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U.S. Needs to Improve Recovery of Overseas Uranium, Auditors Say By Mike Nartker WASHINGTON — The U.S. Energy Department needs to improve and expand its efforts to recover highly enriched uranium that it supplied to foreign nuclear research reactors, according to a report released this month by the department’s inspector general (see GSN, Dec. 16, 2003). As of 1993, 51 countries possessed a total of about 17,500 kilograms of U.S.-supplied HEU materials. Of that, about 5,200 kilograms is eligible to be returned to the United States through the Energy Department’s “takeback” policy. The policy, which began in the wake of the 1950s-era “Atoms for Peace” program, allows foreign research reactors that use U.S.-origin uranium fuel to return the spent fuel to the United States for storage and disposal. Energy Department officials are currently considering whether to extend the takeback policy, which is set to end in 2006. A departmental audit conducted last year found that only about half of the eligible material was likely to be returned to the United States, the report says. The audit also found that the Energy Department lacked a program to recover the remaining 12,300 kilograms, it says. “If the department is unable to recover a more significant percentage of HEU produced in the U.S. and dispersed to other countries, there may be a greater risk that some of the materials will be diverted by groups or governments hostile to the U.S. — for use in nuclear weapons,” the report says. The Energy Department is only likely to recover about half of the 5,200 kilograms of material covered by the takeback policy, in large part, because participation in the program is voluntary and many countries have chosen not to take part, the report says. Out of 33 countries with U.S.-supplied material, 12 have chosen not participate in the takeback policy, including countries of proliferation concern to the United States, such as Iran and Pakistan, the report says. The report also criticizes the Energy Department for failing to have a program in place to recover the remaining 12,300 kilograms of U.S.-origin HEU not covered by the takeback policy. It notes that the department, in a program administered by the National Nuclear Security Administration, is funding efforts to help Russia recover HEU it supplied to other countries. “In fact, in one country, the department is paying to recover Russian-produced, but not U.S.-produced, HEU,” the report says. According to the report, the Energy Department has formed a working group to assess the takeback policy, with a priority to be placed on accepting eligible material from reactors and countries that may pose increased proliferation risks. In addition, Energy Department staff have been directed to identify ways to accelerate the return of U.S.-origin spent fuel and to accept additional materials under the takeback policy or another program, the report says, adding that NNSA officials agreed the takeback policy would be more effective if it were expanded. The report also noted management concerns of the takeback policy, as well as Energy Department efforts to alleviate those concerns. Currently, the policy is managed by the department’s Office of Environmental Management, which has previously questioned overseeing programs that do not directly relate to its core functions of site cleanup and closure, the report says. It adds, though, that the Energy Department has agreed the takeback policy “may be a better fit” within another departmental office, and appropriations have been made to transfer the policy to the Office of Civilian Waste Management. Jon Wolfsthal of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace’s Nonproliferation Project said today, though, that responsibility for the takeback policy should be given fully to the NNSA because of the policy’s nonproliferation aspect.
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