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How Arms Control Powers Nuclear Energy

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By JACK OHANIAN

The Tampa Tribune

Published: July 20, 2008

Fifteen years after it was signed, an agreement between the United States and Russia to convert "megatons into megawatts" has done enormous good: More than 325 metric tons of highly enriched uranium from Russian nuclear warheads have been diluted into low-enriched uranium and used as fuel in U.S. nuclear power plants to produce electricity for American homes, business and industry.

The United States is also assisting Russia in the elimination of stockpiled Russian weapons-grade plutonium. Under an agreement reached last year, 34 metric tons of plutonium from nuclear warheads will be converted into mixed-oxide fuel and burned in Russia's fast reactors. Separately, the United States has begun converting surplus plutonium from the U.S. stockpile into mixed oxide fuel for electricity production here in this country.

The destruction of U.S. and Russian fissile weapons materials is perhaps the most innovative arms-control program in the world today. So far, the conversion of Russian highly enriched uranium into reactor fuel has resulted in the elimination of 13,000 nuclear warheads that were once aimed at the United States. By 2013, as many as 20,000 Russian warheads will be destroyed. In return for the uranium, Russia is receiving dollars.

Today, half of the fuel used in U.S. nuclear power plants comes from Russian nuclear warheads. Besides keeping fissile materials out of the hands of irresponsible countries and terrorist groups, the conversion of Russian highly enriched uranium into low-enriched uranium for electricity production has extended uranium supplies and reduced the cost of reactor fuel, resulting in lower energy costs for consumers who use nuclear-generated electricity. To date, the Russian uranium coming from warheads can generate enough electricity to meet the annual needs of 30 million U.S. households for 12 years, according to the United States Enrichment Corporation, which represents the U.S. government in the program.

Congress needs to extend the accord through 2020. Such a commitment to disarmament would not only reduce the risk of theft from Russia's nuclear stockpile but improve cooperation on global arms control. The continuing danger from Iran's uranium enrichment program suggests what needs to be done to limit the spread of enrichment and reprocessing facilities even as the demand for nuclear energy increases. The answer is to lease low-enriched fuel to countries with new nuclear programs, and then take back the used fuel. As proposed in the Energy Department's Global Nuclear Energy Partnership, the fuel for electricity generation would be supplied under international controls by countries with uranium enrichment capability such as the United States, Russia, France and Great Britain.

The same approach would be used for fresh fuel extracted from reprocessing of the spent fuel. With reprocessing, valuable uranium and plutonium are removed from spent fuel and chemically processed into a mixed-oxide fuel for use in nuclear power plants.

Although it was banned in the United States in 1977, due to proliferation concerns, France and Great Britain have continued to reprocess spent fuel for electricity production. To date, about 75,000 metric tons of spent fuel have been reprocessed abroad.

There are some 55,000 metric tons of spent fuel currently stored at nuclear power plants throughout the United States.

Unfortunately we are not making use of this precious resource, and that is nonsensical.

We need to move ahead now on construction of a reprocessing facility in the United States so that full use of domestic spent fuel can be achieved to meet our nation's electricity needs and mitigate global warming.

As with the multiple benefits of the megatons to megawatts accord, a resumption of reprocessing would be in America's best interests.

Both are reasons why geopolitics, economics and the environment are all turning in nuclear energy's favor.

Jack Ohanian is professor emeritus of nuclear and radiological engineering at the University of Florida.

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