Russia-US Uranium Delivery Agreement (The HEU-LEU Agreement)
US-Russia HEU Agreement: INTRO
The major political changes which took place in the former Soviet Union after the mid 1980s, culminating in the break-up of the country into its constituent republics in 1991, led to the end of the nuclear arms build up which had taken place since the early 1950s.
Nuclear disarmament treaties entered into by the USA and Russia since the late 1980s have resulted in considerable
quantities of high enriched uranium (HEU) becoming surplus to military requirements.
Much of this material is suitable for conversion to civilian use as fuel for existing commercial nuclear reactors, by blending it with other uranium to produce low enriched uranium (LEU), suitable for fabrication into ordinary nuclear fuel.
HEU used in this way is a source of enrichment and conversion services, as well as of natural uranium equivalent.
The major impact to date on the commercial nuclear fuel market has come from an agreement between the US and Russian governments for the delivery of LEU derived from 500 tonnes of ex-military Russian HEU to the USA for use in nuclear fuel.
(See table):
| Table 1. Delivery schedule for Russian HEU under US-Russia HEU Agreement. | ||||||
| | Original delivery schedule to USEC (1993) | New delivery schedule to USEC (1996) | Quota for deliveries to US market | For markets outside the USA or re-export to Russia | Assumed market entry of 1995-96 uranium component | |
| | (t HEU) | (t HEU) | (tU equiv.) | (tU equiv.) | (tU equiv.) | (tU equiv.) |
| 1994 | 10 | – | – | – | – | – |
| 1995 | 10 | 6 | 1 800 | – | – | – |
| 1996 | 10 | 12 | 3 600 | – | – | – |
| 1997 | 10 | 18 | 5 400 | – | 5 400 | 1 000 |
| 1998 | 10 | 24 | 7 200 | 769 | 6 431 | 1 400 |
| 1999 | 30 | 30 | 9 000 | 1 538 | 7 462 | 300 |
| 2000 | 30 | 30 | 9 000 | 2 308
| 6 692 | – |
| 2001 | 30 | 30 | 9 000 | 3 077 | 5 923 | – |
| 2002 | 30 | 30 | 9 000 | 3 846 | 5 154 | – |
| 2003 | 30 | 30 | 9 000 | 4 615 | 4 385 | – |
| 2004 | 30 | 30 | 9 000 | 5 385 | 3 615 | – |
| 2005 | 30 | 30 | 9 000 | 6 154 | 2 846 | – |
| 2006 | 30 | 30 | 9 000
| 6 540 | 2 460 | – |
| 2007 | 30 | 30 | 9 000 | 6 920 | 2 080 | – |
| 2008 | 30
| 30 | 9 000 | 7 310 | 1 690 | – |
| 2009 | 30 | 30 | 9 000 | 7 690 | 1 310 | 1 100 |
| 2010 | 30 | 30 | 9 000 | 7
690 | 1 310 | 1 100 |
| 2011 | 30 | 30 | 9 000 | 7 690 | 1 310 | 500 |
| 2012 | 30 | 30 | 9 000 | 7 690 | 1 310 | – |
| 2013 | 30 | 20 | 6 000 | 6 000 | – | – |
| | 500 | 500 | 150 000 | 85 222 | 59 378 |
5 400 |
| Note: Deliveries actually made during 1997 and 1998 were 13.4 tonnes HEU (4020 tU) and 14.5 tonnes HEU (4350 tU) respectively. However, the balance of the 1997 quantity was delivered in early 1998. The
balance of the 1998 quantity was expected to be delivered in 1999 (in addition to the 1999 quantity). | ||||||
How Yeltsin modified the disastrous HEU Agreement into LEU:
RUSSIAN-U.S. HEU AGREEMENT
The Governments of United States of America and the Russian Federation, hereafter referred to as the Parties,
Desiring to arrange the safe and prompt disposition for peaceful purposes of highly enriched uranium resulting from
Have agreed as follows:
ARTICLE 1: PURPOSE
The Parties shall cooperate in order to achieve the following objectives:
1) The conversion as soon as practicable of highly enriched uranium (HEU)
For purposes of this Agreement, LEU shall mean uranium enriched to less than 20 percent in the isotope 235; and
2) The technology developed in the Russian Federation for conversion of HEU resulting from the reduction of nuclear weapons in the Russian Federation may be used for conversion of United States HEU in the United States of America; […]
2) The technology developed in the Russian Federation for conversion of HEU resulting from the reduction of nuclear weapons in the Russian Federation may be used for conversion of United States HEU in the United States of America; […]
MY COMMENTS:
While not longer than two weeks ago Putin was completely disappointed on how the negotiations with the US on a WTO seat for Russia
work:
Russia's WTO accession could be put off indefinitely - MP
suddenly RIA Novosti announces that Russia will join WTO this year:
Russia will join WTO in 2006 - Kudrin
11:21 | 22/ 04/ 2006
What changed Bush’s mind so quickly? Or…has his mind changed at all?
RIA Novosti published recently two very interesting articles on the US-Russia High-Low Enriched Uranium agreement.
Although, because of the complications of this agreement and because of the blanks in the information available, it’s not easy at all to figure out what is going on (probably it’s the toughest political case whose mystery I’m striving to solve), I’ve tried to figure what this agreement is all about and which is the connection with the WTO and, naturally, with Iran?
From many articles that I have read and that are posted at the link below,
this is what I understood:
You, Bush, give me a WTO seat for Russia and cancel the restrictions on the Russian uranium deliveries to Europe (the Socialist Europe interesting for me, Putin).
You, Bush, allow me to make nukes in Iran and to commercialize uranium in the World countries that are under my socialist umbrella, without hindering the process of uranium delivery by imposing anti-dumping restrictions, invoking the Soviet “danger” of uranium commercialization or imposing Russian uranium exports restrictions of any other nature and I, Putin, engage to deliver to the US the 500 metric tonnes of HEU (High Enriched Uranium) promised by my predecessors.
SEE TABLE ABOVE.
(see below the HEU-LEU agreement for which the anti-dumping restrictions imposed by the US a long time ago incorrectly make exception and don’t apply!)).
“The anti-dumping procedure that is being used in the United States and several European countries does not spread to the 1993 HEU-LEU (highly enriched uranium - low enriched uranium) agreement signed for 20 years”.
Putin asks the US to stop hindering the Russian uranium exports to any country in the World, while he promises uranium deliveries to the US + deliveries of Russian-made uranium enrichment centrifuge
technologies, the modern uranium enrichment technology scheduled to replace the outdated diffusion uranium enrichment technology used by the US by now:
“At present the gaseous diffusion process accounts for about 40% of world enrichment capacity. However, though they have proved durable and reliable, most gaseous diffusion plants are now nearing the end of their design life and the focus is on centrifuge enrichment technology which seems likely to replace them”.
If this is the case, then in my humble opinion Russia makes far too many concessions and the US is again in advantage.
While uranium is a finite ore, which the next generations will cry for, quite as our generation now cries for oil, while gas centrifuge uranium enrichment technologies is the precious fruit of decades of work performed by Russian scientists, whose license now Putin is willing to deliver to the US for free, Russia will EVENTUALLY get in return just a paper called WTO seat, if ever, and the right to arm Europe with its nukes again (now it would be for the first time for Russia to make room for its rule in the Western European continent) and to play again the master role in its socialist half of Europe that, if the things will work as planned, will go in Russia’s pocket according to the Bush SR-Putin negotiations held in May 2005).
Possibly the centrifuge technologies that Putin is willing to deliver to the US are not quite the last generation, yet this sellout of military high technologies are a big loss of know-how for Russia (such as in the Soyuz case delivered to the US, set being replaced by Clipper in Russia).
Most likely Russia will not deliver neither to the US and nor to any other country the last generation of uranium enrichment centrifuges, yet it will deliver the centrifuge technology base, which, if the US manages to sufficiently improve, it could overtake Russia in the uranium
and space field –see Soyuz deal called Iran non-proliferation act (posted on this website at the section “Most Important Articles and Documents”).
The US is already ahead with the orbital interceptors spatial technology that Russia cannot even dream purchasing.
Therefore, these concessions of know-how that Putin is willing to make might eventually end up threatening the very national security of Russia, if the US is smart enough to make the best of it.
Putin practically agreed to share half/half the World reserves with the US (these including Russia’s and the ex-USSR states’ natural reserves (whether they are oil, gas, titanium or uranium), all for the sake of strengthening Russia’s political position.
In a word::
World balance of natural reserves in exchange of political World balance.
I understand well enough the magnitude of the mistakes and sellouts made by Putin’s predecessors, the reckless or literally treacherous treaties they have signed with the US, that, despite being considerably improved by Yeltsin, are still a disaster for Russia in this very moment.
I understand that it’s not easy for Putin now to wash his hands, simply pretending that they have never been signed.
Yet IMO Putin could take a tougher stand and negotiate from a more categorical position.
After all it’s not him who signed all those disastrous treaties and therefore there must be some room for being bolder.
He could try to turn the page and start a new policy line, roughening the negotiation terms.
Probably the US’ financial-economic network (mainly composed of banks-see World Bank, IMF and trade organizations-see WTO) which are able to destroy what Putin has built by now, doesn’t allow him to move freely – (Khodorkovsky who bankrupted Russia on Yeltsin time is the best example). Also, for a strong European construction, a WTO seat could be mandatory.
Nobody knows the Russian natural reserves map, this being a state secret, but we clearly know relying just on common sense that those reserves are a FINITE entity.
Taking into account this simple observation, if Putin will continue in this manner, indefinitely “negotiating” the USSR’s natural reserves, the next generations might stigmatize him as the “King Loser”.
I wonder if it’s not too late already for Putin to get away without being blamed by the next generations of Russians for his botch policy line.
In the absence of key information needed to perform a correct analysis, especially on the situation of Russia’s natural reserves, I can just state that only Putin and the people in his entourage can appreciate if this ”World balance of natural reserves in exchange of political World balance” deal is indeed worthwhile.
Realistically speaking, for now Russia has no WTO seat and I doubt that the prospects of getting one are as optimistic as RIA Novosti wants to make us believe, while, from the US’ point of view, Iran’s fate (which, since the Islamic Revolution in 1979 has been a Russian protectorate) might still be in political and even military limbo.
On the other hand, without a WTO seat, Russia will continue to be an outsider and might be an unable to cope with the “globalization” realities of these times.
I assume that Putin intends to enter both the European nuclear market and the European military, while calming down the Bush’s damaging leverage that the US might possess and therefore use against Russia, by continuing to deliver nuclear fuel to the US, but at the same time demanding the lift of the anti-dumping restrictions that extend on the Western Europe as well and which now, unlike in the ’90-s, is directly in Putin’s commercial and military interest.
Clear is that Putin must deliver to the US on the basis of the agreement announced by
Bush SR in 1992 and signed by Clinton and Yeltsin in 1993, 500 HIGH ENRICHED URANIUM derived from nukes, which is a HUGE amount of uranium, considering its extremely high concentration of 90 percent uranium isotope 235.
The modifications of the agreement (introduced by Yeltsin(!)) are mainly that Russia refuses to abandon its nuclear military program and that it refuses to deliver the HEA in its original form, but only converting it into LEU, which shall mean uranium enriched to less than 20 percent in the isotope 235 (using the
technology developed in the Russian Federation for conversion of HEU into LEU at facilities in the Russian Federation only, if possible).
Hopefully I will update this analysis with new information on 23 May, when the next hearing on the anti-dumping measures imposed on Russia will take place in Washington.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
For realizing the magnitude of Gorbachev’s sellout of the USSR and also the connection with the Chernobyl nuclear plant explosion scenario, which was designed as a pretext for the USSR disarmament and consequently for stuffing the US *FOR FREE* with 500 metric tonnes of SUPER HIGH ENRICHED URANIUM 90% concentration obtained only from nuclear weapons (while the concentration of uranium ore is just about 4.4 %(!)),
SEE BELOW THE TEXT OF THE RUSSIAN-U.S. HEU AGREEMENT,
and the modifications introduced by Yeltsin to the tentative agreement, announced by US President George Bush in August 1992 :
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