Maria Korsnick, president and CEO of Nuclear Energy Institute, thinks a quota will not solve the nation’s energy challenges and will only impede the nuclear refineries that depend on uranium.

“Quotas on uranium imports would have a crippling impact on the economic health of the U.S. nuclear fleet,” she said in a statement. “The formation of the Nuclear Fuel Working Group to support the front-end of the domestic fuel cycle aligns with one of NEI’s recommendations to address the very real challenges faced by the U.S. uranium miners and other fuel cycle suppliers.”

Christopher Guith, acting president of the U.S. Chamber Global Energy Institute also applauded the president’s decision.

“Any serious effort to reduce emissions and address climate change must include nuclear energy, so it is vitally important that nuclear fuel trade not be impeded. That’s why the Chamber vigorously opposed efforts to impose quotas that would drive up costs and make nuclear power less competitive,” he said in a statement.

In this year’s first quarter, about 58,000 pounds of uranium concentrate was produced at four mines in Wyoming, far below the nearly 227,000 pounds produced by that time last year.