Nuclear Nonproliferation
DOE Needs to Consider Options to Accelerate the Return of Weapons-Usable Uranium from Other Countries to the United States and Russia Gao ID: GAO-05-57 November 19, 2004Many foreign nuclear research reactors use highly enriched uranium (HEU) fuel. Because HEU can be used in nuclear weapons, the Department of Energy (DOE) has two programs to return HEU from foreign reactors to either the United States or Russia. The U.S. fuel acceptance program includes HEU exported by the United States to 34 countries, 11 of which have returned all of their HEU. The program also includes low enriched uranium (LEU) fuel, which would be very difficult to use in a nuclear weapon. DOE imposes a fee on high-income countries to partially offset the cost of disposing of HEU and LEU fuel in the United States. Under the Russian fuel return program, DOE assists in the return of Russian-origin HEU from 14 countries to Russia. GAO was asked to examine (1) the status of DOE efforts to recover remaining inventories of U.S.-origin HEU and the extent to which the fees imposed on high-income countries support these efforts, and (2) the cost and time frame for completing the Russian fuel return program.
For a number of reasons, including the cost of converting reactors from HEU to LEU fuel, DOE has not reached agreement with reactor operators in 11 of the 23 countries that still have U.S.-origin HEU to return all of the HEU to the United States. In contrast, reactor operators in 12 of the countries either have signed contracts with DOE to return all of their U.S.-origin HEU or are developing their own means of disposal. DOE is considering offering incentives to foreign research reactors to return their HEU to the United States but so far has not determined what incentives it will offer and to which countries. DOE has not revised the fees imposed on high-income countries since establishing the fuel acceptance program in 1996. However, DOE reserved the right to change the fees in response to changes in circumstances. While lowering the fees for returning HEU may encourage additional reactors to participate in the program, DOE could recover a greater portion of the disposal costs by raising the fees for accepting LEU. DOE plans to complete the Russian fuel return program by 2009 and estimates the program could cost about $100 million, but this estimate and time frame may not be reliable because of uncertainties associated with planning future shipments. The shipments to date have all consisted of fresh (unused) HEU fuel, which DOE considers the highest priority for returning to Russia because it is more vulnerable to theft. DOE is facing delays in returning spent HEU fuel, which has been used in a reactor, in part because Russia is planning to conduct an environmental assessment for each shipment. DOE has asked Russia to conduct a single environmental assessment for the spent HEU fuel in all of the countries participating in the program to expedite future shipments of spent fuel, but so far Russia has not agreed to this. DOE is considering ways to accelerate the program that could also increase the cost of the program by more than $30 million.
RecommendationsOur recommendations from this work are listed below with a Contact for more information. Status will change from "In process" to "Open," "Closed - implemented," or "Closed - not implemented" based on our follow up work.
Director: Team: Phone:GAO-05-57, Nuclear Nonproliferation: DOE Needs to Consider Options to Accelerate the Return of Weapons-Usable Uranium from Other Countries to the United States and Russia
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Report to the Chairman, Subcommittee on Emerging Threats and
Capabilities, Committee on Armed Services, U.S. Senate:
United States Government Accountability Office:
GAO:
November 2004:
Nuclear Nonproliferation:
DOE Needs to Consider Options to Accelerate the Return of Weapons-
Usable Uranium from Other Countries to the United States and Russia:
GAO-05-57:
GAO Highlights:
Highlights of GAO-05-57, a report to the Chairman, Subcommittee on
Emerging Threats and Capabilities, Committee on Armed Services, U.S.
Senate:
Why GAO Did This Study:
Many foreign nuclear research reactors use highly enriched uranium
(HEU) fuel. Because HEU can be used in nuclear weapons, the Department
of Energy (DOE) has two programs to return HEU from foreign reactors to
either the United States or Russia. The U.S. fuel acceptance program
includes HEU exported by the United States to 34 countries, 11 of which
have returned all of their HEU. The program also includes low enriched
uranium (LEU) fuel, which would be very difficult to use in a nuclear
weapon. DOE imposes a fee on high-income countries to partially offset
the cost of disposing of HEU and LEU fuel in the United States. Under
the Russian fuel return program, DOE assists in the return of Russian-
origin HEU from 14 countries to Russia. GAO was asked to examine (1)
the status of DOE efforts to recover remaining inventories of U.S.-
origin HEU and the extent to which the fees imposed on high-income
countries support these efforts, and (2) the cost and time frame for
completing the Russian fuel return program.
What GAO Found:
For a number of reasons, including the cost of converting reactors from
HEU to LEU fuel, DOE has not reached agreement with reactor operators
in 11 of the 23 countries that still have U.S.-origin HEU to return all
of the HEU to the United States. In contrast, reactor operators in 12
of the countries either have signed contracts with DOE to return all of
their U.S.-origin HEU or are developing their own means of disposal.
DOE is considering offering incentives to foreign research reactors to
return their HEU to the United States but so far has not determined
what incentives it will offer and to which countries. DOE has not
revised the fees imposed on high-income countries since establishing
the fuel acceptance program in 1996. However, DOE reserved the right to
change the fees in response to changes in circumstances. While lowering
the fees for returning HEU may encourage additional reactors to
participate in the program, DOE could recover a greater portion of the
disposal costs by raising the fees for accepting LEU.
DOE plans to complete the Russian fuel return program by 2009 and
estimates the program could cost about $100 million, but this estimate
and time frame may not be reliable because of uncertainties associated
with planning future shipments. The shipments to date have all
consisted of fresh (unused) HEU fuel, which DOE considers the highest
priority for returning to Russia because it is more vulnerable to
theft. DOE is facing delays in returning spent HEU fuel, which has been
used in a reactor, in part because Russia is planning to conduct an
environmental assessment for each shipment. DOE has asked Russia to
conduct a single environmental assessment for the spent HEU fuel in all
of the countries participating in the program to expedite future
shipments of spent fuel, but so far Russia has not agreed to this. DOE
is considering ways to accelerate the program that could also increase
the cost of the program by more than $30 million.
Spent Research Reactor Fuel in Transport to a U.S. Disposal Facility:
[See PDF for image]
[End of figure]
What GAO Recommends:
GAO recommends that DOE (1) consider offering incentives to foreign
research reactors to return HEU to the United States, including
lowering fees for accepting HEU from high-income countries; and (2)
evaluate raising fees for returning LEU to the United States to offset
as much of the disposal costs as possible. DOE concurred with our
recommendations.
www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-05-57.
To view the full product, including the scope and methodology, click on
the link above. For more information, contact Gene Aloise at (202) 512-
3841 or aloisee@gao.gov.
[End of section]
Contents:
Letter:
Results in Brief:
Background:
Eleven of the 23 Countries with U.S.-Origin HEU Do Not Have Plans to
Return It to the United States or Dispose of It Domestically:
DOE Plans to Complete the Return of HEU to Russia by 2009 at a Cost of
about $100 Million:
Conclusions:
Recommendations for Executive Action:
Agency Comments and Our Evaluation:
Scope and Methodology:
Appendix I: Details of HEU and LEU Fuel Returned to the United States:
Appendix II: Comments from the Department of Energy:
Tables:
Table 1: Shipments of Fresh HEU Fuel to Russia:
Table 2: Countries That Do Not Currently Have Plans to Return All U.S.-
Origin HEU:
Table 3: HEU and LEU Fuel Returned to the United States, by Country,
and Fees Paid by Research Reactor Operators in High-Income Countries:
Figures:
Figure 1: Example of a Research Reactor Fuel Assembly:
Figure 2: 34 Countries with U.S.-origin HEU Included in DOE's Fuel
Acceptance Program:
Figure 3: Facility in the Netherlands for Storage of Spent Fuel from
Research and Power Reactors:
Abbreviations:
DOE: Department of Energy:
FRR SNF: Foreign Research Reactor Spent Nuclear Fuel Acceptance
program:
HEU: highly enriched uranium:
IAEA: International Atomic Energy Agency:
IG: Office of Inspector General:
LEU: low enriched uranium:
MCC: Material Consolidation and Conversion project:
NNSA: National Nuclear Security Administration:
RERTR: Reduced Enrichment for Research and Test Reactors program:
RRRFR: Russian Research Reactor Fuel Return program:
United States Government Accountability Office:
Washington, DC 20548:
November 19, 2004:
The Honorable Pat Roberts:
Chairman, Subcommittee on Emerging Threats and Capabilities:
Committee on Armed Services:
United States Senate:
Dear Mr. Chairman:
Civilian nuclear research reactors around the world use and store
highly enriched uranium (HEU) fuel. The reactors are used in medicine,
agriculture, and industry and for basic scientific research. The United
States and the Soviet Union began providing the HEU used by many of
these reactors in the 1950s. HEU can also be used as a key component in
making a nuclear weapon. As a result, the United States has a long-
standing nonproliferation goal of reducing the amount of HEU that is
used and stored at these reactors. To accomplish this goal, the
Department of Energy (DOE) has established three programs: one program
to convert the reactors from HEU to low enriched uranium (LEU) fuel,
which is considered to be less of a proliferation threat because it is
very difficult to use in nuclear weapons, and two related programs to
take back HEU from foreign research reactors for safe storage and
disposal in either the United States or Russia, depending on the HEU's
origin.
We reported on DOE's progress in implementing the first program--the
Reduced Enrichment for Research and Test Reactors (RERTR) program--in
July 2004.[Footnote 1] Since 1978, the goal of this program has been to
get research reactors around the world to convert from HEU fuel to LEU
fuel. In our report, we found, among other things, that 66 of the 105
research reactors included in the program continue to use HEU fuel for
a number of reasons, including lack of funding for conversion to LEU
and technical setbacks in developing LEU fuels to replace HEU. We
recommended that DOE evaluate the costs and benefits of providing
additional incentives to foreign research reactor operators to convert
to LEU. DOE's two related programs for returning HEU to the United
States or Russia are the Foreign Research Reactor Spent Nuclear Fuel
Acceptance (FRR SNF) program, created in 1996, and the Russian Research
Reactor Fuel Return (RRRFR) program.[Footnote 2] DOE began discussions
with Russia on the Russian fuel return program in 1999 and signed a
bilateral agreement in 2004. Figure 1 shows an example of a fuel
assembly used in a research reactor.
Figure 1: Example of a Research Reactor Fuel Assembly:
[See PDF for image]
[End of figure]
DOE's fuel acceptance program is designed to return U.S.-origin HEU
from 34 countries to the United States for safe storage and disposal
and to encourage foreign research reactors to convert to LEU fuel.
Currently, 11 of the 34 countries have returned all of the HEU to the
United States, and 23 still possess U.S.-origin HEU fuel. The scope of
the fuel acceptance program includes an estimated 5,000 kilograms of
HEU that the United States exported to research reactors in the 34
countries as well as an estimated 15,000 kilograms of LEU. DOE included
LEU fuel in the scope of the program, even though LEU does not pose the
same proliferation risk as HEU, because operators of many foreign
research reactors had no other way to dispose of LEU fuel. Reactor
operators need a means to dispose of spent fuel, and by including LEU
in the fuel acceptance program, DOE provides operators of foreign
research reactors with an assured means of disposing of spent fuel even
after converting to LEU.
DOE imposes a fee on research reactors in high-income countries (as
defined by the World Bank), such as the Netherlands and Japan, to
offset as much as possible the cost of fuel disposal in the United
States. The fees were not intended to cover the full cost of managing
foreign research reactor spent fuel or the long-term cost of permanent
disposal; DOE kept the fees low to encourage research reactor operators
to participate in the program. DOE reserved the right to modify the
fees at any time in response to a change in circumstances, including
the cost of managing the fuel in the United States. The fees charged to
reactors in high-income countries, which were established in 1996, do
not exceed $3,750 to $4,500 per kilogram of LEU (depending on where in
the United States the LEU is shipped) and $4,500 per kilogram of HEU.
DOE generally charges less for LEU fuel to avoid penalizing foreign
reactors that convert to LEU. DOE does not impose fees on research
reactors in non-high-income countries and, in addition, pays for most
of the cost of transporting their spent fuel to the United States in
order to encourage them to participate in the program.
DOE originally planned for the fuel acceptance program to end in 2009.
DOE had anticipated that by 2009 operators of foreign research reactors
would have made their own arrangements for managing U.S.-origin spent
fuel, such as commercial reprocessing (a method for treating fuel prior
to final disposal) or development of domestic disposal facilities,
thereby eliminating the need to return the fuel to the United States.
However, one of the LEU fuels developed by the RERTR program cannot be
easily reprocessed, hindering efforts to dispose of spent LEU fuel
other than by returning it to the United States. To assist foreign
research reactors in developing other spent fuel management options,
DOE's RERTR program is working to develop a new reprocessable LEU fuel
that foreign reactor operators can switch to once it is developed and
available commercially. In 2003, a group of foreign research reactor
operators petitioned DOE to extend the program beyond 2009, citing
technical setbacks in the development of a reprocessable LEU fuel. The
reactor operators feared the expiration of DOE's fuel acceptance
program and the delay in developing a new LEU fuel would leave reactors
without a way to dispose of spent fuel. In April 2004, the Secretary of
Energy announced his intention to extend the U.S. fuel acceptance
program beyond the original 2009 end date. DOE is considering extending
the program by 5 or 10 years to support the reactor operators that have
converted their reactors to LEU.
DOE's final program, aimed at facilitating the return of HEU to Russia,
has identified research reactors in 17 countries (mostly in the former
Soviet Union and Eastern Europe) that have Russian-origin fuel. DOE
pays the cost of transporting and disposing of HEU fuel in Russia. The
Secretary of Energy has estimated that there are about 4,000 kilograms
of Russian-origin fuel in the 17 countries.[Footnote 3] So far, DOE has
provided assistance to return about 100 kilograms of fresh (unused) HEU
fuel from 5 countries (Bulgaria, Libya, Romania, Serbia, and
Uzbekistan) for storage at two nuclear facilities in Russia--
Dmitrovgrad and Novosibirsk. In addition, DOE plans to pay Russia to
"blend down" the HEU returned to Dmitrovgrad to LEU, thereby reducing
the risk that the material could be used in a nuclear weapon. In
return, operators of foreign research reactors with Russian-origin HEU
fuel must agree to shut down or convert their reactors to LEU.
In response to your request, we examined DOE efforts to recover HEU
fuel from foreign research reactors and assessed (1) the status of DOE
efforts to return remaining inventories of U.S.-origin HEU for storage
and disposal in the United States and the extent to which the fees DOE
imposes on high-income countries support these efforts, and (2) DOE's
estimate of the cost and time frame for completing the Russian fuel
return program.
To address these objectives, we analyzed documentation from both
programs, including inventories of HEU fuel and data on fuel returned
to date. We also analyzed DOE data on expenditures in support of the
fuel acceptance program and fees paid by reactors in high-income
countries to return their fuel to the United States. To obtain
information on how the program is working, we interviewed operators of
research reactors in Belgium, Germany, the Netherlands, Poland,
Portugal, Romania, and Ukraine. We discussed the status of the programs
with DOE and Russian officials and with officials in the other
countries we visited. We conducted our review from July 2003 to October
2004 in accordance with generally accepted government auditing
standards.
Results in Brief:
DOE has not reached agreement with research reactor operators in 11 of
the 23 countries that still have U.S.-origin HEU to return all of the
HEU to the United States. Reactor operators in the 11 countries have
not made arrangements to return the HEU for a number of reasons,
including the cost of conversion to LEU. For example, some reactor
operators are planning to use their HEU, despite DOE's efforts to
encourage them to convert their reactors to LEU fuel and return the HEU
fuel to the United States, because they do not want to incur the
expense of paying for conversion. In addition, in some high-income
countries such as Austria, the cost of returning the HEU (including
transportation) may be a factor in not making plans to return the
material to the United States. DOE is considering offering further
incentives to reactor operators to convert to LEU and return their HEU
to the United States but thus far has not determined what incentives it
will offer and to which countries. Finally, informal diplomatic
approaches to discuss the return of HEU from research reactors in Iran
and Pakistan have been unsuccessful. In contrast, operators of reactors
in 12 of the 23 countries that still have U.S.-origin HEU either have
signed contracts with DOE to return all of the HEU to the United States
by 2009 or are developing their own means to dispose of HEU fuel. We
recommend that DOE consider offering incentives to foreign research
reactors to return HEU to the United States, including lowering the
fees for returning HEU.
Furthermore, while DOE has proposed extending the time frame of the
fuel acceptance program by 5 or 10 years, it has not revised the fees
it charges to research reactors in high-income countries since
establishing the program in 1996. DOE set the fees at a level to
encourage the reactors to convert to LEU fuel and return HEU rather
than to cover the disposal cost in the United States. However, when DOE
set the fees, it reserved the right to change them in response to
changes in circumstances. For example, with the proposed extension of
the program, the United States would accept larger quantities of LEU
from foreign research reactors than originally planned. According to
DOE and State Department officials, failure to extend the fuel
acceptance program would penalize operators of research reactors that
the United States encouraged to convert to LEU because the only
currently available option for disposing of the type of LEU fuel used
by some reactors is returning it to the United States. Nevertheless,
the proposed extension could justify an increase in the fees charged to
high-income countries. While lowering the fees for returning HEU may
encourage additional countries to participate in the program, DOE could
recover a greater portion of the cost of the program by raising the
fees for accepting LEU. We recommend that DOE evaluate raising the fees
for countries returning LEU to the United States.
DOE plans to complete the Russian fuel return program by 2009 and
estimates the program could cost about $100 million, but this estimate
and time frame may not be reliable because of uncertainties associated
with planning future shipments. The shipments to date have all
consisted of fresh (unused) HEU fuel, which DOE considers the highest
priority for returning to Russia because it is less radioactive than
spent fuel and therefore easier to handle and potentially steal. DOE
has targeted four more countries for removal of fresh HEU by 2005.
However, DOE has not provided assistance to return spent HEU fuel to
Russia from any of the countries. The Russian fuel return program is
facing delays in returning spent fuel because Russia is planning to
conduct an environmental assessment for each shipment, and complex
negotiations are needed to arrange some shipments. DOE has asked Russia
to conduct a single environmental assessment for all spent fuel in all
the countries that are participating in the program, which would help
expedite future shipments of spent fuel, but so far Russia has not
agreed to this. DOE officials said they expect shipments of spent fuel,
which is more difficult to dispose of, to cost more than fresh fuel
shipments. While DOE has spent about $1.5 million in support of four of
the shipments of fresh HEU fuel, Russia's estimate of the
transportation and disposal costs for the first shipment of spent fuel,
from Uzbekistan, is $5.7 million. Furthermore, according to DOE
officials, Russia has not agreed to a fixed fee for accepting future
shipments of spent fuel because the costs of managing the fuel in
Russia could increase. DOE is considering ways to accelerate the
Russian fuel return program, such as purchasing a cask with a larger
capacity for transporting HEU fuel than currently available casks and
developing a new technology to dilute spent HEU fuel into LEU before
shipping it to Russia. DOE officials estimate that these options could
also increase the cost of the program by more than $30 million.
Background:
Civilian nuclear research reactors located throughout the world
contribute to the development of nuclear power, basic and applied
science, and isotope production for medicine and industry. While many
of the reactors use LEU fuel, others use or have inventories of HEU.
The fuel acceptance program and Russian fuel return program are part of
the Global Threat Reduction Initiative announced by the Secretary of
Energy in a speech on May 26, 2004, to secure, remove, or dispose of a
broad range of nuclear and radiological materials that are vulnerable
to theft. The programs also benefit foreign research reactors by
providing them with a way to dispose of spent fuel.
DOE's fuel acceptance program identified 34 countries with U.S.-origin
HEU eligible for return to the United States. Research reactors in 11
of the 34 countries have returned all of the HEU to the United States.
In the remaining 23 countries, 11 have returned a portion of their
U.S.-origin HEU, and 12 have not returned any HEU (see fig. 2). In
total, DOE estimates it has recovered 914 kilograms of HEU fuel, enough
to build an estimated 20 nuclear weapons.[Footnote 4] (See app. I for a
list of the countries that have returned HEU and LEU fuel to the United
States and the amount returned.)
Figure 2: 34 Countries with U.S.-origin HEU Included in DOE's Fuel
Acceptance Program:
[See PDF for image]
Notes: In addition to the 34 countries with U.S.-origin HEU, the United
States exported LEU (but not HEU) to 7 countries--Bangladesh, Congo,
Finland,A Malaysia, Peru, Uruguay, and Venezuela. The amount of HEU
exported to some of the countries is small. For example, Indonesia has
a small amount of HEU used for the production of medical isotopes as
well as LEU fuel (but not HEU fuel), and the research reactor in
Jamaica has only a small amount of HEU fuel located in the core of the
reactor.
[A] High-income countries at the beginning of the fuel acceptance
program in 1996. According to DOE officials, Greece, Portugal, and
South Korea are now also considered high-income countries.
[End of figure]
The fuel returned to the United States is mostly stored at DOE's
Savannah River Site, with a small portion also stored at DOE's Idaho
National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory. DOE anticipates that
it will ship the fuel to the geologic repository at Yucca Mountain in
Nevada for final disposal, assuming the facility is completed as
planned. DOE completed an environmental impact statement and
established the fuel acceptance program in 1996.[Footnote 5] The fuel
acceptance program is a continuation of previous programs that allowed
foreign research reactors to dispose of U.S.-origin fuel in the United
States.
In a February 2004 review, DOE's Office of Inspector General (IG) found
that DOE was likely to recover about half of the HEU eligible under the
fuel acceptance program, in part because the participation of countries
with U.S.-origin fuel is voluntary and some countries have chosen not
to participate.[Footnote 6] Furthermore, the IG found that the program
did not include another 12,300 kilograms of HEU that the United States
had exported because DOE, when establishing the fuel acceptance program
in 1996, limited the types of fuel that would be eligible for return.
The IG recommended that DOE determine whether the fuel acceptance
program should be expanded to include all HEU exported by the United
States and whether improvements could be made to encourage greater
participation of countries that have HEU fuel covered by the program.
The IG also recommended that DOE determine whether the National Nuclear
Security Administration (NNSA) could more effectively manage the
program, which is currently being managed by DOE's Office of
Environmental Management. In response, the Secretary of Energy
announced that the program would be transferred to NNSA and combined
with DOE's Russian fuel return program, already being managed by NNSA.
According to DOE officials, DOE plans to address, through a separate
program, the IG recommendation regarding U.S.-origin HEU not currently
covered under the fuel acceptance program because returning additional
inventories of HEU to the United States would require an analysis of
environmental impacts, including how the material would be stored. DOE
officials said they do not want to delay the proposed extension of the
fuel acceptance program in order to allow time to conduct such an
analysis.
DOE has identified 17 countries with Russian-origin fuel, 14 of which
have HEU fuel that DOE has included under the Russian fuel return
program. The 14 countries are Belarus, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic,
Germany, Hungary, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Libya, Poland, Romania, Serbia,
Ukraine, Uzbekistan, and Vietnam.[Footnote 7] Two countries, Germany
and Romania, have both U.S-origin and Russian-origin HEU fuel.
DOE has provided funding and technical assistance for shipments of
about 100 kilograms of fresh HEU fuel to Russia from 5 countries--
Bulgaria, Libya, Romania, Serbia, and Uzbekistan. (The State Department
and the Nuclear Threat Initiative, a private foundation, also
participated in the removal of HEU from Serbia.) The fresh HEU fuel
from Bulgaria, Libya, Serbia, and Uzbekistan was shipped to the
Research Institute of Atomic Reactors in Dmitrovgrad for downblending
into LEU to reduce the risk of the material being used in a nuclear
weapon.[Footnote 8] As of October 2004, DOE had signed a contract with
Dmitrovgrad to downblend the HEU from Serbia and was negotiating
contracts to downblend the HEU from Bulgaria, Libya, and Uzbekistan. A
DOE official estimated that Dmitrovgrad would complete the downblending
of the HEU from Serbia by spring 2005, after resolving technical
difficulties encountered in the downblending process. DOE officials
said that the HEU fuel from Romania was sent to the Novosibirsk site in
Russia, because the Dmitrovgrad facility did not have the technical
capability to downblend the HEU fuel from Romania. (Table 1 summarizes
the five shipments of fresh HEU to Russia.)
Table 1: Shipments of Fresh HEU Fuel to Russia:
Country: Serbia;
Date shipped: August 2002;
Amount (kilograms): 48;
Status: In storage at Dmitrovgrad; anticipated to be downblended to LEU
by spring 2005.
Country: Romania;
Date shipped: September 2003;
Amount (kilograms): 14;
Status: Cannot be downblended at Dmitrovgrad; sent to Novosibirsk
instead.
Country: Bulgaria;
Date shipped: December 2003;
Amount (kilograms): 17;
Status: In storage at Dmitrovgrad; contract for downblending under
negotiation.
Country: Libya;
Date shipped: March 2004;
Amount (kilograms): 16;
Status: In storage at Dmitrovgrad; contract for downblending under
negotiation.
Country: Uzbekistan;
Date shipped: September 2004;
Amount (kilograms): 3;
Status: In storage at Dmitrovgrad; contract for downblending under
negotiation.
Sources: DOE and International Atomic Energy Agency.
[End of table]
Unlike DOE's fuel acceptance program, the Russian fuel return program
does not include LEU fuel because DOE does not consider LEU a
proliferation risk. DOE cooperates with the International Atomic Energy
Agency (IAEA) and the State Department to implement the Russian fuel
return program. For example, IAEA conducts fact-finding missions in
preparation for fuel shipments with assistance from DOE.
Eleven of the 23 Countries with U.S.-Origin HEU Do Not Have Plans to
Return It to the United States or Dispose of It Domestically:
DOE has not reached agreement with research reactor operators in 11 of
the 23 countries that still have U.S.-origin HEU to return all of the
HEU to the United States. The reactor operators have not made
arrangements to return the HEU for a number of reasons, including the
cost of conversion to LEU. DOE is considering offering incentives to
reactor operators to convert to LEU and return their HEU to the United
States but thus far has not determined what incentives it will offer
and to which countries. In contrast, reactor operators in 12 of the 23
countries that still have U.S.-origin HEU either have signed contracts
with DOE to return all of the HEU to the United States by 2009 or are
developing their own means to dispose of HEU fuel.
DOE has proposed extending the fuel acceptance program by 5 or 10
years, but the fees imposed on research reactors in high-income
countries have not been changed since 1996. According to DOE and State
Department officials, DOE's proposed extension of the time frame of the
fuel acceptance program would benefit operators of research reactors
that the United States encouraged to convert to LEU because the only
currently available option for disposing of the type of LEU fuel used
by some reactors is returning it to the United States. The extension of
the program will primarily result in more LEU being returned to the
United States by reactors that have converted to LEU fuel that cannot
be reprocessed. DOE set the fees at a level to encourage reactor
operators to convert to LEU fuel and return HEU rather than to cover
the disposal cost in the United States. However, DOE reserved the right
to change the fees in response to changes in circumstances.
Countries Are Not Returning All of the HEU because They Are Planning to
Use It in Research Reactors or Lack Funding:
Operators of research reactors in 11 of the 23 countries that still
have U.S.-origin HEU have not made arrangements to return the HEU for a
number of reasons. (Table 2 lists the 11 countries that do not have
plans to return all of their U.S.-origin HEU and the current status of
any decision to participate in the fuel acceptance program.) Research
reactors in some of the countries do not plan to continue using the HEU
but have not reached an agreement with DOE on returning it to the
United States. For example, according to a DOE official, the operator
of a university research reactor in Austria would like to return its
HEU to the United States but lacks funding for transportation.
According to the official, DOE hopes to combine Austria's remaining HEU
with a shipment of spent fuel from Greece or Turkey to reduce the
transportation cost to the operator of the Austrian reactor.
Table 2: Countries That Do Not Currently Have Plans to Return All U.S.-
Origin HEU:
Country: Austria;
Status: One research reactor has returned all of its HEU to the United
States, but two additional reactors still have HEU-- one has shut down
but not finalized plans for returning HEU, and another has not made a
decision to complete conversion to LEU and return HEU.
Country: Indonesia;
Status: Research reactor has agreed to stop using HEU for medical
isotope production by 2006 and return LEU fuel, but plans for returning
HEU are not finalized.
Country: Iran;
Status: Research reactor has converted to LEU but there are no plans to
return HEU.
Country: Israel;
Status: No plans to convert research reactor to LEU and return HEU.
Country: Jamaica;
Status: No plans to convert research reactor to LEU and return HEU.
Country: Japan;
Status: Most Japanese research reactors are returning HEU, but two
reactors do not have plans to convert to LEU and return HEU.
Country: Mexico;
Status: No plans to convert research reactor to LEU and return HEU.
Country: Pakistan;
Status: Research reactor has converted to LEU but there are no plans to
return HEU.
Country: South Africa;
Status: Conversion of research reactor to LEU is under consideration.
Country: South Korea;
Status: Research reactor has shut down and returned spent HEU fuel but
not agreed to return fresh HEU.
Country: Turkey;
Status: Conversion of research reactor to LEU is under consideration
(reactor has partially converted).
Sources: DOE and State Department.
[End of table]
Other research reactor operators have not made a decision to convert
their reactors to LEU. For example, operators of research reactors in
Jamaica and Mexico may continue using their HEU fuel, which is
sufficient to last many years. Similarly, while most research reactors
in Japan have returned U.S.-origin HEU fuel, two Japanese research
reactors have not made plans to convert to LEU fuel and participate in
the fuel acceptance program. As we reported in our July 2004 review of
the RERTR program, while operators of some foreign research reactors
have agreed to fund conversion of their reactors from HEU to LEU,
others either do not want to incur the additional cost of conversion or
do not have the necessary funding.[Footnote 9] Research reactor
operators in South Africa and Turkey are considering converting to LEU,
which could lead to returning U.S.-origin HEU to the United States.
(The research reactor operator in Turkey has partially converted the
reactor to LEU fuel but must completely convert before it can return
its HEU. However, the reactor operator does not currently have the LEU
fuel needed to complete the conversion process.)
In Iran, Israel, and Pakistan, DOE relies on State Department
diplomatic efforts to encourage the countries to participate in the
fuel acceptance program. Each of the three countries has one research
reactor with U.S.-origin HEU fuel. The research reactors in Iran and
Pakistan have converted to LEU fuel, but according to a State
Department official, informal approaches to discuss the possible return
of HEU from these two countries have been unsuccessful. The official
said that recovering the HEU from Iran and Pakistan would require a
political breakthrough similar to ones that enabled DOE to facilitate
the removal of HEU from Serbia and Libya under the Russian fuel return
program in August 2002 and March 2004, respectively. The State
Department official said that the operators of the Israeli research
reactor have expressed interest in converting their reactor to LEU,
which would be the first step in possibly returning the HEU to the
United States. However, the Nuclear Suppliers Group, the international
body that governs the export of nuclear technologies, prohibits the
export of LEU fuel to Israel.[Footnote 10] Therefore, unless the
reactor shuts down, it will likely continue to use its supply of HEU
fuel rather than return it to the United States.
DOE is considering whether to offer additional incentives to the
reactor operators that have not agreed to return HEU to the United
States to encourage their participation in the fuel acceptance program.
According to a State Department official, such incentives could
influence some research reactors that are not participating in the fuel
return program to return their HEU to the United States. For example,
DOE could offer to purchase LEU fuel to replace HEU fuel that is still
being used in the reactors. The State Department official said that if
a research reactor agrees to shut down rather than convert to LEU, DOE
could offer other incentives, such as research grants.
Operators of research reactors in 12 of the 23 countries that still
have U.S.-origin HEU fuel have either agreed to return the material to
the United States or are developing alternative disposal options. DOE
officials said they have signed contracts with reactor operators in
Australia, Germany, Greece, Portugal, Romania, and Taiwan to return
their U.S.-origin HEU to the United States by 2009, the original end
date of the fuel acceptance program. As part of these arrangements, the
reactor operators in these countries have agreed to convert to LEU fuel
or shut the reactors down by 2006. For example, Australia is building a
new research reactor that uses LEU fuel to replace an older research
reactor, scheduled to be shut down, that previously used HEU. The
reactor operator in Romania has agreed to return its HEU after it
receives new LEU fuel, which is currently being manufactured, to
replace the HEU. Six countries--Argentina, Belgium, Canada, France, the
Netherlands, and the United Kingdom--are developing alternatives to
disposing of U.S.-origin HEU in the United States. DOE officials said
they support the efforts of these countries to develop their own means
of disposal. For example, Argentina has reached an agreement with DOE
to blend down part of its remaining inventory of U.S.-origin HEU for
fabrication into LEU fuel for use in Argentina's research reactors. As
part of this agreement, the one remaining research reactor in Argentina
that currently uses HEU fuel will convert to LEU fuel and ship its HEU
fuel to the United States. In Belgium, a reactor operator is sending
spent U.S.-origin HEU fuel to France for reprocessing, which includes
diluting the HEU into LEU and returning radioactive waste to Belgium
for long-term disposal in an underground repository. As another example
of a country that is developing an alternative means of disposal, the
Netherlands has returned some of its U.S.-origin HEU and also completed
a storage facility in 2003 for the disposal of nuclear waste, including
spent fuel from research and power reactors located in the country. The
facility is designed to store the spent fuel for 100 years (see fig.
3).
Figure 3: Facility in the Netherlands for Storage of Spent Fuel from
Research and Power Reactors:
[See PDF for image]
[End of figure]
DOE Has Not Revised Fees to Account for Changes in the Fuel Acceptance
Program:
DOE has not revised the fees it charges to research reactors in high-
income countries since 1996. DOE reserved the right to change these
fees if circumstances changed, and in fact, a number of changes will
affect the costs of the program.[Footnote 11] Among the changes that
will affect the costs of the fuel acceptance program is the proposed
extension of the program, which would primarily result in more LEU
being returned to the United States by reactors that have converted to
LEU fuel that cannot be reprocessed. According to DOE and State
Department officials, DOE's proposed extension will help reactor
operators that the United States encouraged to convert to LEU because
the only currently available option for disposing of the LEU fuel
(other than in countries such as the Netherlands that have developed
their own means of disposal) is returning it to the United States. For
example, research reactor operators in Australia, Germany, Japan, and
Sweden petitioned DOE to extend the program beyond 2009, so that they
would have a way to dispose of LEU fuel. A number of the reactor
operators have either converted to LEU fuel or, in the case of
Australia, are building a new research reactor that uses LEU fuel to
replace an older reactor that used HEU fuel.
DOE's primary objective when setting the fees in 1996 was to keep them
low enough to encourage research reactors to return HEU to the United
States rather than to cover the full cost of disposing foreign research
reactors' spent fuel in the United States. For example, DOE set the
fees at a rate competitive with the estimated cost of reprocessing, so
that reactor operators would choose to participate in the program
rather than reprocess spent fuel. Furthermore, DOE set the fees it
charges for accepting LEU from research reactors in high-income
countries at a level to encourage the reactors to convert to LEU.
However, DOE also decided when setting the fees that it would try to
recover as much of the cost of managing spent fuel from foreign
research reactors as possible. For this reason, DOE reserved the right
to revise the fees in response to changes in circumstances, including
the cost of managing spent fuel in the United States. The fees paid by
research reactors in high-income countries have covered about 84
percent of DOE's expenditures for the fuel acceptance program through
fiscal year 2004. From fiscal year 1996 through fiscal year 2004, DOE
received $97.3 million in fees from research reactors in high-income
countries for disposal of HEU and LEU fuel in the United
States.[Footnote 12] In comparison, DOE estimates that it spent $116.1
million from fiscal year 1996 through fiscal year 2004 to implement the
fuel acceptance program. These expenditures include the cost of
transporting spent fuel from research reactors in non-high-income
countries and part of the cost of operating the facilities where fuel
is placed in interim storage but not the permanent disposal costs. (See
app. I for a list of the fees paid by research reactors in high-income
countries.) DOE officials agreed that given changes in the fuel
acceptance program, including the proposed extension of the program by
5 or 10 years, reassessing the fees charged to research reactors in
high-income countries is warranted.
DOE Plans to Complete the Return of HEU to Russia by 2009 at a Cost of
about $100 Million:
DOE plans to complete the Russian fuel return program by 2009 and
estimates the program could cost about $100 million, but this estimate
and time frame may not be reliable because of uncertainties associated
with planning future fuel shipments. The program is facing delays in
returning spent HEU fuel because Russia is planning to conduct an
environmental assessment for each shipment of spent HEU fuel, and
complex negotiations are needed to arrange some shipments. DOE supports
Russia's efforts to examine the environmental impacts of returning
spent HEU fuel to Russia. DOE has asked Russia to conduct a single
environmental assessment for all spent fuel in all of the countries
participating in the program, which would help expedite future
shipments of spent fuel, but so far, Russia has not agreed to this.
Furthermore, according to DOE officials, Russia has not agreed to a
fixed fee for accepting future shipments of spent fuel because the
costs of managing the fuel in Russia could increase. DOE is considering
ways to accelerate the Russian fuel return program that could also
increase the cost of the program by more than $30 million.
DOE's Cost Estimate Is Uncertain because Russia Plans to Set the Price
for Shipments of Spent HEU Fuel on a Case-By-Case Basis:
DOE's estimate for completing the program for $100 million is subject
to a number of uncertainties, including the cost of returning spent HEU
fuel to Russia. DOE officials said they expect shipments of spent fuel,
which is more difficult to dispose of, to cost more than fresh fuel
shipments. For example, Russia's estimate of the transportation and
disposal costs for the shipment of spent fuel from Uzbekistan is $5.7
million. This amount includes the cost of transportation, security, and
storage of the spent HEU fuel in Russia as well as a spent fuel
management fee, which pays for improvements to store the fuel in an
environmentally safe manner. According to DOE officials, Russia has not
agreed to a fixed fee for accepting future shipments of spent fuel
because the costs of managing the fuel in Russia could increase. While
DOE officials said the fees paid to Russia do not include profit, the
terms of the agreement between DOE and Russia stipulate that the United
States or a third party will pay the costs of returning HEU to Russia.
On the other hand, the cost of returning fresh HEU fuel to Russia is
more certain. DOE officials estimate that each shipment generally costs
about $400,000. In addition, the DOE official in charge of the Material
Consolidation and Conversion project, which pays for downblending the
HEU fuel shipped to Dmitrovgrad in Russia, said that DOE has a stable
price that it pays for downblending the fuel into LEU. DOE's Russian
fuel return program has so far spent about $1.5 million in support of
four of the shipments of fresh HEU fuel to Russia.[Footnote 13]
Environmental Assessments and Other Factors Could Cause Delays:
One of the main uncertainties in DOE's plan to complete the Russian
fuel return program by 2009 is the schedule for shipping spent HEU fuel
to Russia. DOE has not yet provided assistance to return spent HEU
fuel.[Footnote 14] According to DOE officials, the main obstacle is
Russia's requirement that an environmental assessment be conducted
prior to each shipment of spent fuel, which has been irradiated in a
reactor and is therefore more radioactive and difficult to dispose of
than fresh fuel. For example, DOE signed an agreement with Uzbekistan
in March 2002 to begin work on returning spent HEU fuel to Russia, but
as of July 2004, the Russian government had not completed the
environmental assessment for the shipment. Russian officials told us
that future environmental assessments would take less time. However, if
a similar amount of time is required for future assessments, spent fuel
shipments could be delayed. DOE officials said they have asked the
Russian government to conduct a single environmental assessment for the
entire scope of the program in order to expedite future shipments of
spent fuel. Such an assessment could be similar to the one DOE
conducted prior to initiating the U.S. fuel acceptance program. DOE's
assessment conducted for the fuel acceptance program identified the
major components required to complete the program, including the total
amount of HEU fuel, U.S. ports where the fuel would be shipped, and
where and how the fuel would be disposed of. However, so far the
Russian government has not agreed to such an assessment.
The schedule for the Russian fuel return program also depends on the
level of cooperation in the countries where Russian-origin HEU fuel is
located. In coordination with Russia and IAEA, DOE prioritized
shipments of fresh HEU to Russia based on the amount of HEU located at
a facility and security concerns in the region. However, DOE officials
said they have acted quickly to take advantage of opportunities that
arise to remove HEU fuel from a facility. For example, DOE removed
fresh HEU fuel from Libya in March 2004, after the country unexpectedly
agreed to participate in the program. Similarly, Romanian officials
told us that high-level support within the Romanian government for the
Russian fuel return program resulted in the shipment of HEU taking
place very quickly. DOE officials said that other countries with
Russian-origin HEU might be reluctant to participate in the Russian
fuel return program. For example, DOE officials said they had
encountered difficulties in negotiating with Belarus and Kazakhstan on
returning their inventories of HEU to Russia. A Russian official also
told us that Belarus has no intention of returning fresh HEU to Russia.
Similarly, according to DOE officials, a facility in Ukraine hopes to
build a new research reactor that would be fueled by its inventory of
Russian-origin HEU. If the facility decides not to return its HEU to
Russia, DOE would try to work with the facility to downblend it into
LEU.
Another factor that affects DOE's schedule for the Russian fuel return
program is the development of new LEU fuels to replace HEU in research
reactors that cannot convert to currently available LEU fuels. In our
July 2004 report on the RERTR program, we identified several research
reactors that use Russian-origin HEU fuel that cannot currently convert
to LEU. For example, a research reactor in Poland is waiting for the
development of a new LEU fuel before it can convert. However, the
projected completion of a replacement LEU fuel has been delayed from
2006 until 2010 as a result of technical setbacks in the development
process. DOE officials said that rather than try to return the fresh
HEU fuel from these reactors to Russia before a replacement LEU fuel is
available, the Russian fuel return program would return the HEU as
spent fuel, after it is used up in the reactors. Consequently, although
DOE officials have said they plan to return all fresh HEU to Russia by
2005, some Russian-supplied research reactors that cannot convert to
currently available LEU fuels could continue to store fresh HEU fuel
after that date. (DOE has identified 4 countries for removal of fresh
HEU by 2005--Belarus, Kazakhstan, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan.)
DOE Is Considering Ways to Accelerate the Return of HEU to Russia:
DOE has developed proposals for accelerating the Russian fuel return
program that could increase the cost of the program by over $30
million. DOE would like to complete the program by 2009, 4 years sooner
than its original time frame of 2013. According to DOE officials, one
possibility is to purchase casks that could be used to transport spent
HEU fuel by air rather than by train and would also be able to hold
more fuel, requiring fewer shipments. While the shipments of fresh HEU
fuel to date have all been by air, currently DOE and Russia do not have
access to casks that are qualified according to IAEA standards for
shipment of spent fuel by air. Without the high-capacity casks, DOE
must transport spent fuel by train. DOE estimates that the high-
capacity casks would require a one-time expenditure of $5.5 million.
DOE officials also said they are considering a "mobile melt-and-dilute"
system for transforming spent HEU fuel into blocks of LEU. The
equipment for this system could be transported to reactors that possess
spent HEU fuel and be used to blend down the HEU on site, without
returning the fuel to Russia. DOE would use the system as a stopgap
measure in response to potential delays in returning spent HEU fuel to
Russia, alleviating security concerns at foreign research reactors with
Russian-origin spent HEU. DOE officials said they anticipate that the
LEU blocks could then be returned to Russia at a later date.
Development of the system has begun at DOE's Savannah River Site, but
DOE has not yet decided whether to seek funding for this proposal.
DOE had hoped to facilitate the return of spent HEU fuel to Russia by
using casks that are currently used to store Russian-origin spent HEU
fuel in Germany. DOE officials said that, with Germany's cooperation,
the Russian fuel return program would first provide assistance for
returning spent HEU fuel from Germany to Russia and then reuse the
casks for shipments of spent HEU from other countries. However, the
German government has not agreed to participate in the Russian fuel
return program. In a December 2000 letter to IAEA, Germany cited a
number of issues that would require clarification before it would agree
to participate in the program, including how spent HEU fuel returned to
Russia would be safeguarded and disposed of. Officials at the site in
Germany where the HEU is stored said they would be willing to
participate in the Russian fuel return program and that returning the
HEU would reduce the need for security at the facility. However, German
government officials told us that Germany plans to dispose of its
Russian-origin spent HEU fuel domestically and keep the casks for long-
term storage of the fuel. One official said that concerns over Russia's
ability to secure the HEU played a role in Germany's decision to not
participate in the Russian fuel return program.
Conclusions:
DOE's efforts to recover U.S.-origin HEU for safe storage and disposal
in the United States have resulted in the return of enough HEU to build
more then 20 nuclear weapons. However, despite DOE's intention of
accelerating the fuel acceptance program, there are still 11 countries
that have not made plans to return all of their U.S.-origin HEU to the
United States. Lack of funding for conversion to LEU is one of the
reasons foreign research reactors continue to use HEU. Foreign research
reactors that do not plan to convert to LEU generally also do not have
plans to return HEU fuel to the United States. In our July 2004 report
on DOE's RERTR program, we recommended that DOE evaluate the costs and
benefits of providing incentives to foreign research reactors that use
U.S.-origin HEU to convert to LEU. If DOE decides to provide such
incentives, operators of some foreign reactors may decide to return
their HEU fuel to the United States as well as convert to LEU. We
encourage DOE to consider the increased likelihood of recovering
additional amounts of HEU as one of the benefits of providing
additional incentives to foreign research reactors to convert to LEU.
Similarly, lowering the fees for accepting HEU could encourage
additional research reactors in high-income countries to return the
nuclear material to the United States. These actions could support
DOE's efforts to accelerate the fuel acceptance program.
When DOE implemented the fuel acceptance program in 1996, it reserved
the right to adjust the fees to meet changing circumstances. Currently,
one of the biggest potential changes in the program is DOE's proposed
extension of the program to continue providing operators of research
reactors that converted to LEU fuel with a means of disposing of spent
fuel. While we support DOE efforts to assist foreign research reactors
that have converted to LEU in accordance with U.S. nonproliferation
objectives, the original intent of DOE's fuel acceptance program was
not to indefinitely accept spent LEU fuel at below the full cost of
disposal. DOE has not revised the fees that research reactors in high-
income countries pay for returning their spent fuel to the United
States since 1996. Continuing the current fee structure through the end
of as much as a 10-year program extension would mean keeping the 1996
fees set at the same level for 23 years. While lowering the fees for
returning HEU may encourage additional countries to participate in the
fuel return program, re-evaluating the fees for accepting LEU fuel,
taking into account DOE's proposed extension of the program, may show
that DOE could raise the fees and recover a greater portion of the
total disposal costs for accepting LEU from high-income countries. DOE
may be able to raise the fees while still encouraging operators of
foreign research reactors to convert to LEU fuel and without unduly
penalizing foreign reactors that have already converted.
DOE faces a complex set of issues for each shipment of HEU to Russia,
such as environmental requirements in Russia and negotiations with the
countries that are returning their HEU to provide them with incentives
to participate in the program. While DOE would like to accelerate the
return of HEU to Russia, these issues have the potential to cause
delays. For DOE to complete the program as quickly and as efficiently
as possible, the cooperation of Russia and countries that have Russian-
origin HEU is essential. We support DOE's efforts to work with Russia
to resolve issues that stand in the way of returning HEU as quickly as
possible and to pursue options such as purchasing high-capacity casks
that support DOE's objective of accelerating the Russian fuel return
program.
Recommendations for Executive Action:
We recommend that the Secretary of Energy and the Administrator of the
National Nuclear Security Administration take the following two
actions:
* consider offering incentives to foreign research reactors to return
HEU to the United States, including lowering the fees that DOE charges
for accepting HEU fuel from high-income countries; and:
* evaluate raising the fees for accepting LEU fuel from research
reactors in high-income countries to recover as much of the cost for
disposing of the fuel in the United States as possible, if doing so
would not adversely affect the conversion of reactors to LEU and the
return of HEU or create unmanageable financial burdens for the
reactors.
Agency Comments and Our Evaluation:
We provided draft copies of this report to the Departments of Energy
and State for their review and comment. In its written comments
(presented as app. II), DOE concurred with our recommendations. State
did not provide written comments. Both DOE and State provided technical
comments, which we incorporated into the report as appropriate.
Scope and Methodology:
To review the progress of DOE's fuel acceptance program, we analyzed
program documentation including DOE's February 1996 Final Environmental
Impact Statement on a Proposed Nuclear Weapons Nonproliferation Policy
Concerning Foreign Research Reactor Spent Nuclear Fuel, the May 1996
Record of Decision establishing the program, and the DOE IG's February
2004 audit report on the program. In addition, we analyzed documents
outlining the structure of fees DOE imposes on research reactors in
high-income countries for returning HEU and LEU:
fuel to the United States and how the fees were derived. We analyzed
data from DOE on the amount of HEU and LEU fuel returned to the United
States, the plans of countries that still have U.S.-origin HEU for
participating in the program, and the amount of fees paid by research
reactors in high-income countries. We also interviewed key officials at
DOE; the State Department; the DOE facilities in South Carolina and
Idaho where HEU and LEU fuel from foreign research reactors is being
placed in interim storage; and DOE's Argonne National Laboratory, which
has expertise on the amount and type of U.S.-origin HEU and LEU at
foreign research reactors.
We visited five countries that have U.S.-origin HEU--Belgium, Germany,
the Netherlands, Portugal, and Romania. We selected a nonprobability
sample of countries based on a number of criteria. In particular, we
selected three countries that have returned HEU to the United States
under the fuel acceptance program (Germany, the Netherlands, and
Romania) and two countries that have not returned HEU to the United
States (Belgium and Portugal). In addition, we selected three high-
income countries (Belgium, Germany, and the Netherlands), one non-high-
income country (Romania), and one country that transitioned into a
high-income country (Portugal). During our site visits, we met with
research reactor operators and government officials responsible for
regulating the research reactors and the disposal of spent research
reactor fuel. We asked a standard set of questions concerning reasons
for participating or not participating in DOE's fuel acceptance
program, plans for participating in the future, options for disposing
of spent fuel other than returning it to the United States, and the
potential extension of the fuel acceptance program beyond 2009. In
addition to visiting five countries with U.S.-origin HEU, we
interviewed representatives of the Australian, Jamaican, and Swedish
research reactor operators and the group of research reactors that
petitioned DOE to extend the fuel acceptance program beyond 2009.
We assessed the reliability of data obtained from DOE on the amount of
HEU and LEU fuel returned to the United States and the amount of fees
paid by research reactors in high-income countries. In particular,
officials at the DOE facilities in South Carolina and Idaho where the
fuel is stored provided responses to a standard set of data reliability
questions covering issues such as data entry, access, and quality
control procedures. We asked follow-up questions whenever necessary. We
also performed a series of checks on the data to ensure that it was
complete and accurate. We found several errors in the data that we
brought to the attention of DOE officials, who then reviewed the data
and provided corrections. Based on our assessment, we determined that
the data provided by DOE was sufficiently reliable for our purposes. We
converted dollar amounts of DOE expenditures for the fuel acceptance
program and fees received from research reactors in high-income
countries into constant fiscal year 2004 dollars.
To review the progress of DOE's Russian fuel return program, we
analyzed program documentation on the amounts and locations of Russian-
origin HEU at foreign research reactors; reports on DOE fact-finding
missions to research reactors in seven countries included in the
Russian fuel return program; DOE's agreements with Russia and
Uzbekistan on the program; and letters between the IAEA and countries
with Russian-origin HEU on their potential participation in the
program. In addition, DOE provided documentation on shipments of fresh
HEU it has supported to date. We discussed the program with key DOE and
State Department officials. We also traveled to Russia to discuss the
program with Russian officials responsible for implementing the program
with DOE and reviewing the environmental assessment for returning spent
HEU fuel.
We visited four countries that have Russian-origin HEU--Germany,
Poland, Romania, and Ukraine. We selected a nonprobability sample of
countries based on a number of criteria. In particular, we selected one
country that had returned HEU to Russia under the Russian fuel return
program (Romania) and three that had not returned HEU. In addition, we
selected the two countries that are eligible to participate in both the
U.S. fuel acceptance program and the Russian fuel return program
(Germany and Romania). During our site visits, we met with research
reactor operators and government officials responsible for regulating
the research reactors and the disposal of spent research reactor fuel.
We asked a standard set of questions concerning reasons for
participating or not participating in the Russian fuel return program,
plans for participating in the future, and options for disposing of
spent fuel other than returning it to Russia.
As part of our review of both programs, we also analyzed NNSA's 2004
Global Research and Test Reactor Security Initiative Report and
attended an annual international conference organized by DOE's RERTR
program. For technical expertise, we relied on GAO's Chief
Technologist, who participated in meetings with officials at Argonne
National Laboratory.
We conducted our work from July 2003 to October 2004 in accordance with
generally accepted government auditing standards.
We are sending copies of this report to the Secretary of Energy; the
Administrator, National Nuclear Security Administration; the Secretary
of State; the Chairman, NRC; the Secretary of Homeland Security; the
Director, Office of Management and Budget; and interested congressional
committees. We will also make copies available to others upon request.
In addition, this report will be available at no charge on the GAO Web
site at http://www.gao.gov.
If you or your staff have any questions about this report, please call
me at (202) 512-3841. Key contributors to this report include Joseph
Cook, Jonathan McMurray, Mehrzad Nadji, Kirstin B.L. Nelson, Judy
Pagano, Peter Ruedel, F. James Shafer Jr., and Keith Rhodes, GAO's
Chief Technologist.
Sincerely yours,
Signed by:
Gene Aloise:
Acting Director, Natural Resources and Environment:
[End of section]
Appendix I: Details of HEU and LEU Fuel Returned to the United States:
Table 3: HEU and LEU Fuel Returned to the United States, by Country,
and Fees Paid by Research Reactor Operators in High-Income Countries:
Country: Argentina;
HEU (kilograms): 29.
Country: Australia;
HEU (kilograms): 34;
Fees (millions): $2.2.
Country: Austria;
HEU (kilograms): 3;
LEU (kilograms): 71;
Fees (millions): $1.3.
Country: Brazil;
HEU (kilograms): 5;
LEU (kilograms): 62.
Country: Canada;
HEU (kilograms): 11;
Fees (millions): $1.6.
Country: Chile;
HEU (kilograms): 8.
Country: Colombia;
HEU (kilograms): 3.
Country: Denmark;
HEU (kilograms): 6;
LEU (kilograms): 309;
Fees (millions): $5.7.
Country: Germany;
HEU (kilograms): 102;
LEU (kilograms): 301;
Fees (millions): $21.9.
Country: Greece;
HEU (kilograms): 5.
Country: Indonesia;
LEU (kilograms): 206.
Country: Italy;
HEU (kilograms): 23;
LEU (kilograms): 47;
Fees (millions): $5.3.
Country: Japan;
HEU (kilograms): 537;
LEU (kilograms): 298;
Fees (millions): $36.9.
Country: Netherlands;
HEU (kilograms): 21;
Fees (millions): $2.6.
Country: Philippines;
HEU (kilograms): 3;
LEU (kilograms): 20.
Country: Portugal;
LEU (kilograms): 29.
Country: Romania;
HEU (kilograms): 6.
Country: Slovenia;
HEU (kilograms): 5;
LEU (kilograms): 35.
Country: South Korea;
HEU (kilograms): 20;
LEU (kilograms): 33.
Country: Spain;
HEU (kilograms): 4;
LEU (kilograms): 12;
Fees (millions): $0.9.
Country: Sweden;
HEU (kilograms): 47;
LEU (kilograms): 296;
Fees (millions): $12.4.
Country: Switzerland;
HEU (kilograms): 34;
LEU (kilograms): 73;
Fees (millions): $3.4.
Country: Taiwan;
HEU (kilograms): 4;
LEU (kilograms): 23;
Fees (millions): $1.6.
Country: Thailand;
HEU (kilograms): 4.
Country: United Kingdom;
LEU (kilograms): 17;
Fees (millions): $1.5.
Country: Uruguay;
LEU (kilograms): 16.
Country: Venezuela;
LEU (kilograms): 39.
Country: Total;
HEU (kilograms): 914;
LEU (kilograms): 1,887;
Fees (millions): $97.3.
Source: DOE.
Notes: The amount of HEU returned, 914 kilograms, is based on the total
uranium in the fuel after being used in a research reactor. It is
equivalent to 1,159 kilograms of total uranium before being used in a
reactor.
Dollars are in constant fiscal year 2004 dollars.
[End of table]
[End of section]
Appendix II: Comments from the Department of Energy:
Department of Energy:
National Nuclear Security Administration:
Washington, DC 20585:
NOV 15 2004:
Mr. Gene Aloise:
Acting Director, Natural Resources and Environment:
Government Accountability Office:
Washington, D.C. 20548:
Dear Mr. Aloise:
The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) appreciates the
opportunity to have reviewed the Government Accountability Office (GAO)
draft report, GAO-05-57, "NUCLEAR NONPROLIFERATION: DOE Needs to
Consider Options to Accelerate the Return of Weapons-Usable Uranium
from Other Countries to the United States and Russia." We understand
that this draft report is the result of a request from the Senate's
Chairman, Subcommittee on Emerging Threats and Capabilities, Committee
on Armed Services.
We appreciate the work that GAO performed and their apparent support of
the programs' efforts. NNSA and the Office of Environmental Management
concur with the report's recommendations that we should consider
offering incentives to foreign research reactors to return HEU to the
United States, including the evaluation of the possibility of modifying
the existing policy regarding acceptance fees for material returned
from high-income economy countries. NNSA will work with the Office of
Environmental Management to determine how best to assess the fee policy
given current program priorities.
Should you have any questions related to this response, please contact
Richard Speidel, Director, Policy and Internal Controls Management. He
may be contacted at 202-586-5009.
Sincerely,
Signed by:
Michael C. Kane:
Associate Administrator for Management and Administration:
cc: Paul Longsworth, Deputy Administrator for Defense Nuclear
Nonproliferation:
Paul Golan, Acting Assistant Secretary for Environmental Management:
[End of section]
FOOTNOTES
[1] GAO, Nuclear Nonproliferation: DOE Needs to Take Action to Further
Reduce the Use of Weapons-Usable Uranium in Civilian Research Reactors,
GAO-04-807 (Washington, D.C.: July 30, 2004).
[2] In this report, we refer to the FRR SNF program as the fuel
acceptance program and the RRRFR program as the Russian fuel return
program.
[3] According to a DOE official, this estimate includes LEU fuel in
Serbia.
[4] The estimate of the number of nuclear weapons is based on the
amount of the isotope uranium-235 in the HEU fuel.
[5] Prior to DOE's establishment of the fuel acceptance program, GAO
issued a report in March 1994 recommending that DOE complete
environmental requirements and begin accepting spent fuel from foreign
research reactors. See GAO, Nuclear Nonproliferation: Concerns with
U.S. Delays in Accepting Foreign Research Reactors' Spent Fuel, GAO/
RCED-94-119 (Washington, D.C.: Mar. 25, 1994).
[6] DOE IG, Recovery of Highly Enriched Uranium Provided to Foreign
Countries, DOE/IG-0638 (Washington, D.C; Feb. 9, 2004).
[7] According to DOE officials, three other countries--China, Egypt,
and North Korea--have Russian-origin research reactor fuel but are not
likely candidates for the program--China because it is a nuclear
weapons state, Egypt because it possesses only LEU, and North Korea
because of its development of nuclear weapons.
[8] The downblending is part of DOE's Material Consolidation and
Conversion (MCC) project, which pays to downblend HEU currently stored
at sites in Russia into LEU. For more information on the MCC project,
part of DOE's program for improving the security over weapons-usable
nuclear material in Russia, see GAO, Nuclear Nonproliferation: Security
of Russia's Nuclear Material Improving; Further Enhancements Needed,
GAO-01-312 (Washington, D.C.: Feb. 28, 2001).
[9] Many research reactors are designed to operate on a small amount of
fuel meant to last the life of the reactor, and conversion would
require purchasing LEU fuel and disposing of HEU fuel that the reactor
operator already purchased and is still usable.
[10] The aim of the Nuclear Suppliers Group guidelines is to ensure
that nuclear trade for peaceful purposes does not contribute to the
proliferation of nuclear weapons. The guidelines stipulate that certain
items, including LEU, not be transferred to countries such as Israel
that have not agreed to full-scope IAEA safeguards. For more
information, see GAO, Nonproliferation: Strategy Needed to Strengthen
Multilateral Export Control Regimes, GAO-03-43 (Washington, D.C.: Oct.
25, 2002).
[11] The fees do not cover all of the costs of managing spent fuel from
foreign research reactors, including the long-term cost of maintaining
the fuel in storage at the facilities in South Carolina and Idaho and
transporting the fuel to the planned final repository at Yucca
Mountain.
[12] Dollars are in constant fiscal year 2004 dollars.
[13] The State Department also provided about $2 million to return
fresh HEU from Serbia. This amount included the cost of transportation
as well as funding for Dmitrovgrad to conduct research to overcome
technical difficulties with downblending the material to LEU. The
Nuclear Threat Initiative, a private foundation, contributed $5 million
to address safety and environmental problems at the facility in Serbia
where the HEU was stored in exchange for participating in the Russian
fuel return program. DOE did not provide information on its
expenditures in support of the shipment of fresh HEU fuel from
Uzbekistan.
[14] The five shipments to date have all consisted of fresh HEU fuel.
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