Megatons to Megawatts: Former Bomb Material from Russia Now Fuels 45% of U.S. Nuclear Energy. By Andrew E. Kramer, NYTimes, November 10, 2009. "Salvaged bomb material now generates about 10% of electricity in the United States. Utilities have been loath to publicize the Russian bomb supply line for fear of spooking consumers: the fuel from missiles that may have once been aimed at your home may now be lighting it. But at times, recycled Soviet bomb cores have made up the majority of the American market for low-enriched uranium fuel. Today, former bomb material from Russia accounts for 45% of the fuel in American nuclear reactors, while another 5% comes from American bombs, according to the Nuclear Energy Institute, an industry trade association in Washington. Treaties at the end of the cold war led to the decommissioning of thousands of warheads. Their energy-rich cores are converted into civilian reactor fuel... The program for dismantling and diluting the fuel cores of decommissioned Russian warheads -- known informally as Megatons to Megawatts -- is set to expire in 2013, just as the industry is trying to sell it forcefully as an alternative to coal-powered energy plants, which emit greenhouse gases. Finding a substitute is a concern for utilities today because nuclear plants buy fuel three to five years in advance. One potential new source is warheads that would become superfluous if the United States and Russia agree to new cuts under negotiations to renew the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, which expires on Dec. 5."
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