XPost: alt.global-warming, alt.politics.trump, uk.politics.misc   
   XPost: alt.rush-limbaugh   
   From: athinker@gopfags.net   
      
   Claims of Clinton-Russia Uranium Collusion Are A Real Empty   
   Barrel   
      
   James Conca , CONTRIBUTOR   
   I write about nuclear, energy and the environment   
   Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own.   
      
      
   Hillary Clinton is back in the news. But the reason is a big   
   nothing burger.   
      
   In a 2015 book, Breitbart News editor Peter Schweizer claimed   
   that donations to the Clinton Foundation were behind the Obama   
   administration’s approval of the 2010 sale of a Canadian   
   mining company to a Russian state-controlled firm. The sale   
   gave Russia control of a large swath of American uranium   
   interests.   
      
   And by large, we really mean small.   
      
   The allegations are back in the news after a report in The   
   Hill last week claimed, citing anonymous sources, that at the   
   time U.S. officials were weighing whether to approve the deal,   
   the FBI was investigating evidence of bribery, kickbacks,   
   extortion and money laundering by Russian nuclear industry   
   officials designed to help further Russian President Vladimir   
   Putin's commercial nuclear ambitions inside the United States.   
      
   The Hill article was seized on by right-wing media ? and the   
   President ? as evidence backing up a conspiracy theory that   
   they've pushed amid the investigations into Russia's efforts   
   to swing the presidential election to Donald Trump. The real   
   collusion scandal, they claim, involves Russia and Hillary   
   Clinton. The implication of the piece is that the FBI   
   investigation should have been known to those who approved the   
   deal in question.   
      
      
      
   Clinton's State Department and several government agencies on   
   the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States   
   unanimously approved the 2010 partial sale of Canadian mining   
   company Uranium One to the Russian nuclear giant Rosatom,   
   supposedly giving Moscow control of more than 20% of America’s   
   uranium supply.   
      
   Obama and Clinton colluding to hand over 20% America’s   
   strategic uranium to the Russians? On cue, Fox News gabber   
   Sean Hannity said this could be 'the biggest scandal' in   
   American history.   
      
   But here's the thing ? by 20%, we really mean almost zero.   
      
   Those U.S. facilities obtained by Russia produce almost   
   nothing. The uranium deposits are of relatively poor grade and   
   are too costly to compete on the uranium market. But the   
   facilities do have good milling capacity to process ore, if   
   anyone gives it to them, which hasn’t happened in about 10   
   years. Theoretically, they could process 20% of our ore, but   
   that will never happen. Uranium One couldn’t give these   
   facilities away.   
      
   Besides, Russia can’t export any uranium they produce in the   
   U.S. They do not possess a Nuclear Regulatory Commission   
   export license.   
      
   The real reason Russia wanted this deal was to give Rosatom’s   
   subsidiary Uranium One's very profitable uranium mines in   
   Kazakhstan ? the single largest producer of commercial uranium   
   in the world.   
      
   Then, in 2011, the administration approved a Rosatom   
   subsidiary to sell commercial uranium to U.S. nuclear power   
   plants in partnership with the U.S. Enrichment Corporation. Up   
   until then, Russia had been limited to selling our nuclear   
   power plants uranium reprocessed from old Soviet nuclear   
   weapons under the 1990s Megatons to Megawatts peace program.   
   Nothing strange here, either. Finally, in 2013, Russia   
   obtained 100% interest in Uranium One.   
      
   Rather than take action against this deal, the Department of   
   Justice just continued investigating the matter for years,   
   essentially leaving the American public, Congress, the   
   secretary of state and the administration in the dark about   
   more Russian meddling in the United States, this time   
   involving nuclear.   
      
   Candidate Trump jumped on this issue during the 2016 campaign   
   trail last year, but as secretary of state, Clinton was not   
   involved in the committee review and never intervened on the   
   matter, and there were several other agencies involved in the   
   recommendation.   
      
   It is still not clear why no one at the FBI alerted the Obama   
   administration to the Russian kickbacks, extortion threats and   
   money laundering before these decisions were made. One theory   
   is that the United States was still seeking to 'reset' its   
   relationship with Russia and was also trying to get Putin on   
   board with our Iran nuclear deal. But in the end, this Russian   
   deal just wasn’t that important and had no national security   
   ramifications.   
      
   As Jeffrey Lewis, a nuclear nonproliferation expert at the   
   Middlebury Institute, described it, Russia’s purchase of the   
   company 'had as much of an impact on national security as it   
   would have if they set the money on fire. That’s probably why   
   (all the U.S. agencies involved) approved it.'   
      
   The key to this issue’s resurgence this week is that Hillary   
   Clinton was secretary of state at the time, Bill Clinton was   
   getting lucrative speaking fees in Russia, and Russian money   
   was finding its way to the Clinton Foundation, although the   
   amount turns out to be small. However, even if there was no   
   wrongdoing on the part of the administration or the Clintons,   
   and no national security reason for anyone to oppose this   
   deal, some still want to make it another Benghazi.   
      
   As a scandal, this issue lacks relevance since Clinton is now   
   a private citizen and Russian meddling in our 2016 election   
   has become a bigger issue. In fact, all the attention now   
   being paid to the uranium deal seems to have more to do with   
   Robert Mueller’s present investigation of Russian collusion   
   than with Clinton.   
      
   The political ramifications aside, what is the reality of our   
   uranium supplies, and how much does Russian meddling affect   
   them?   
      
   Short answer – not at all.   
      
   There’s lots and lots of uranium in the world, and more keeps   
   being discovered. Just look at the 2017 AAPG EMD Committee   
   Report that covers uranium, other nuclear minerals and rare   
   earth elements.   
      
   According to the lead author, Michael Campbell at I2M   
   Associates, 'we are awash in uranium, not to mention all   
   energy minerals – oil, coal and especially natural gas.'   
   (Disclosure: I am a member of that committee and a co-author   
   of the report.)   
      
   This is especially true in North America, which contains the   
   highest-grade uranium deposits in the world. The Athabasca   
   Basin of Saskatchewan is known as the 'Saudi Arabia of   
   Uranium.'   
      
   Which is critical since we need to double nuclear power to   
   address climate change and replace coal, even as we ramp up   
   renewables. We also need to provide an extra 300 billion kWhs   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
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    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)