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U.S. ENERGY INFORMATION ADMINISTRATION Surplus Defense Inventories: A Growing Source of Nuclear Fuel for Generating ElectricityNuclear materials declared as surplus to defense programs could supply about 20 percent of the world's commercial nuclear fuel by 2001, compared to less than 5 percent in 1997, according to information released today in the Energy Information Administration's (EIA) new report, Commercial Nuclear Fuel from U.S. and Russian Surplus Defense Inventories: Materials, Policies, and Market Effects. Nevertheless, even with the availability of surplus defense inventories, EIA projects that additional uranium production will be required to close a gap between supply and demand. As a result of an agreement signed between the United States and Russia in 1993, the first fuel derived from highly enriched uranium taken from dismantled Russian nuclear warheads was delivered to a U.S. electric power utility in November 1995. Later, the U.S. Government began to implement the commercialization of U.S. highly enriched uranium and the sales of commercial-grade uranium that was no longer required for defense purposes. Other surplus defense inventories, including plutonium, are being considered for commercialization, but the implementation of such plans is awaiting government approval. With the availability of competitively priced uranium from surplus defense inventories, U.S. nuclear power generating companies are expected to incur lower uranium procurement costs than if the market were supplied entirely by newly produced uranium. The cumulative savings in uranium procurement costs for U.S. electricity producers in 1996 dollars are estimated to be between $2.1 billion and $5.3 billion from 1997 through 2010. Report Highlights
Commercial Nuclear Fuel from U.S. and Russian Surplus Defense Inventories: Materials, Policies, and Market Effects can be accessed electronically from EIA's World Wide Web Site at http://www.eia.doe.gov/cneaf/nuclear/com_fuel/com_fuel_sum.html. Printed copies of the report will be available on or before June 8, 1998, from the U.S. Government Printing Office, 202/512-1800, or through EIA's National Energy Information Center 202/586-8800.
EIA Program Contact: Bill Szymanski, 202/426-1177; Dan Nikodem, 202/426-1179 EIA-98-11 Contact:
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