White House hails successful 20-year enriched uranium agreement with Russia

The United States and Russia are commemorating the completion of one of the most successful non-proliferation programs in the history of the two countries, a White House official announced on Tuesday. With this week's off-loading at the Port of Baltimore, Maryland, of the last delivery of low-enriched uranium derived from 500 metric tons of highly enriched uranium, "our countries have seen to fruition the implementation of the 1993 US-Russia Highly Enriched Uranium Purchase Agreement," said National Security Council spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden. That low-enriched uranium, which was blended down from 20,000 Russian nuclear warheads, became fuel for US nuclear power reactors as part of a program more commonly known as "Megatons to Megawatts," she said. The program supplied nearly 10 percent of all US electricity over the last 15 years, she added. "The United States and Russia remain strongly committed to building on this success, and will continue to collaborate across various fields of non-proliferation, nuclear security, and nuclear research and development," Hayden said