DOE to Trim Uranium Stockpile

The Department of Energy will remove up to 200 metric tons of highly enriched uranium in the coming decades from further use as fissile material in U.S. nuclear weapons, Energy Secretary Samuel W. Bodman announced last week while addressing the 2005 Carnegie International Nonproliferation Conference in Washington, D.C. The project represents the largest amount of special nuclear material to be removed from the stockpile in the history of the nuclear weapons program, Bodman said. “The President's decision to reduce the nuclear weapons stockpile by nearly half to the smallest size since the Eisenhower Administration enables us to dispose of a significant amount of weapons-grade uranium,” he remarked. “This is material that will never again be a part of a nuclear weapon.” Bodman said about 160 metric tons will be provided for use in naval ship power propulsion; 20 metric tons will be down-blended to low-enriched uranium for eventual use in civilian nuclear power reactors, research reactors, or related research; and another 20 metric tons will be reserved for space and research reactors that currently use highly enriched uranium.