FactChecker Analysis

Therepeated,incorrectclaim
thatRussiaobtained20
percentofoururanium
ByGlennKessler October31

Howisitthatourgovernmentcouldapproveasaleof20percentofoururaniumatthesametimethattherewasanopen
FBIinvestigation?
Rep.DevinNunes(RCalif.),interviewwithFoxNewssNeilCavuto,Oct.26,2017

KnowingwhatyouknowaboutRussia,wasitreallyagoodideafortheObamaadministrationandtheSecretaryofState
HillaryClintontoapproveadealgivingtheRussianscontrolof20percentofoururaniumsupply?...WhydidHillarys
officeandtheObamaadministrationsignoffongivingtheRussiansafifthofoururanium?...Whyisthatagoodideato
giveahostilepower20percentofoururaniumsupplies?Itsinsanethough....HowwouldHillaryClintonnotknowifa
Russiancompanywasgetting20percentofoururaniumsupply?Whatwasshedoing?
TuckerCarlson,onFoxsTuckerCarlsonTonight,Oct.23

More than a year ago, the Fact Checker labeled as false various claims that Donald Trump, then a presidential candidate, had
made about Hillary Clintons alleged role in the approval of the sale of a Canadian company, Uranium One, with mining rights
in the United States to Rosatom, Russias nuclear energy agency. Weve delved deep into the tale and recently wrote an update
since Rep. Devin Nunes, head of the House Intelligence Committee, announced thatCongress would launch a new probe.

Here,we are going to take a closer look at a key claim: that the sale involved 20 percent of our uranium. Look at how often
Tucker Carlson brought up this line in a recent show, saying it was insane for Clinton not to realize that a Russian company
was getting 20 percent of our uranium supply.

Sebastian Gorka, a former Trump White House aide, even suggested that Clinton should be tried and potentially executed
because the Russians infiltrated our national security to corner the uranium market, and they succeeded.

We have noted repeatedly thatextracted uranium could not be exported by Russia without a license whichRosatom does
not have but even so, this 20 percent figure is especially misleading. At the Fact Checker, we have described ita bit more
preciselyas mining licenses for about 20 percent of U.S. uranium extraction capacity. But we were out of date; it turns
out20 percentis an especially stale number.

TheFacts
The original 20 percent figure comes from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, one of the agencies that approved the deal in
2010. It stated that as of 2010, the licenses represent approximately 20 percent of the currently licensed uranium in-situ
recovery production capacity in the United States.

In-situ recovery (ISR) is one of two ways to obtain uranium from underground; its the main method in the United States. Its
generally used for low-grade ore that would be otherwise too expensive to mine. A solution is pumped into the ore deposit to
dissolve the uranium. The resulting liquid is then pumped back out, driedso itbecomes yellowcakeandplaced in 55-gallon
drumsbefore it is taken to a uranium conversion facility for eventual use in a nuclear power reactor.

Butthe 20 percent number was a 2010 estimate that has now been overtaken by events, such asadditional mining licenses
being issued. The Energy Information Administration has a current list of ISR projects, and the Uranium One assets now
represent much less than 20 percent production capacity because other U.S. operations have been approved.

The NRC has licensed additional in-situ uranium facilities since the 20-percent figure was estimated (and it was an
estimate), an NRC spokesman said in an email. Our current estimate would be closer to 10 percent.

The spokesman added: Note also that even the original figure does not include conventional mines, and was nowhere near
saying they controlled 20 percent of U.S. uranium reserves.

Uranium One has already sold some U.S. assets and may be looking to unload more, an industry official said. Thats because
the U.S. holdings were incidental to the Rosatom purchase of Uranium One; it was more interested in the companys holdings
in Kazakhstan, the worlds leading uranium producer.

Production capacity is one thing, but the reality is actual production. In fact, so much Kazakh uranium is flooding the market
that uranium prices have dropped and production in the United States has plummeted.The industry official said total U.S.
production in 2017 is expected to be less than 1,000 tons and production in 2016 was just 1,126 tons. By contrast, Uranium
Ones mines in Kazakhstan alone extracted nearly 3,000 tons in 2016.

Uranium Ones U.S. business has shrunk so quickly that it now represents a tiny part of U.S. production. In 2016, its Willow
Creek facility extracted just 23 tons. Thats 2.3 percent of all U.S. production. In 2015, the project represented 3.6 percent of
U.S. production and in 2014, 11.3 percent. In 2013, it was still 20 percent. Two other Uranium One facilities currently are not
being mined.

This chart shows how Uranium Ones U.S. production compares with total U.S. production, and how U.S. production
compares with worldwide production, based on information from the World Nuclear Association. Uranium production in the
U.S. is so small that I would rarely, if ever, use a statistic like that. Its meaningless, said Jeffrey Lewis, a nuclear expert at the
Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey. Twenty percent of bupkis is still bupkis.

A spokesman for Nunes did not respond to a request for comment.

ThePinocchioTest
The 20 percent figure has long been in wide circulation. As we noted, the Fact Checker recently used it, though with caveats.
But we should have looked at the actual production data and asked the NRC for an updated estimate of production capacity.
Clearly, thenumber is woefully out of date.

Given that Uranium Ones production is only 2 percent of an already small total U.S. production not 20 percent the
overwrought claims that Clinton gave away 20 percent of the U.S. nuclear supply or that Russia controls that much U.S.
uraniumare simply absurd.

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Devin Nunes
Member of Congress (R-Calif.)

How is it that our government could approve a sale of 20

percent of our uranium at the same time that there was an
open FBI investigation?
in an interview with Neil Cavuto on Fox News Thursday, October
26, 2017

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 Share The Facts

Tucker Carlson
Television host, Tucker Carlson Tonight

Its insane though. . . . How would Hillary Clinton not know

if a Russian company was getting 20 percent of our
uranium supply?
remarks on "Tucker Carlson Tonight" Monday, October 23, 2017

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Sebastian Gorka
Former White House aide

The Russians in ltrated our national security to corner the

uranium market, and they succeeded.
in an interview with Sean Hannity on Fox News Thursday,
October 26, 2017

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675Comments

GlennKesslerhasreportedondomesticandforeignpolicyformorethanthreedecades.Hewouldlikeyourhelp
inkeepinganeyeonpublicfigures.Sendhimstatementstofactcheckbyemailinghim,tweetingathim,or
sendinghimamessageonFacebook.Follow@GlennKesslerWP