Energy Department restructures efforts to recover foreign uranium

The Energy Department Wednesday announced the restructuring of an effort to recover spent U.S.-origin nuclear fuel from foreign research reactors around the world.

In February, Energy's inspector general released a report critical of the agency's "takeback" policy, which allows foreign research reactors that use U.S. uranium fuel to return the spent material to the United States for disposal. As of 1993, 51 countries possessed more than 17,500 kilograms of U.S. highly enriched uranium, of which about 5,200 kilograms was eligible to be returned to the United States, according to the report.

The inspector general's report warned that the United States was likely to only recover about half of the eligible material, in part because of the takeback policy's voluntary nature.

Wednesday, Energy announced that the effort would be shifted from the Environmental Management Office to its National Nuclear Security Administration, which has a "proven track record in nonproliferation."

"This consolidation will refocus and strengthen our international campaign to deny terrorists opportunities to seize nuclear materials and will also increase our effectiveness in achieving the reduction and eventual elimination of the use of weapons-usable materials in civil commerce worldwide," Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham said in a press statement.

Abraham said that he ordered NNSA to develop a "threat-based prioritization" for the recovery of those materials eligible to be returned to the United States. In addition, the office has been ordered to work with the State Department to improve the diplomatic strategy to encourage full participation in the effort. According to the inspector general's report, 12 of the 33 countries with U.S. materials have chosen not to participate in the takeback effort, including countries of proliferation concern to the United States such as Iran and Pakistan.

Abraham also said in his statement that he instructed his department to begin work on extending the deadline for the takeback policy, which is set to effectively expire in 2006. Some experts have said that extending the policy could make other countries more likely to convert their research reactors to use proliferation-resistant fuels, while other experts argued an extension could actually discourage the conversion of research reactors to use low enriched uranium fuel.

Matthew Bunn of Harvard University's Project on Managing the Atom praised the transfer of the takeback program, calling the move a "welcome and overdue" step. He told Global Security Newswire that it had originally been a "mistake" to place the effort under the control of the Environmental Management Office, which has a domestic focus.

Bunn also said, though, that the Energy Department has yet to announce an effort to place all HEU recovery activities under the control of one agency. The February DOE inspector general's report warned that the Energy Department lacked an effort to recover the more than 12,000 kilograms of U.S.-origin highly enriched uranium not included in the takeback policy.

A "task force" is needed, Bunn said, to travel to the most high-risk sites throughout the world and recover the highly enriched uranium "as quickly as possible" to prevent its theft or diversion.

Last week, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., introduced legislation that would create such a task force under the control of the National Nuclear Security Administration. Feinstein's bill calls for the use of "tailored" and "flexible" incentives to secure host-country cooperation in the removal of nuclear materials and would allocate $40 million in fiscal 2005 for the task force's efforts.

"This legislation will give our government the direction, tools and resources necessary to remove nuclear materials from vulnerable sites around the world in an expeditious manner. We have little time to spare," Feinstein said.