Megatons Into Megawatts: The Deal Eliminating 20,000 Atomic Bombs

Megatons Into Megawatts was a deal between the US and Russia from 1993-2013 that removed 500 metric tons of highly enriched uranium (HEU) from Russian nuclear warheads, which were diluted and sold to the US to fuel civil nuclear reactors, producing 10 percent of US electricity annually while eliminating the potential to make over 20,000 Hiroshima weapons. The multibillion-dollar proceeds to Russia from the deal helped keep the collapsed Soviet nuclear complex from leaking “loose nukes” and weapons expertise that could have imperiled global security. The US also diluted over 150 metric tons of HEU in tandem—equivalent to more than 6,000 bombs. Experts hailed the “HEU Deal” among the most significant reductions of the nuclear threat ever, eliminating a third of the world’s atomic bomb material. But the achievement, extending over two decades, multiple presidencies, and executed primarily by commercial means, remains little known. This history provides the first comprehensive study of the origins, the negotiations at the highest levels in the US and Russia to get the agreement into place, and the many challenges that imperiled its operation—in the US, Russia, and in commercial markets—which were overcome to fulfill the agreement. The author participated in many phases of the deal.

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