- Uranium Energy Corp’s Executive Vice President, Scott Melbye, presented testimony to Senate Committee on Energy & Natural Resources
- During his testimony, Melbye provided detail on current state of American nuclear energy industry as well as challenges being faced by the sector
- While nuclear power is an integral part of United States electricity framework, the country is now nearly completely dependent on foreign uranium imports to fuel its nuclear generators
- Melbye urged Congress to work towards increasing domestic uranium production within United States while simultaneously, building out recently established strategic uranium reserve
Uranium Energy (NYSE American: UEC), a U.S.-based uranium mining and exploration company, announced that the company’s executive vice president and current president of the Uranium Producers of America, Scott Melbye, recently presented testimony at the Full Committee Hearing on Nuclear Energy for the Senate Committee on Energy & Natural Resources on March 25, 2021 (https://ibn.fm/dEX9b).
Boasting 36 years of experience within every facet of the international nuclear fuel cycle, ranging from the production and global marketing of uranium to its use as a clean-energy fuel, Scott Melbye testified as to the current state of the United States’ nuclear energy industry as well as the challenges facing the sector as a whole.
Nuclear power currently provides electricity to one in five American homes while also accounting for half of the United States’ carbon-free power. However, Melbye stated, the American nuclear power industry is dangerously close to losing its uranium fuel industrial base. The United States is now nearly completely dependent on foreign uranium imports, with almost half of the fuel used by the United States’ commercial reactor fleet being sourced from state-owned entities in Russia, Kazakhstan, and Uzbekistan. Meanwhile, the nation’s domestic enrichment capacity is close to non-existent; the sole U.S. conversion facility in Illinois has been idle since 2017 and will only begin to restart operations in 2023.
Nonetheless, as Melbye elaborated, it is not too late to change the current state of affairs, with the United States possessing over one billion pounds of uranium in known and likely deposits. Uranium Energy Corp has worked towards the development of a variety of uranium project sites in locations such as Texas, New Mexico, Colorado, Arizona and Wyoming. Utilizing historical mineral and oil & gas exploration data, UEC has been able to target and acquire properties which have already been subject to exploration and development by senior energy firms in the past, thereby dramatically lowering the company’s overall development expenses and ultimate production costs.
At their flagship Texas and Wyoming projects and operations, the low-cost and environmentally friendly mining technology called in-situ recovery (ISR) will be used by UEC to competitively supply uranium to both global utilities and the needs of the U.S. government.
Accordingly, Melbye pressed upon the urgent need for the U.S. administration and Congress to move swiftly towards purchasing uranium this year for the recently established strategic uranium reserve and fully fund the program for FY2022. The anticipated purchases would serve to preserve the nation’s industrial base, guard against global supply disruptions, and create a source of U.S.-origin uranium for defense needs.
For more information, visit the company’s website at www.UraniumEnergy.com.
NOTE TO INVESTORS: The latest news and updates relating to UEC are available in the company’s newsroom at https://ibn.fm/UEC
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