US Votes to Keep Ban on Dumping French Uranium

The US International Trade Commission (ITC) has voted in agreement with global energy company USEC that terminating antidumping duty orders on imports of low-enriched uranium (LEU) from France would harm the US enrichment industry.

The ITC vote concludes the Sunset Review, part of the Uruguay Round Agreements Act, requiring the US Department of Commerce to revoke an antidumping duty order or terminate a suspension agreement after five years unless there is opposition by the ITC.

USEC, which supplies enriched uranium fuel for commercial nuclear power plants, believes the dumping of foreign-produced uranium is "a significant threat to the US enrichment industry, the economic wellbeing of its workers and the communities in which they live".

In May 2007, the US Department of Commerce (DOC) agreed that the dumping of French LEU is likely to continue or recur if the antidumping duty order is terminated.

By Ozge Ibrahim