BETHESDA, Md., Dec. 11 (UPI) -- The last cylinders of low-enriched uranium obtained by USEC Inc. under a U.S.-Russia program have been shipped to a company storage facility in Kentucky.
USEC Inc., which contracts with the U.S. Department of Energy to supply low-enriched uranium to U.S. nuclear power plants, said the shipment from the Port of Baltimore, Md., on Tuesday was the last of 250 shipments of fuel under the 1993 Megatons to Megawatts program between Washington and Moscow.
Under the commercial program, about 15,432 tons of low-enriched uranium was transferred to USEC and the United States by Russia and Techsnabexport. The low-enriched uranium was the result of down-blending 551 tons of highly-enriched uranium that was extracted from Russian nuclear warheads as part of a non-proliferation agreement.
"Together, USEC and Techsnabexport, working in close partnership with our respective governments in the United States and Russia, have fueled the production of clean, reliable electricity through an historic non-proliferation program that USEC funded at no cost to taxpayers," said John Welch, USEC's president and chief executive officer.
"Over the past two decades, our commercial business operations have greatly advanced the strategic policy goals of our national governments, benefiting all mankind with a safer, cleaner world."
USEC purchased the uranium from Techsnabexport with its own funds.
According to the company, nearly 10 percent of all the electricity generated in the United States since the late 1990s has been fueled by the down-blended Russian uranium.
