By Laura S. H. Holgate and Robert E. Schultz | 23 October 2008
Article Highlights
The U.S.-Russian "Megatons to Megawatts" program has been an incredibly successful, cost-effective way to reduce nuclear threats.
Although some adjustments should be considered--i.e., minimizing how much the HEU travels by rail throughout Russia--the program must be extended.
Not doing so would increase the risk of nuclear terrorism. http://www.thebulletin.org/web-edition/features/in-support-of-the-megatons-to-megawatts-program
2. The fallacy of the Megatons to Megawatts program
By Pavel Podvig | 23 July 2008 http://www.thebulletin.org/web-edition/columnists/pavel-podvig/the-fallacy-of-the-megatons-to-megawatts-program
Few U.S.-Russian cooperation efforts are more popular and less controversial than the "Megatons to Megawatts" program, also known as the HEU-LEU deal, which converts Russia's highly enriched uranium (HEU) from nuclear weapons into low-enriched uranium (LEU) for U.S. nuclear power reactors. Under the agreement that the countries signed in 1993, Moscow made a commitment to eliminate 500 metric tons of HEU--probably more than one-third of the total HEU stock that the Soviet Union produced during the Cold War. About 340 metric tons of HEU has already been converted into LEU, and the Russian uranium currently provides one-half of U.S. nuclear power, or about 10 percent of the country's electricity supply. http://www.thebulletin.org/web-edition/columnists/pavel-podvig/the-fallacy-of-the-megatons-to-megawatts-program