Introduction

The end of the Cold War left a legacy of weapons-capable fissile material. As a commitment to nonproliferation, the President of the United States announced on March 1, 1995, that approximately 200 metric tons of fissile material was excess to national security needs. In a subsequent announcement on February 6, 1996, the Secretary of Energy declared that approximately 174 metric tons of the excess fissile material was highly enriched uranium.

The Highly Enriched Uranium (HEU) Disposition Program makes the surplus HEU unusable for weapons and disposes of it in a safe, secure and environmentally acceptable manner. Because of the huge amount of recoverable energy stored in the HEU and its great economic value, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) plans to convert approximately 85 percent of the available HEU to commercial or research reactor fuel. The remaining 15 percent of the surplus HEU is not usable as fuel for commercial use and will be disposed of as waste.

Some surplus highly enriched uranium planned for commercial disposition is unirradiated uranium that has not yet been allocated to one of the existing disposition projects.

Because of the various forms of HEU, the availability schedule for weapons dismantlement and site cleanup and potential market impacts, disposition is taking place over an extended period. Some material has been transferred to the United States Enrichment Corporation, and some is being transferred to the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) for use in reactors. TVA will share its fuel savings with the U.S. Treasury. DOE is preparing detailed plans for the disposal of the remaining surplus HEU.

A substantial quantity of the HEU has already been converted to low-enriched uranium reactor fuel. The remainder will be converted by about 2015.