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U.S.-Russian HEU Deal Remains on Track Despite Breakup of Russian Atomic Energy Ministry By Mike Nartker WASHINGTON — Russia’s elimination of its Atomic Energy Ministry as part of a massive government reorganization will not affect an agreement with the United States to convert highly enriched uranium from Russian warheads to civilian use, sources said this week (see GSN, Jan. 16). Earlier this month, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced he would reassign the ministry’s activities to other cabinet-level departments during a reshuffling that saw the number of Russian ministries cut almost by half (see GSN, March 10). Under the new governmental structure, expected to be finalized within a few months, nuclear activities will be handled by the Federal Atomic Energy Agency, which will be part of a new Industry and Energy Ministry. “In our rights we may not be the successor of Minatom [the Atomic Energy Ministry], but in our functions that is what we are,” agency Director Alexander Rumyantsev, who formerly headed the Atomic Energy Ministry, said Monday during a press conference in Moscow. According to Matthew Bouldin of the Russian-American Nuclear Security Advisory Council, three approaches are being considered for the final delineation of control over various Russian nuclear activities. In one approach, the new atomic energy agency could directly transfer defense-related nuclear activities to the Defense Ministry. Another approach being considered is for the Industry and Energy Ministry and the Defense Ministry to have “dual jurisdiction” over the new agency — an approach similar to the U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration, Bouldin told Global Security Newswire today. He also said that a “bureaucratic influence” approach might also be implemented, under which the Defense Ministry would have “more influence” over the atomic energy agency. It remains “up in the air” as to which approach will be used, said Bouldin, who is set to release today a paper on the nonproliferation aspects of the new Russian government reorganization. He added, though, that he expected some combination of the three to be implemented. While some experts have raised concerns that the reorganization could complicate U.S.-Russian nonproliferation efforts, both U.S. and Russian sources said that one such effort — the “Megatons to Megawatts” project — will be unaffected. The Megatons to Megawatts program took effect in 1994, aiming to remove 500 metric tons of highly enriched uranium from Russian nuclear weapons for conversion to civilian nuclear power plant fuel by 2013. As the program reached its halfway point this year, it has eliminated the equivalent of 8,000 nuclear warheads and has provided enough nuclear fuel to power a city the size of Boston for about 300 years, according to the U.S. Enrichment Corp. (USEC), the U.S. commercial agent for the program. Rumyantsev said Monday that the Megatons to Megawatts contract is being fulfilled “like clockwork.” Similarly, USEC does not see the program being hindered by the Russian government restructuring, company spokesman Charles Yulish told GSN today. He said he was “quite confident” the program would continue unabated, noting that the Russian governmental reorganization would leave the same people and agencies in charge of the effort there. In addition, Russia is proud of the program’s success to date and receives about $500 million per year from the effort, Yulish said. One unresolved question, however, is how the proceeds from the Megatons to Megawatts program will be used, according to Bill Hoehn, director of the RANSAC Washington office. Previously, a “substantial amount” of the funding received through the effort was transferred back to the Atomic Energy Ministry for use in consolidating the Russian nuclear weapons complex and to redirect some of its workforce, Hoehn told GSN today.
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