This is basically the least worst affair that can happen with Russian nuclear bombs ! For the past twenty year , the Russians have been turning 500 tons of uranium from decommissioned atomic weapons into nuclear fuel for the United States . It ’s call theMegatons to Megawattsprogram . The last dispatch from that 1993 great deal arrived at a U.S. memory board adroitness Tuesday , according toreporter Geoff Brumfiel of NPR ’s Morning Edition .
The deal was broker by Philip Sewell , then of the U.S. Department of Energy . When Sewell visited Russian military adeptness after the dissolution of the Soviet Union , he found upset window and unlocked gate — fundamentally U for the pickings . To persuade the Russians to get rid of their excess U , he declare oneself something they could n’t decline : money .
The U.S. would grease one’s palms the hooey Russians were n’t using anyways . The Russians have made $ 17 billion , and U.S. tycoon plant generate a good deal on uranium . In fact , nearly ten percentof electricity in the United States over the past fifteen years has come from demolished nuclear bombs , and most of it from Russia .
All in all , a pretty well-chosen ending for 20,000 bombs ’ worth of atomic fabric . Instead of demolish our urban center , Russian uranium has been quietly powering our lightbulbs — or , as theNew York Timesjoked back in 2009 , “ the fuel from missiles that may have once been draw a bead on at your home may now be lighting it . ” Listen to thewhole write up at NPR .
atomic power plant photo good manners ofU.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission
EnergyNuclear weaponsRussian
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