Congress is considering whether to continue research that started in 2016 into using low-enriched uranium (LEU) to replace weapon-grade highly-enriched uranium (HEU) to fuel naval nuclear propulsion reactors. Such a switch would reduce risks of nuclear proliferation and avoid the need to restart production of weapons-grade uranium for the first time since 1992. Rapidly Closing […]
Fact Sheet: Congress’ Options on Civil Nuclear Waste Disposal
The disposal of commercial spent nuclear fuel is an environmental and economic responsibility for the United States government. Successive administrations have failed to find a solution since the nuclear chain-reaction was envisioned for civilian energy generation in 1946. Through the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982 (NWPA), Congress assigned the management and disposal of spent nuclear fuel to the […]
Breaking down the jargon: nuclear programs, uranium and plutonium
By Samuel M. Hickey According to the Critical Issues poll done by the University of Maryland, a large majority of Americans across the political spectrum believe that Iran possesses nuclear weapons. It does NOT. Iran conducts nuclear research, contrary to its international commitments, into technologies with weapons applications, but it has not yet taken steps […]
Fact Sheet: The Civilian and Military Characteristics of Plutonium
Nuclear weapons require fissile materials, that is certain isotopes of uranium and plutonium, to sustain explosive fission chain reactions. Plutonium for weapons is normally obtained by reprocessing. Reprocessing is the separation of plutonium from irradiated uranium, often in the spent fuel from a nuclear reactor. The process was originally developed in the United States as […]
Fact Sheet: Uranium Enrichment: For Peace or for Weapons
Centrifuge technology is at the heart of the enrichment process, and the line between its uses for civilian and military purposes is hard to distinguish. Once a country has mastered this technology, the centrifuges can be reconfigured into cascades to either produce fuel for an electricity-generating nuclear reactor or the 25 kilograms of weapon-grade uranium […]
