15-YEAR MILESTONE IN THE U.S.-RUSSIA HEU PURCHASE AGREEMENT HEU Policy and Implementation: Development, Progress and Prospects for the Next Five Years

The U.S.–Russian Highly-Enriched Uranium (HEU) Purchase Agreement reached its 15-year milestone in 2008. This historic nuclear nonproliferation agreement was negotiated to permanently eliminate excess fissile materials that would otherwise remain at risk for potential theft or diversion. Under the 1993 Agreement, the United States and Russia committed to irreversibly eliminate 500 metric tons of excess HEU from dismantled Russian nuclear weapons by converting it into fuel for U.S. power reactors. To ensure that the nonproliferation goals are met, the Agreement includes “transparency” measures to provide confidence that the HEU comes from dismantled nuclear weapons, is downblended to low enriched uranium (LEU) and used for peaceful purposes as reactor fuel in the United States. The Department of Energy/National Nuclear Security Administration and the Russian State Atomic Energy Corporation \"Rosatom\", as Executive Agents to the Agreement, established the HEU Transparency Program to implement these transparency measures. Under the HEU Transparency Program, U.S. and Russian experts routinely monitor facilities in both countries that process the material, using measurement equipment, reviewing declarations, and through direct observations. This paper describes the development of transparency measures, the implementation of negotiated transparency rights, and the evolution of the transparency regime to successfully fulfill the obligations of this 20-year Agreement through its conclusion in 2013.