#17 - JRL 7015
100 TONS OF HIGHLY ENRICHED URANIUM EXTRACTED FROM
WARHEADS
MOSCOW, January 13. / Eduard Puzyryov, RIA Novosti correspondent/. Under the US-Russian program VOU-NOU (short for 'highly enriched uranium - low-enriched uranium"), Russia has to date already extracted upwards of 100 metric tons of highly enriched uranium from decommissioned nuclear warheads, Russia's Nuclear Power Ministry announced Monday.
The agency elaborated that under the terms of an earlier deal with the United States, the highly-enriched uranium which forms the charges of Russia's nuclear weapons is to be reprocessed into "low-enriched" uranium, which can then be used as fuel for nuclear power plants.
"These fuel rods may be sold, among other buyers, to US nuclear power plants and roughly half of them are already use this fuel," Ministry officials clarified. "This is advantageous for Russia and the US. For us, it's advantageous via our participation in the highly profitable business of providing services on the international market of peaceful nuclear power. For the US, it's advantageous in that it obtains high-quality fuel for its nuclear power plants at a price it can accept."
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