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Between 1995 and 2013, the uranium from around 20,000 Soviet nuclear warheads supplied up to 10 percent of U.S. electricity. After the Cold War arms race, the Megatons to Megawatts program turned 500 metric tons of bomb-grade uranium from decommissioned Soviet-era nuclear weapons into low-enriched uranium (LEU) for U.S. nuclear reactors. Today, Russia remains America’s top supplier of enrichment services (the process that turns natural uranium into nuclear fuel). This is odd: Washington banned imports of Russian LEU in August 2024, a move that prompted Moscow to outlaw such exports to the United States three months later. Both bans appear to be theater, and Moscow’s leverage over Washington on uranium supplies could be more powerful than U.S. officials would like to admit.

A brief look at the past helps make sense of U.S. reliance on Russian uranium. During its 18-year time span, the Megatons to Megawatts program ran like clockwork. The conversion and dilution of weapons-grade uranium to reactor fuel took place in four facilities across Russia. Shipments then made their way to Paducah, Kentucky, to complete the process. The $12 billion program was a resounding success, eliminating more than a quarter of the global stock of bomb-grade uranium. Yet this success came at a steep long-term price. Decades of reliance on Russia resulted in chronic underinvestment in U.S. uranium enrichment capacity. Paducah, America’s sole domestically owned enrichment plant, ceased operating when Megatons to Megawatts wound down. The only commercial-scale enrichment facility operating in the United States today belongs to Urenco, a British-Dutch-German firm.

Between 1995 and 2013, the uranium from around 20,000 Soviet nuclear warheads supplied up to 10 percent of U.S. electricity. After the Cold War arms race, the Megatons to Megawatts program turned 500 metric tons of bomb-grade uranium from decommissioned Soviet-era nuclear weapons into low-enriched uranium (LEU) for U.S. nuclear reactors. Today, Russia remains America’s top supplier of enrichment services (the process that turns natural uranium into nuclear fuel). This is odd: Washington banned imports of........

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