The Importance to the Civil Nuclear Industry of Absorbing Dismantled Military Material

Abstract

Under the terms of disarmament treaties agreed between the United States and the Soviet Union/Commonwealth of Independent States since 1987, there is to be a reduction in the nuclear arsenals of the signatory countries of some 90% by 2003 (Figure 1). This reduction implies the redundancy of a large amount of high enriched uranium (HEU) and weapons-grade plutonium for which no provision was made in the disarmament treaties. This led to the suggestion that ex-warhead HEU could be used in civilian power reactors and that the US should acquire the material with the intention of feeding it into the civilian fuel cycle. Military HEU is normally enriched to over 90% while civilian reactor fuel is usually enriched to between 3% and 4%. For use in civilian reactors military HEU must therefore be blended down to civilian levels of enrichment. The blending down of the ex-weapons material would thus prevent it from falling into the wrong hands while its purchase by the US Government would allow the US to control how and when it might enter the marketplace, thereby reducing the risk of disruption of the commercial fuel markets.