Ian Hore-Lacy is Director for Public Communications at the World Nuclear Association, an international trade association based in London, and also Director Uranium Information, part of the Australian Uranium Association, a position he has held since 1995.
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Introduction
For more than three decades concern has centred on the possibility that uranium intended for commercial nuclear power might be diverted for use in weapons. Today, however, attention is focused on the role of military uranium as a major source of fuel for commercial nuclear power.
Since 1987, the United States and countries of the former USSR have signed a series of disarmament treaties to reduce their nuclear arsenals by approximately 80%.
Nuclear materials declared surplus to military requirements by the USA and Russia are now being converted into fuel for commercial nuclear reactors. The main material is highly enriched uranium (HEU), containing at least 20% uranium-235 (U-235) and usually about 90% U-235. HEU can be blended down with uranium containing low levels of U-235 to produce low enriched uranium (LEU), typically less than 5% U-235, fuel for power reactors. It is blended with depleted uranium (mostly U-238), natural uranium (0.7% U-235), or partially-enriched uranium.
Highly-enriched uranium in US and Russian weapons and other military stockpiles amounts to about 2,000 tonnes, equivalent to about twelve times the annual world mine production.
World stockpiles of weapons-grade plutonium are reported to be some 260 tonnes, which if used in mixed oxide fuel in conventional reactors would be equivalent to a little over one year’s world uranium production. Military plutonium can blended with uranium oxide to form mixed oxide (MOX) fuel.
After LEU or MOX is burned in power reactors, the spent fuel is not suitable for weapons manufacture.
Megatons to Megawatts
Commitments by the US and Russia to convert nuclear weapons into fuel for electricity production is known as the ‘Megatons to Megawatts’ program.
Commitments by the US and Russia to convert nuclear weapons into fuel for electricity production is known as the ‘Megatons to Megawatts’ program.
Surplus weapons-grade HEU resulting from the various disarmament agreements, led in 1993 to an agreement between the US and Russian governments. Under this Russia is to convert 500 tonnes of HEU from warheads and military stockpiles (equivalent to around 20,000 bombs) to LEU to be bought by the USA for use in civil nuclear reactors.
In 1994, a US$12 billion implementing contract was signed between the US Enrichment Corporation (now USEC, Inc.) and Russia’s Technabexport (Tenex) as executive agents for the US and Russian governments. USEC is purchasing a minimum of 500 tonnes of weapons-grade HEU over 20 years to 2013, at a rate of up to 30 tonnes/year from 1999. The HEU is blended down to 15,259 t of LEU at 4.4% U-235 in Russia, using 1.5% U-235 (re-enriched DU tails), to restrict levels of U-234 in the final product. USEC can then sell the LEU to its utility customers as fuel. The LEU is equivalent to about 137,000 tonnes of natural uranium from mines.
By September 2009 a total of 375 tonnes HEU had produced nearly 10,868 tonnes of low-enriched fuel, for which Tenex in Russia had received over US$ 8.5 billion under a market-based pricing formula. The 375 tonnes of HEU is equivalent to 15,000 nuclear warheads, according to USEC.
For its part, the US Government has declared just over 174 tonnes of HEU (of various enrichments) to be surplus from military stockpiles. Of this, USEC has taken delivery of 14.2 tonnes in the form of uranium hexafluoride (UF6) containing around 75% U-235, and 50 tonnes as uranium oxide or metal containing around 40% U-235. Downblending of the UF6 was completed in 1998, to produce 387 tonnes of LEU. Some 13.5 tonnes of the HEU oxide or metal had been processed by September 2001 to produce 140.3 tonnes of LEU. In 2004 the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) issued a licence for downblending 33 tonnes HEU by Nuclear Fuel Services in Tennessee and in 2005 the first delivery was made to a TVA power plant.
DOE’s National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) in 2005 announced that it was committing about 40 tonnes of off-specification HEU (with elevated levels of U-236) to the Blended Low-Enriched Uranium (BLEU) program. This material would be used by TVA. In 2008 NNSA was negotiating with TVA to release a further 21 tonnes of HEU under the program, which would yield about 250 tonnes of LEU, some of which might be sold to other utilities.
In mid 2007 the NNSA awarded contracts to Nuclear Fuel Services and Wesdyne International to downblend 17.4 tonnes of HEU from dismantled warheads to be part of a new international Reliable Fuel Supply program - an international fuel reserve. NFS will downblend the material in Tennessee to yield some 290 tonnes of LEU (4.95% U-235) by 2010. Wesdyne, the prime contractor, will then store the LEU at the Westinghouse fuel fabrication plant in South Carolina to be available for the Reliable Fuel Supply program.
In June 2009 NNSA awarded a further contract ($209 million) to NFS and Wesdyne for 12.1 tonnes of HEU which will yield some 220 tonnes of LEU by 2012. The first batch of LEU will be available for use in civilian reactors by nations in good standing with the International Atomic Energy Agency that have good nonproliferation credentials and are not pursuing uranium enrichment and reprocessing technologies. The fuel - worth some $500 million - would be sold at the current market price. The second batch of LEU is to provide fuel supply assurance for utilities which participate in DOE’s mixed-oxide fuel program utilising surplus plutonium from US weapons. To cover the cost of the project, Wesdyne will sell a small part of the LEU on the market over a three to four year period. (The scheme is consistent with international concerns to limit the spread of enrichment technology to countries without well-established nuclear fuel cycles. Russia has agreed to join the initiative.)
In the short term most US military HEU is likely to be blended down to 20% U 235, then stored. In this form it is not useable for weapons.
Please visit the World Nuclear Association for the most up to date information on this subject