TRANSPARENCY: Tracking Uranium under the U.S. / Russian HEU Purchase Agreement
By the end of August, 2005, the Russia Federation delivered to the United States (U.S.) more than 7,000 metric tons (MT) of low enriched uranium (LEU) containing approximately 46 million SWU and 75,000 MT of natural uranium. This uranium was blended down from weapons-grade (nominally enriched to 90% {sup 235}U) highly enriched uranium (HEU) under the 1993 HEU Purchase Agreement that provides for the blend down of 500 MT HEU into LEU for use as fuel in commercial nuclear reactors. The HEU Transparency Program, under the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), monitored the conversion and blending of the more than 250 MT HEU used to produce this LEU. The HEU represents more than half of the 500 MT HEU scheduled to be blended down through the year 2013 and is equivalent to the elimination of more than 10,000 nuclear devices. The HEU Transparency Program has made considerable progress in its mission to develop and implement transparency measures necessary to assure that Russian HEU extracted from dismantled Russian nuclear weapons is blended down into LEU for delivery to the United States. U.S. monitor observations include the inventory of in process containers, observation of plant operations, nondestructive assay measurements to determine {sup 235}U enrichment, as well as the examination of Material Control and Accountability (MC&A) documents. During 2005, HEU Transparency Program personnel will conduct 24 Special Monitoring Visits (SMVs) to four Russian uranium processing plants, in addition to staffing a Transparency Monitoring Office (TMO) at one Russian site.
- Research Organization:
- Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE
- DOE Contract Number:
- W-7405-ENG-48
- OSTI ID:
- 883568
- Report Number(s):
- UCRL-CONF-215346; TRN: US200615%%138
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: Presented at: Nuclear Energy Institute International Uranium Fuel Seminar 2005, Santa Fe, NM, United States, Oct 16 - Oct 19, 2005
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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U.S. Transparency monitoring under the U.S./Russian HEU purchase agreement
Related Subjects
29 ENERGY PLANNING
POLICY AND ECONOMY
45 MILITARY TECHNOLOGY, WEAPONRY, AND NATIONAL DEFENSE
98 NUCLEAR DISARMAMENT, SAFEGUARDS, AND PHYSICAL PROTECTION
CONTAINERS
ENRICHED URANIUM
HIGHLY ENRICHED URANIUM
METRICS
MONITORING
MONITORS
NATURAL URANIUM
NUCLEAR ENERGY
NUCLEAR WEAPONS
PERSONNEL
PROCESSING
REACTORS
SECURITY
URANIUM