April 14, 2010

Nuclear Security Summit: Highly Enriched Uranium Headed to U.S.

POWERnews

Three nations participating in the Nuclear Security Summit hosted by the Obama Administration in Washington, D.C. this week have agreed to turn over highly enriched uranium (HEU), likely to the U.S. As a result, Ukraine and Mexico will be switching from power plants fueled by HEU to ones fueled by low-enriched uranium (LEU). These commitments follow a secret and at times challenging effort to convey HEU from Chile to the U.S. that was complicated by the earthquake there in February.

Yucca Mountain may no longer be a viable repository for high-level nuclear waste, but high-level nuclear material from both military and civilian programs is headed to the U.S. and possibly Russia. The move is part of the Obama administration's efforts to advance nuclear nonproliferation goals and keep fissile materials out of the hands of terrorist organizations and individuals.

Several international organizations concerned with nuclear materials and 47 countries were represented at the two-day summit that began on Monday. The meeting was the fulfillment of a goal that President Obama set a year ago in Prague when he called for “a new international effort to secure all vulnerable nuclear materials around the world in four years." President Lee of South Korea has agreed to host the next Nuclear Security Summit in the Republic of Korea in two years.

Canada to Send HEU Back to U.S.

On Monday, Canadian President Stephen Harper announced that Canada would ship an 11-year stockpile of HEU spent fuel from the Chalk River Laboratories to the U.S. over the next eight years. The Canwest News Service quoted Harper as saying, "While all of this material is obviously highly secure in Canada, this was highly enriched uranium (that) originated in the United States. . . . It's our view that the best thing for all countries to do—not just ourselves—is to return such material to their countries [of] origin."

A Canadian government official noted that Canada will Canada continue to maintain a supply of HEU to produce medical isotopes for radiation therapy.