

that yellow cake needs to be converted into a gas,

that gas needs to be enriched,

so it has higher concentrations of U-235,

and then that enriched uranium needs to be fabricated

into a fuel rod.

Now that doesn't all happen in like one smooth go (laughs).

- This is an extremely laborious process,

and it's contracted out to different companies,

and only a handful of countries are really up

to doing this like France, Russia, and China.

- There are security concerns

along that entire supply chain,

because when you enrich uranium,

it can be enriched for nuclear energy.

It can also be enriched (bomb explodes)

for nuclear weapons.

It's been sort of a saturated market as well,

but demand is starting to grow.

- Some governments are now reprioritizing nuclear power

as an alternative to fossil fuel,

so the supply chain is back in the spotlight,

which brings us back to Russia.

The Russia Ukraine War has amplified ongoing tensions

between the U.S. and Russia,

and it's exposed the vulnerabilities

of the nuclear supply chain.

One potential answer to that problem?

A strategic uranium reserve.

(dramatic music)

- This is basically a stockpile of uranium

to fuel our power plants, you know, in case of emergency.

Say this war drags on, as it has dragged on,

maybe we can pull from our strategic uranium reserve.

- The war also jeopardizes the build out

of next generation nuclear reactors.

Most plants today run off of a fuel

that's enriched to 5% of U-235,

but newer reactors in development need to bump that up

to as much as 20%.

- Having that higher concentration of U-235 makes

for more efficient fuel basically,

and that allows for reactors that can be built

to be much smaller than today's ginormous nuclear reactors.

And when you shrink the size, you also shrink the costs,

and costs has been one of the biggest roadblocks

for more nuclear energy.

- Right now, the only country that can commercially

make this NextGen fuel is you guessed it, Russia.

The U.S. is working on its own production facility

to make NextGen fuel, but it's still gonna take years

to really move the needle on American uranium independence.

(soothing music)

So if we're going through all this trouble to stockpile

and enrich uranium, some argue that the U.S. might

as well start mining it again too,

which doesn't have the best track record.

From the 1940s to the 1980s,

mining companies dug up lots of uranium ore

in the Western U.S., and decades later,

the EPA is still trying to clean up the mess

that was left behind.

Many indigenous tribes object to the return of mining

on or near their lands, which are still littered

with toxic waste.

- If you turn to the Navajo Nation,

hundreds of uranium mines left over on Navajo lands

that have been linked to cancer

and other horrible health outcomes,

because of uranium contamination of water

and other problems with the legacy of those mines.

- Nuclear powers issues don't end at mining.

There's the issue of storing (upbeat music)

radioactive waste and the threat of meltdowns,

so there's a lot at stake here.

The Biden administration recently set a goal

of reaching 100% carbon free energy by 2035,

and Biden wants nuclear power to be part of that puzzle,

so the debate around it may only intensify.

- There's no question that climate change really is a crisis

that the world has to face,

and some of the biggest fights now are gonna be

how are we gonna meet that crisis?

And nuclear energy is really one of the core questions

at the center of that debate,

and it's only gonna become a bigger flash point

as we move forward.

Here's what advocates for more nuclear energy say.

Beggars can't be choosers.

We need carbon free energy, and here's nuclear, right?

It's not perfect (laughs),

but we don't have a whole lot of great options.

- That debate won't be resolved anytime soon.

So it looks like we're gonna be stuck with this rock

for a little while longer.

(counter clicks)

Can I wash my hands now?

(screen beeps)

You guessed it, Russia.

You guessed it, Russia.

- [Woman] All right, you guessed it, Russia.

That part? - You guessed it, Russia?

You guessed it, Russia.

I'll do it the Norm McDonald way.

You guessed it, (woman laughs)

Frank Stallone.

You guessed it, Russia.

You guessed it, Russia.

You guessed it, Russia.

- [Woman] You guessed it, Russia,

and then like you circle it (indistinct).

- Got it.

You guessed it, Russia.