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Secretary Wright Says Ending Reliance on Russian Nuclear Fuel Will Take Two to Three Years

October 1, 2025 · U.S. Department of Energy · 0:08:46

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What happened

In a CNBC exclusive from Brookhaven National Laboratory on Long Island, Morgan Brennan asked Energy Secretary Chris Wright about news that the department would partner with more companies around nuclear fuel. Wright said the whole supply chain for nuclear has to be stood up in the United States — reactor technologies, uranium enrichment and the ability to fabricate fuel for next-generation reactors — and that partner companies with technologies and interest in investing capital were picked and will be given grants and worked with to stand up the nuclear fuel cycle here, as he stated it.

Asked how quickly that capacity can come online, Wright said nothing in nuclear moves super fast, that the administration is going as aggressively as it can, and that the timeline is two or three years, not two or three months, after decades of stagnation; he said the United States, Western Europe and East Asia will unfortunately be dependent on enriched uranium from Russia for two or three more years, as he stated it. Asked about reports of a proposal to divert plutonium from the nuclear weapons stockpile to private-sector applications, he confirmed there is veracity to it: plutonium can be used as fuel in next-generation reactors using HALEU, the stockpile remains critical, but the United States has surplus plutonium, and the department is looking at anything that can accelerate reactor construction and put new power on the grid, according to his remarks.

Wright said nuclear is the second-largest source of U.S. electricity and works around the clock regardless of wind or sun, so it can drive down electricity prices, help win the AI race and reindustrialize the country, as he stated it. He added that the department will help New York and any other state that wants new nuclear capacity, while in the short run more natural gas in New York and New England can drive down electricity and home heating prices now, according to his remarks.

Scoreboard watch

Wright said the United States and its allies would remain dependent on enriched uranium from Russia for two to three more years from September 30, 2025, while the domestic fuel cycle is built — a timeline stated on the record in this interview.

Why it matters

Wright’s two-to-three-year timeline for ending dependence on Russian enriched uranium, as he stated it, is the administration’s public benchmark for the nuclear fuel build-out — and his acknowledgment that the dependence continues in the meantime is part of the same record.

Sources: U.S. Department of Energy, “Secretary Wright Joins CNBC’s Morgan Brennan – September 30, 2025”, 2025-10-01 (official upload, embedded above; published 2025-10-01). Transcript via Supadata (private research store, paraphrased and attributed, not republished). All figures and characterizations as stated by the speakers.