The Interior Department's U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) in November revealed its draft revised list of critical minerals-those deemed essential to economic and national security- and uranium is not on it. The list was initially developed in 2018 in response to a December 2017 Trump administration executive order. Uranium was included as one of 35 minerals on that list. According to a November 8 Federal Register notice from the USGS, "The Energy Act of 2020 explicitly excluded fuel minerals from the definition of a critical mineral, and the Mining and Mineral Policy Act of 1970 formally defined uranium as a mineral fuel, so uranium was not evaluated for inclusion on the 2021 draft list of critical minerals." The inclusion of uranium on the Trump era list had been explained in a May 2018 Interior Department FR notice, which referenced "both fuel and non-fuel uses" for uranium.
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