On the 10th Anniversary of the Agreement Between the Government of the Russian Federation and the Government of the Untied States of America Concerning the Disposition of Highly Enriched Uranium Extracted From Nuclear Weapons

This year marks the tenth anniversary of the signing of the Agreement Concerning the Disposition of Highly Enriched Uranium Extracted from Nuclear Weapons. The United States and the Russian Federation committed their resources to permanently remove nuclear material from weapons and use the nuclear material for peaceful purposes. An historic moment occurred with the February 18, 1993 signing of this Agreement under which the United States committed to purchase low enriched uranium converted from 500 metric tons of highly enriched uranium (HEU) extracted from dismantled Russian nuclear weapons. As part of this Agreement, transparency measures were agreed to provide confidence to both Governments that the objectives of the Agreement were met. Department of Energy/National Nuclear Security Administration and the Ministry of the Russian Federation for Atomic Energy have worked together to meet the objectives of the Agreement. To date, over 170 metric tons of HEU have been irreversibly eliminated by conversion into fuel for power reactors. As a result, approximately 6800 nuclear warheads have been eliminated and mankind has received 2 billion megawatt-hours of electric power in exchange. This paper will describe the joint efforts of the U.S. Department of Energy/National Nuclear Security Administration and the Ministry of the Russian Federation for Atomic Energy working together in an extremely effective nonproliferation program between the United States and the Russian Federation.