The United States has received three-fourths of the converted nuclear warhead material it agreed to purchase from Russia under a 1993 agreement, RIA Novosti reported yesterday (see GSN, April 4).
The Megatons to Megawatts deal calls for Russia by 2013 to convert 500 metric tons of highly enriched uranium from nuclear warheads to low-enriched material to be used at commercial plants in the United States. The weapon-grade uranium could have powered roughly 20,000 nuclear warheads, according to RIA Novosti.
A delivery of Russian low-enriched uranium made yesterday "has become an important landmark in implementing the agreement," the Russian nuclear power firm Atomenergoprom said in a statement. "Since the first LEU shipment to the U.S. made on May 31, 1995, nearly 11,000 metric tons of this material downblended from 375 metric tons of HEU has been delivered to the U.S. -- 75 percent of the total amount of 500 metric tons envisaged by the agreement."
"Thus the Megatons to Megawatts Program has entered its final stage. Hard currency proceeds received by Russia for the delivered material exceed $8.5 billion," the release states (RIA Novosti, Sept. 22).