OVERVIEW OF TRANSPARENCY ISSUES UNDER THE U.S.-RUSSIAN HIGHLY ENRICHED URANIUM PURCHASE AGREEMENT

The U.S. has signed an Agreement with the Russian Federation for the purchase of 500 metric tons of highly enriched uranium (HEU) derived from dismantled Russian nuclear weapons. The HEU will be blended down to low-enriched uranium (LEU) in Russia and will be transported to the U.S. to be used by fuel fabricators to make fuel for commercial nuclear power plants. Both the United States and Russia have been preparing to institute transparency measures to provide confidence that the nonproliferation, physical protection, and material control and accounting requirements specified in the Agreement are met. This paper provides a background on the Agreement and subsequent on-going negotiations to develop transparency measures suited to the facilities and processes which are expected to be involved.