Nuclear Weapons 33 - Megatons to Megawatts Update
I have posted a number of articles about the arms race and the proliferation of nuclear weapons during the Cold War. There have been a number of treaties that reduced the number of warheads that the U.S. and Russia have from the tens of thousands both sides possessed at the height of the Cold War. If countries are to dismantle warheads, how will it be done? One particular program that has been successful in the decommissioning of Russian warheads is commonly referred to as Megatons for Megawatts. In 1995, under the terms of a non-proliferation treaty between the U.S. and Russia, a twenty year program was started to convert highly concentrated nuclear materials known as HEU (U-235 enriched to ninety percent) from Russian warheads into low concentration radioactive materials know as LEU (less than five percent U-235) suitable for use as fuel in commercial nuclear reactors.
One of the requirements of the program was that no government money be spent on the program. The U.S. created a government corporation called the United States Enrichment Corporation (USEC) and the Russian Federation launched a commercial subsidiary of the Ministry of Atomic Energy which is known as Tekhsnabeksport (Tenex). The conversion process has two stages. In Russia, Tenex downblends or dilutes the HEU into LEU. Then the LEU is shipped to USEC in the United States where uranium fuel is created from the LEU.
There were some initial arguments over the exact terms of the contract and the details of the process but they were eventually worked out and the process has been running smoothly. The initial contract called for about five hundred metric tons of HEU from Russian warheads to be converted. As of June 25, 2013, the National Nuclear Security Administration of the United States which monitors the Megatons to Megawatts program says that four hundred seventy five metric tons of Russian HEU has been converted into LEU. The fuel created by USEC from the Russian HEU is used to generate about half of the nuclear power in the U.S. This represents about ten percent of the electric power produced in the U.S. annually. It is estimated that the Russian Federation has received over eight billion dollars for the uranium purchased by the USEC.
The Megatons to Megawatts has been highly successful and has accomplished ninety five percent of its goal within eighteen years out of the allocated twenty year life span of the program. About twenty thousand nuclear warheads have been eliminated from the Russian arsenal and the world is a little safer. There are still thousands of nuclear warheads under the control of the U.S. and Russia poised to launch in moments in the event that war breaks out. As I have said before, even the exchange of a few hundred nuclear warheads could end human civilization. President Obama recently called for additional reduction of warheads in the U.S. and Russia. Good work has been done in reducing the threat of nuclear annihilation but much work remains to be done.
