Origins and History of the Agreement

Prior to the demise of the USSR and out of concern for the decaying conditions and security of nuclear materials in its vast nuclear complex,  in an October 1991 Op-ed in The New York Times, Thomas Neff suggested conversion of Soviet weapons HEU as the technical component of the “Grand Uranium Bargain” by which “valuable material … can be processed for use in commercial nuclear power plants.” A novel aspect of this proposal was that the U.S. purchased the HEU converted for civil use: an “HEU Deal” was struck between former adversaries, the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. The program was subsequently branded as Megatons to Megawatts - M2M.

• Origin of the Agreement: Thomas L. Neff's op-ed The Grand Uranium Bargain

• Megawatts Program Megatons Into Megawatts: The Deal Eliminating 20,000 Atomic Bombs (précis) by Jeffrey L. Hughes

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