Disposition of Highly Enriched Uranium (HEU) and Pu from nuclear weapons

Journal Article · Thu Oct 01 04:00:00 EDT 1992 · NUKEM Market Report; (United States)

OSTI ID:7110963

Neff, T L

Last year, as the Soviet Union began to crumble and the Bush-Gorbachev talks had advanced to consider the dismantling of actual warheads instead of mere delivery systems, Dr. Thomas L. Neff, a senior member of MIT's Center for International Studies, tinkered with the notion that one day soon the US could be buying Russian uranium from scrapped nuclear arms. He also considered the costly business of dismantlement and set to work on an ingenious proposal. The basic idea was simply to purchase the HEU from Russia using funds derived from savings in the US Department of Energy's enrichment enterprise. The proposal, now part of an umbrella agreement between the US and Russia announced in early September, promises large strategic benefits for the US in terms of both financing dismantlement (to the tune of $100 million annually), as well as political oversight for the operation itself. In the words of Dr. Neff, who made briefings to both governments on the proposal, [open quotes]It's a budget-neutral, win-win solution.[close quotes] What follows is an illustrated, step-by-step analysis of the proposal, as well as a reprint of Dr. Neff's paper, Disposition of HEU and Pu from Nuclear Weapons, as presented to the Uranium Institute's annual symposium last month.

• OSTI ID: 7110963
• Journal Information: NUKEM Market Report; (United States), Journal Name: NUKEM Market Report; (United States); ISSN NMREEO
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

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ACTINIDES
AGREEMENTS
ASIA
DEVELOPED COUNTRIES
ECONOMICS
ELEMENTS
ENRICHED URANIUM
EUROPE
HIGHLY ENRICHED URANIUM
INSTITUTIONAL FACTORS
INTERNATIONAL AGREEMENTS
ISOTOPE ENRICHED MATERIALS
ISOTOPE SEPARATION
MATERIALS
METALS
NUCLEAR DISARMAMENT
NUCLEAR WEAPONS
PLUTONIUM
POLITICAL ASPECTS
SEPARATION PROCESSES
TRANSURANIUM ELEMENTS
URANIUM
USSR
WEAPONS