NUCLEAR NONPROLIFERATION
Reducing the Nuclear Threat
After the Soviet Union was dissolved,
its nations had nearly 1300 metric tons of weapons-usable
nuclear material under varying degrees of safeguards and security. The U.S. feared that
impoverished, unemployed weapons researchers might divert the material to terrorists or
rogue nations. In response, the Department of Energy established nuclear nonproliferation
programs that sponsor ORNL teams that have
- helped more than 80 Russian facilities
secure weapons-usable nuclear materials, upgrade safeguards and security, and
improve material accounting systems;
- helped the Russian Ministry of Defense
improve weapons-systems security and worked with the U.S. Department of
Defense to monitor the dismantlement of Russian weapons delivery systems;
- assisted Russian customs officials in
detecting any nuclear materials being smuggled out of the country and
provided them with radiation monitoring equipment and training;
- developed technology to verify that
highly enriched uranium (HEU) from dismantled weapons has been blended down in
Russian Federation facilities to produce low enriched uranium for use in
commercial power plants;
- helped ensure in 1994 that 600
kilograms of HEU were loaded safely and shipped securely from Kazakhstan to the
Oak Ridge Y-12 National Security Complex. Later, several hundred kilograms
were transferred, with ORNL's help, from the Republic of Georgia to a United
Kingdom processing facility. In 2002, an ORNL team worked with experts from DOE's
National Nuclear Security Administration, the U.S. Department of State, and the
International Atomic Energy Agency to safely
remove 50 kg of HEU from a Yugoslavian reactor. The material was transported to Russia
for conversion to reactor-grade fuel.
To reduce surplus weapons-grade
plutonium from U.S. and Russian reactors, ORNL manages a multi-site effort to
fabricate, irradiate, and test plutonium-based mixed-oxide (MOX) fuels for
light-water reactors. ORNL manages and conducts research with Russia to develop the
technology needed to fabricate MOX fuels for Russian reactors.
ORNL is creating meaningful jobs for former Soviet Union weapons
researchers through the commercialization of indigenous technology and reindustrialization efforts.
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