Something i wrote in a thread on the uranium one scandal some 85 days ago:
"It's not so much about weapons, but control of the global markets in a resource that is vital to energy generation, and yes also potential for weapons. The us currently imports 90% of our uranium. Giving russia control of another 20% of our share of the market alone is a national security risk as well as greatly leveraging the geopolitical position of russia in the world. So that's a thing i don't hear people talking about very often and just making 'hur-dur big banging stuff womp womp' comments such as this.
1
failuring • 89d
It's 20% of the production capabilities. It's only 11% of the actual production.
To clarify, I mean it's 11% of the 10% we don't import.
I.e., even if Russia somehow entirely halted production, it would remove slightly less than 1% of all uranium that the US uses. This... does not seem particularly...harmful.
And of course, most of the right was pretending the problem was that Russia had access to it, not that we somehow lost control of a microscopic amount of uranium. Apparently in the hope that dumbasses would categorize Russia as 'enemy', just like Iran is 'enemy', and worry about them having access to uranium, and completely forget that Russia has nuclear missiles already and literally tons of uranium.
So yes, most of the people responding with how stupid that concern is will be responding to the fact that the concern as stated was very stupid. There might be some larger concern that the US should have enough uranium production that it can supply itself, but less than 1% is... a hard argument to make that over.
1
SketchTeno • 89d
'stupid' dumbasses' 'brainwashed'... ok friend. if that's the story you beleive and thats the manner you present it i'm just going to smile and nod my head.
at around 55million pounds of uranium consumtion per year at nearly $100/ lb, of the $5.4 Billion we spend annually on fuel for energy production in the USA, 1% is still $55million. now, considering we already import about 19-20% of our annual Uranium from Russia, giving them 1% more to control in the market that we consume and us 1% less is not in USA interest at first glance and not insignificant.
good luck~!"
Basically, if the math checks out, we already purchase twice as much of our uranium from russia than we produce ourselves. Spending some Billion$$+ every year to buy russian uranium for power plants in the usa. At the most minimal estimates, uranium one increases russian controlled profits frome uranium production, just from usa markets by approx $55million every year. So, a net gain of $110million advantage over usa energy security every year.
This is not insignificant imho.