The rare-earth sawing battle has not yet separated the victory, and the enrichment of uranium has become a new focus.
In the previous period, China's enriched uranium exports to the United States suddenly hit the brake, and in the past five months, exports amounted to only $1.185 billion, which directly cut 60 percent.
If the rare earth is a high-tech "aromatic", then enriched uranium is the "main food" of nuclear power.
At present, not only is the United States not free of its difficulties in rare earths, but also has problems with the underlying "fuel" for power generation.
Close the American door.
Enriched uranium is the "food for nuclear power." Low-concentration uranium is the energy source for daily power generation in nuclear power plants around the world; medium-concentration uranium is the key fuel for a new generation of small nuclear reactors; and high-concentration uranium is exclusive to military nuclear weapons.
That is, the power plant cannot be separated from it, and the development of new energy is more inseparable from it.
The problem is that in the U.S. pot, can not make this “food.” according to the U.S. Energy Information Agency data, the U.S. 70% of nuclear power plant fuels depend entirely on imports.
But the U.S. government signed a bill, preparing to completely ban Russian uranium in 2028, China's exports on the back of the foot dropped sharply.
The United States, of course, did not think of "their own grain." but the reality is that the domestic enriched uranium production capacity in the United States has shrunk to a invisible point. The only commercial enrichment plant that is still in operation, still has to rely on the European company Urenco.
Nuclear power in the U.S. is basically counted by others.
This is the basis for 18% of U.S. electricity. Once fuel is not supplied, nuclear power plants are shut down, electricity prices soar, and carbon emission targets are ruined, problems will all follow suit. Therefore, compared with rare earth materials that are "icing on the cake", uranium enrichment is the real "lifeline".
self-destructive martial arts
America now relies on foreign aid to enrich uranium, but thirty years ago, it was the world's largest. The technology and equipment left behind in the "Manhattan Plan" at the time, the United States once monopolized the global nuclear fuel market.
The first turning point was the "trillion-ton-to-megawatt" program in the 1990s. It sounded like a model of peaceful use of nuclear materials, the United States recovered uranium from Russia to generate electricity, both environmentally friendly and inexpensive. This cheap product hit the U.S. domestic market, resulting in domestic manufacturers lacking profits and slowly shrinking production capacity.
The second turning point is the chain reaction after market-oriented reform. After the U.S. uranium enrichment company USEC was privatized, it encountered a sharp fall in natural gas prices and a low tide of nuclear energy caused by the Fukushima accident. As a result, it was completely bankrupt in 2014.
Since then, the uranium enrichment capacity of the United States has basically fallen behind.
To this day, Centrus is barely holding up its appearance, and has just produced a small number of medium-concentration samples in 2023. But this amount can't even feed a reactor.
The entire industrial chain, from uranium mining to transformation to enrichment, each ring is tied up.The American energy industry itself admits that to rebuild the entire chain, it takes at least a decade to start.
The U.S. enriched uranium trouble is not someone else's neck, but the result of its own twenty-three years of step-by-step "disarmament." policy short-sighted, market-oriented, industrial outsourcing, in turn, turned the original advantage into a soft ribbon.
Beyond Rare Earths
For several years, the United States has also made a lot of moves, such as the Ministry of Defense stealing the MP materials company and the local rare earth processing plant. But in the end, rare earth is a "high-tech ingredient", although important, there are a lot of alternatives, and unlike enriched uranium, it is not "optional", but the "just needed" infrastructure.
In particular, the core fuel of medium concentration, future small modular reactors, in the world at present only China and Russia can scale production. once the United States is behind in this block, the development of non-photo nuclear power can not follow, the future new energy competition and low-carbon transformation will be taken by the nose.
From this perspective, the contraction of China's enriched uranium exports is unlikely to be a purely commercial choice. Considering that the Trump administration released various signals of "the return of trade war" as soon as it took office, the export of enriched uranium plummeted, It’s hard to say that it’s not a strategic counteraction, it doesn’t scream slogans from the mouth, it’s just going to get your energy vitality stuck.
Moreover, this kind of "precise strike" is really not afraid of your counterattack. Because there are currently only a handful of countries in the world that can fill the gap in China, Europe and Japan have limited production capacity, Russia has been blocked by you, and Australia has not even started enrichment.
This puts the Trump administration in a dilemma. While shouting "America first", I find that my most basic energy supply depends on others.
If rare earth is the precursor of industrial competition, then the enrichment of uranium is the main battlefield of the national energy strategy. This "door" is linked, the United States has not only lost existing nuclear power stability, but more likely to lose the future voice in the new generation of nuclear energy technology.
From the rare earth to the enrichment of uranium, the United States is continuously "trapped" not only raw materials, but also the underlying logic of strategic resources.This is not the temporary negligence of any government, but the long-term outsourcing of key industries, ignoring the cost of autonomous control.
This time, Trump may really "panic". Because this game is no longer something that can be solved by adding tariffs to trade barriers, but a comprehensive contest related to the energy chassis, technological future and geostrategic pattern of a big country.
China's "doors" to enrich uranium, once closed, are left to the United States, not only short-term supply gaps, but also long-term industrial policy reflection space.
The real game between great powers has shifted from tariffs and chips on the table to deeper resource control and energy security. And whoever can grasp the key lifeline will be able to occupy real dominance in the future global energy landscape. This competition has just begun.
Reference information: Russia temporarily restricts exports of enriched uranium to the United States 2024-11-16 14:00·Reference information
Pechizian: U.S. to give Iran "all enriched uranium" to be rejected 2025-09-27 21:30; reference news
Russia is still the largest supplier of enriched uranium to the United States 2025-10-01 17: 13 · Financial Associated Press