U.S. AND RUSSIA LOOK AHEAD AS MEGATONS TO MEGAWATTS ENDS

Russian and U.S. officials yesterday announced several collaborative nuclear safety and cooperative initiatives following the off-loading this week in Baltimore of the final shipment of low-enriched uranium from Russia under the Megatons to Megawatts program. Over 20 years the program converted about 500 metric tons of highly enriched uranium from Russian warheads into LEU for use in commercial U.S. reactors. “The Megatons to Megawatts Program made a substantial contribution both to the elimination of nuclear weapons material and to nuclear energy generation in the United States. Nearly every commercial nuclear reactor in the United States received nuclear fuel under the program,” Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz said in a statement. “This Agreement serves as an example of what the United States and Russia can achieve when we work together, and we are carrying this success forward into other nonproliferation activities with each other and with our international partners.”

Yesterday Moniz, DOE Deputy Secretary Daniel Poneman, and Rosatom Director General Sergey Kirienko held discussions on future initiatives. That includes signing memoranda under the Protocol to the Framework Agreement on a Multilateral Nuclear Environmental Program in the Russian Federation regarding “bilateral cooperation in nuclear and radiological material security, reactor conversion, combating the illicit trafficking of nuclear and radiological material,” according to a DOE release. It also includes proposed collaborative research projects on nuclear technology, nonproliferation and other topics. Officials also discussed the extension of the Russian-origin Research Reactor Fuel Return program.