It would only take a few decades to phase out all non-weapon use of highly enriched uranium (HEU) worldwide, making a ban on the production of HEU for any purpose a feasible policy goal, according to a new report from the International Panel on Fissile Materials (IPFM), a group of nonproliferation experts from 18 countries.
The report, authored by physicist Frank von Hippel, a professor of public and international affairs at Princeton University, said approximately 7 tons of weapon-grade HEU – enough for 100 first-generation gun-type nuclear weapons – are currently in use globally for non-weapon purposes: fuel for naval and icebreaker propulsion reactors, tritium-production and breeder reactors, and research reactors; and for medical radioisotope production. It would take “at most a few decades” to transition these non-weapon uses of HEU to low-enriched uranium (LEU) “or non-fission alternatives that would pose a much reduced risk of fueling nuclear proliferation or of nuclear terrorism,” the report said. In the meantime, according to von Hippel, Russian and U.S. stockpiles of excess HEU could meet worldwide requirements for non-weapon purposes.
The report noted that naval reactor conversions from HEU to LEU fuel would take the greatest amount of time, as there are currently over 150 nuclear-powered submarines and ships worldwide that use HEU fuel. The National Nuclear Security Administration’s Office of Naval Reactors submitted a report to Congress in 2014 that argued “the potential exists” to effectively use LEU fuel in naval reactors, but Congress has remained largely unconvinced of the merits of such a transition. The report also noted that about half of the 100 HEU-fueled research reactors now in operation are in Russia. “Worldwide, about 60 of these 100 reactors are critical assemblies or pulsed reactors, all but a few of which could be retired with the rest consolidated into one or two high-security sites per country,” it said. Von Hippel added that the medical radioisotope production industry’s transition to LEU use “could be virtually complete within the next few years.”
