USW Supports New Agreement to Limit Russian Uranium

Legislation required to eliminate threat to domestic industry and jobs

February 1, 2008 -- Washington, D.C. -- United Steelworkers (USW) International President Leo W. Gerard confirmed today support for a new long-term suspension agreement being signed late today between government representatives of the U.S. and Russia that sets limits on exports of uranium products, including commercial Low-Enriched Uranium (LEU), at levels that won’t threaten the workforce producing this in Kentucky, Ohio and Illinois.

The agreement is an update to a long-standing deal that was entered into after the USW brought an anti-dumping trade case against uranium products from Russia. Since then, all such products have been limited under a quota.

Rob Ervin, President of USW Local 550, representing the workforce at the U.S. Enrichment Corp. (USEC) facility in Paducah, Ky., has been involved in efforts to assure that the agreement satisfied union and industry concerns. “It is critical to maintain domestic production of nuclear fuel at the only remaining enrichment plant at Paducah.” Dan Minter, President of USW Local 689, who represents other uranium enrichment workers added: “This is necessary for timely completion of a new and modernized facility for future production at Piketon, OH, and will replace an enrichment plant shutdown in 2001.”

U.S. Commerce Secretary Carlos M. Gutierrez and Russian Federal Atomic Energy Agency (Rosatom) Director Sergey Kiriyenko are signing the agreement at Washington Dulles International Airport, which will govern trade in uranium products, including LEU through 2020.

The USW believes that overall the agreement sets reasonable quota limits on uranium products going forward, including LEU, which is used for commercial fuel purposes. Gerard said, “This agreement will insure that our domestic commercial nuclear fuel industry will remain viable and indeed be able to expand production to secure America’s energy future.”

The Commerce Department and the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) recently determined it was necessary to continue this agreement since there remained a real threat that Rosatom would resume dumping enriched uranium products in the U.S. market if the suspension agreement was terminated.

However, because of a legal technicality, not all LEU can be covered under the quota agreement. Russian LEU imports sold under contracts for so-called Separative Work Units (SWU) cannot be legally covered. So to make sure that the Russians will not undermine the effectiveness of the agreement, the USW received a strong commitment from congressional leaders and top officials in the U.S. Department of State, the Defense Department, the Energy Department and the Commerce Department that legislation, recently introduced following efforts by the USW in both the U.S. Senate and House, will be supported to fix the legal gap in coverage by amending the Tariff Act of 1930.

According to Local 550 President Ervin, the proposed legislation would make clear that all imports of low enriched uranium are subject to coverage under the anti-dumping law. “Coupled with the agreement, the legislation will provide our workforce and country the security we need to maintain a stable source of nuclear fuel and prevent a flood of unfairly-traded imports,” Ervin explained.

The USW represents workers at the only remaining uranium enrichment plant in the U.S. in Paducah, and a conversion facility is in Metropolis, IL. The USW also advocates support for the U.S. Enrichment Corporation (USEC) to build a new uranium enrichment plant in Piketon, OH.

Source: USW

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