Rosatom, the Russian state-owned nuclear energy company and officials from the United States Department of Energy have signed an executive agreement to work together in analyzing the methods of converting Russian experimental breeder reactors from highly-enriched uranium reactors to low-enriched uranium reactors.    

The agreement was made by the head of Rosatom Sergei Kiriyenko and the U.S. Deputy Energy Secretary Daniel Poneman.

The Executive Agreement for converting Russia’s experimental reactors has now entered into force. The ultimate objective of the program would be to modify the reactors so that they would work on uranium-235 enriched at < 20 percent. Stopping the use of highly-enriched uranium as fuel for these reactors would ensure that dangerous radioactive materials do not fall into the hands of terrorists. 

The agreement made between Mr. Kiriyenko and Deputy Secretary Poneman also addresses the financing aspect of the feasibility study to make the conversion.

The agreement was made during the meeting of the Nuclear Security working group established under the auspices of the Russian-U.S. Presidential Commission on Nuclear Energy. The previous session of the commission took place in Paris in early March of 2010. Since that time, Russia and America have signed an additional protocol to the Russian-U.S. intergovernmental agreement of 2000 relating to the process of disposing of excessive weapons-grade plutonium.

In addition, the first tripartite consultations on drawing up an agreement that would set forth the procedure for verifying Russia’s and America’s compliance with disposal programs have been conducted with the participation of Russia, the U.S., and the International Atomic Energy Agency.

Meanwhile, the Zheleznogorsk reactor, the only remaining reactor in Russia that was making plutonium for nuclear weapons, was closed down during the summer. Special missions have also been organized to remove highly-enriched nuclear fuel from third countries. Additionally, Russia and the United States synchronized their timetables for transporting fuel from research reactors located in other countries to the two nuclear powers’ respective territories.