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The University of Wisconsin Research Reactor and Neutron Radiography Reactor at INL have been converted from the use of highly enriched uranium (HEU) to low enriched uranium (LEU) fuel. The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) has now converted or verified the shutdown of a total of 67 HEU research reactors around the world. The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), in cooperation with Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), the University of Wisconsin, the Idaho National Laboratory (INL), and the Department of Energy's Office of Nuclear Energy recently completed the conversion of the two research reactors through NNSA's Global Threat Reduction Initiative (GTRI).

The University of Wisconsin Research Reactor and Neutron Radiography Reactor at INL have been converted from the use of highly enriched uranium (HEU) to low enriched uranium (LEU) fuel. The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) has now converted or verified the shutdown of a total of 67 HEU research reactors around the world. The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), in cooperation with Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), the University of Wisconsin, the Idaho National Laboratory (INL), and the Department of Energy's Office of Nuclear Energy recently completed the conversion of the two research reactors through NNSA's Global Threat Reduction Initiative (GTRI).

The Savannah River Site has become the home of an Australian import that is a lot less cute than a kangaroo or koala. The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) announced Thursday that the Savannah River Site will be the new home for 32 pounds of highly enriched uranium (HEU) in spent nuclear fuel from Australia. The HEU spent fuel was transported by truck, rail and ship under secure conditions with the cooperation of Australia and several international organizations. With the completion of this shipment, NNSA's Global Threat Reduction Initiative has successfully removed more than 220 pounds of U.S.-origin HEU fuel from Australia since 1998. "The NNSA worked closely with Australia to oversee this important shipment of highly enriched uranium spent nuclear fuel," said NNSA Principal Deputy Administrator Ken Baker. "The removal of this U.S.-origin highly enriched uranium from Australia is another major milestone in NNSA's cooperative effort to reduce the threat of nuclear proliferation and demonstrates the strong international commitment to nonproliferation."

USEC and Techsnabexport, or Tenex, have agreed to amend the pricing methodology used for the final years of the US-Russia high-enriched uranium agreement, USEC said in a February 20 filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. USEC estimated that under the new methodology, the total amount Russia receives under the 20-year contract, which expires at the end of 2013, "will substantially exceed $8 billion." In a filing a year ago, USEC said the contract allows adjustments to be made after 2007 to ensure that Tenex "receives at least approximately $7.6 billion." USEC also said, "We do not expect that any adjustments will be required." The contract covers the so-called SWU component of the low-enriched uranium produced from the downblending of HEU from Russian nuclear weapons. The amendment applies to deliveries in the years 2010-2013. The amendment must be approved by the US and Russian governments, USEC said. USEC and Tenex are their governments' executive agents for the HEU agreement.

The last remaining bomb-grade uranium has been shipped out of Romania as part of a U.S.-Russian nuclear nonproliferation program, the Energy Department reported Tuesday. Officials at the department's National Nuclear Security Administration said the highly enriched uranium was taken from two research reactors in Romania and flown to Russia for secure storage. The shipment weighed 118 pounds. Russia had provided the uranium years ago. The NNSA, working with Romanian officials, moved all the highly enriched uranium, or HEU, of U.S. origin, out of Romania in 2008. The effort in Romania is part of a broader program to return all of the HEU that had been provided to various countries by either the former Soviet Union or by the United States for civilian nuclear research back to the originating countries where the material can be kept in more secure locations.

According to an Oct. 3 report by staff of the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board, about 450 Rackable Can Storage Boxes were loaded by Y-12 workers during FY2007 and '08 to prepare for the move into the new Oak Ridge storage facility for weapons-grade uranium. Based on previous information released by NNSA and B&W, the managing contractor, each of those boxes holds a half-dozen cans, and each of those cans holds up to 44 pounds of highly enriched uranium (HEU). The defense board memo said B&W plans to begin loading material into the new $549 million storage facility in fiscal year 2010. The loading is to take place in two phases. "The first phase is to de-inventory the Warehouse within about three months after start up

"riends of the Earth reported this week that spent nuclear fuel from an Israeli research reactor has arrived at Savannah River Site in South Carolina. According to Tom Clements, the group's southeastern nuclear campaign coordinator, the shipment of 102 spent fuel assemblies of "material bearing bomb-grade uranium" was listed in a Dept. of Energy document that identifies U.S.-origin nuclear materials returned to the United States as part of the Global Threat Reduction Initiative. He provided that document as well. Jennifer Wagner, a spokeswoman for the National Nuclear Security Administration, confimed the shipment, but provided few details. "NNSA cooperated with Israel on the return of U.S.-origin HEU spent nuclear fuel," she said. "The shipment arrived at the Savannah River Site in January in conjuction with a U.S.-origin fuel return from Turkey.""

"In the run-up to the Nuclear Security Summit, the Project On Government Oversight said cancellation of the Uranium Processing Facility at Y-12 should be among the U.S. commitments. Here's what POGO said on UPF: "The U.S. should cancel the construction of the Uranium Processing Facility (UPF) at Y-12 National Security Complex, which creates a long-term mission for large stocks of HEU to be available for the production of up to 200 new secondaries per year. The highly-respected JASON group's recent study found that the nation's nuclear warheads, including the HEU secondaries, can continue to be extended safely and certifiably for decades. Without the UPF, the U.S. still has the capacity to manufacture new secondaries. The $3.5 billion estimated cost of UPF can be reallocated towards the downblending budget.""

"A drum of highly enriched uranium ended up at the right place, but it got there the wrong way, according to a report confirmed by a spokeswoman at the Y-12 nuclear weapons plant. The incident, which involved a violation of technical safety requirements, took place in mid-March during the first phase of loading uranium into the new $549 million Highly Enriched Uranium Materials Facility. It apparently occurred just a few days before Energy Secretary Steven Chu and other dignitaries arrived to dedicate the new storage facility for bomb-grade uranium. Ellen Boatner, a plant spokeswoman, said workers "inadvertently" shipped a container that was not certified to be on board the SST-E truck -- a high-security vehicle that was being used to transfer the special nuclear materials from the plant's old warehouse to the new storage facility. Boatner said there were plans for the drum of HEU to be transferred to the facility but not aboard the SST-E."

The government has removed 2/3 of the plutonium and highly enriched uranium (HEU) from Livermore Lab, according to a recent Dept. of Energy press release. Tom D'Agostino, head of the National Nuclear Security Administration, called it "real progress." We give it a more mixed review. For starters, the DOE does not plan to complete the removal of these bomb-making materials from Livermore Lab until the end of 2012, three years from now. We have called for their removal by 2010. Livermore Lab is vulnerable every day to a catastrophic release of these materials in the event of an earthquake or terrorist attack. The nearest fault zone lies less than 200 feet from the Lab.

The government has removed 2/3 of the plutonium and highly enriched uranium (HEU) from Livermore Lab, according to a recent Dept. of Energy press release. Tom D'Agostino, head of the National Nuclear Security Administration, called it "real progress." We give it a more mixed review. For starters, the DOE does not plan to complete the removal of these bomb-making materials from Livermore Lab until the end of 2012, three years from now. We have called for their removal by 2010. Livermore Lab is vulnerable every day to a catastrophic release of these materials in the event of an earthquake or terrorist attack. The nearest fault zone lies less than 200 feet from the Lab.

The "ultra-secure uranium warehouse of the future" in Oak Ridge, Tenn., is now built, if not quite ready for work. Part of Complex 2030-the Bush Administration's ambitious and semi-secret plan to revamp the nation's aging infrastructure for building nuclear weapons-the warehouse will provide one location for the nation's supply of the highly enriched uranium (HEU) that makes for a powerful nuclear bomb.

The plan addresses the department's excess inventory of highly enriched uranium, depleted uranium, natural uranium and low-enriched uranium. That includes 67.6 metric tons of surplus HEU (stored at Y-12 in Oak Ridge) that currently is unallocated for any purpose. In a statement released by DOE, Assistant Secretary for Nuclear Energy Dennis Spurgeon said, "The plan will promote an efficient disposition approach that seeks to limit adverse material impacts on the domestic uranium mining, conversion and enrichment industries while maximizing the return to the U.S. government on sales of this valuable uranium."

Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd., is sitting on a stockpile of orphaned bomb-grade uranium it doesn't want to talk about. Since the Crown corporation pulled the plug in May on further development of its two troubled MAPLE reactors at its Chalk River, Ont., nuclear laboratories, officials have debated how to deal with the estimated 45 kilograms of highly enriched uranium (HEU) the United States exported to Canada for production of medical isotopes in the now-doomed reactors. Whatever the options are now for the highly enriched uranium, AECL isn't saying.

The National Nuclear Security Administration announced today that 100 tons of highly enriched uranium -- enough for about 2,200 nuclear bombs -- had been downblended over the past decade to eliminate its weapons capability. All told, the U.S. government has designated 217 tons of HEU as "excess" and scheduled for downblending.

The Associated Press earlier today leaked the details of what it believes is the "secret annex" to the IAEA report on Iran, which claims that the IAEA "assesses that Iran has sufficient information to be able to design and produce a workable implosion nuclear device based on HEU as the fission fuel." The IAEA would not confirm the authenticity of the document, but reiterated that it has "no concrete proof that there is or has been a nuclear weapon programme in Iran."

NNSA and USEC announced the same milestone in very different ways today, both saying 375 metric tons of Russia's highly enriched had been eliminated under the nonproliferation program that was initiated in 1993. The program, sometimes referenced as Metagons to Megawatts, has converted the weapons-grade material -- enough to reportedly make 15,000 nuclear weapons -- to a low-enriched material of use for nuclear reactor fuel. The milestone is 75 percent of the 500 metric tons targeted for elimination by 2013. In a statement, NNSA Administrator Tom D'Agostino said, "The continued success of this important bilateral agreement demonstrates the enduring U.S.-Russian commitment to the safe and irreversible elimination of excess fissile materials, as recently reaffirmed by Presidents Obama and Medvedev in Moscow. This milestone puts us one step closer to accomplishing the President's goal of securing or eliminating weapons-usable nuclear materials worldwide." USEC, which purchases the low-enriched material as part of the program and supplies it to customers, said it had paid the Russian Federatlon more than $5.6 billion since 1995.

Continuation of the National Emergency With Respect to the Risk of Nuclear Proliferation Created by the Accumulation of Weapons-Useable Fissile Material in the Territory of the Russian Federation Presidential Title 3-- The President [[Page 29391]] Notice of June 18, 2009 Continuation of the National Emergency With Respect to the Risk of Nuclear Proliferation Created by the Accumulation of Weapons-Useable Fissile Material in the Territory of the Russian Federation

A decision by the U.S. Department of Energy on whether the United States Enrichment Corp. (USEC) should receive a federal loan guarantee for the American Centrifuge plant in Piketon should come next month, the company says. Advertisement "Based on ongoing discussions with DOE, we expect a decision on a conditional commitment by early August," said Philip G. Sewell, senior vice president of American Centrifuge and Russian HEU. The company has repeatedly said the loan guarantee is essential to keeping the project - which is expected to keep and create thousands of jobs in an area with double-digit unemployment - alive. Sewell said the company is working on a Plan B strategy in case the guarantee is not secured.

"Realizing that there is mounting doubt on the Hill in the wisdom of spending billions of dollars on four new buildings for the creation of new components for nuclear weapons, the directors of three national laboratories are going on the offensive. As Politico reports, the directors of Los Alamos, Lawrence Livermore and Sandia National Laboratories have challenged the findings, and frankly, the credibility, of one of the most independent and respected technical expert groups, JASON. Last year, JASON found that the life of the nation's nuclear warheads, including plutonium pits and HEU (highly enriched uranium) secondaries, can be extended safely and certifiably for decades without replacement."

"There should be no greater prioirity on nuclear security than safeguarding highly enriched uranium, the Natural Resource Defense Council said in the run-up to the Nuclear Security Summit. The NRDC said the nuclear material is difficult to detect, yet relatively easy for terrorists to use in making a crude nuclear device with the potential for devastation. Here's statement from Thomas Cochran, senior staff scientist at NRDC:"

"While the world is busy watching the FIFA World Cup that is being held at South Africa, the CBS on Sunday went to throw some light on a still unsolved issue of 2007 when a raid was carried out at the Pelindaba's nuclear research facility that contained weapons-grade uranium. Scott Pelley of CBS' "60 Minutes" is seen exploring the incidents and how such a raid could have had one of the most horrific effects on the whole world. CBS replayed its 2008 famous report on the issue that has brought the matter to the national attention. The "60 Minutes" episode that once again enlivened in front of the viewers the horror of the attack with interviews with people who have been present at the place and also experts who provided insight into the matter and what consequences the raid could have yielded. Scott Pelley interviews Anton Gerber the man who was present at the plant on that fatal night and who had worked at Pelindaba for 30 years."