After 10 Years, HEU Deal Has Converted 200 Metric Tons of Russian Nuclear Weapon Materials

Reaching its 10th anniversary Wednesday, the U.S.-Russian “Megatons to Megawatts” program has eliminated 200 metric tons of Russian highly enriched uranium by converting the nuclear weapon material into nuclear power plant fuel (see GSN, April 15, 2003).

The commercial arrangement was signed Jan. 14, 1994, by the U.S. Enrichment Corp. and the Russian firm Techsnabexport (TENEX), and calls for converting 500 metric tons of HEU removed from Russian nuclear warheads by 2010. The 1994 agreement followed a 1993 agreement in principle reached by the United States and Russia.

“The Megatons to Megawatts program has been one of the most successful nuclear nonproliferation initiatives ever undertaken,” USEC President and Chief Executive Officer William Timbers said in a statement. “Over the past decade, USEC and TENEX have recycled weapons-grade uranium from Russia into enough fuel to power a city the size of Boston or Seattle for nearly 300 years,” he said (U.S. Enrichment Corp. release, Jan. 14).

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