The United States and the Russian Federation have had active efforts to convert research reactors from HEU fuel to LEU fuel for more than 30 years. The history of these conversion efforts is outlined in the following section, followed by a brief discussion of the current state of research reac­tor conversion efforts in both countries.

History of Research Reactor Conversion Efforts

The first U. S.- and Soviet-supplied research reactors, which were con­structed beginning in the 1950s, were designed to operate on LEU fuel. During the 1960s and 1970s, power upgrades[16] in U. S.-supplied reactors required increased uranium-235 element loadings to reduce fuel consump­tion and contain fuel fabrication costs. HEU fuel enriched to 93 percent uranium-235 became standard in these reactors. During the same time period, power upgrades in Soviet-supplied research reactors also required increased uranium-235 element loadings; HEU fuel enriched to 80 to 90 percent uranium-235 became standard in these reactors (Arkhangelsky, 2011).

However, in the 1970s, concerns in both the United States and Soviet Union about potential links between the civilian trade in HEU and nuclear proliferation began to increase following a nuclear weapons test in India, unsafeguarded nuclear activities in other countries, and growing terror­ist activities around the world. In 1978, the U. S. Department of Energy (DOE) established the Reduced Enrichment for Research and Test Reac­tors (RERTR) program to develop technologies to minimize and eventually

eliminate the civilian use of highly enriched uranium.[17] At present, all of DOE’s HEU elimination efforts for civilian research and test reactors[18] are currently being carried out under the Global Threat Reduction Initiative (GTRI), into which RERTR was absorbed in May 2004.[19]

Also around 1978, the U. S.S. R. Ministry of Atomic Energy initiated a similar program, the Russian Program of Reducing of Enrichment in Research Reactors (RPRERR), to reduce the enrichment of fuel for re­search reactors in its client states from 80-90 percent enriched uranium to 36 percent enriched uranium. At this time, the U. S.S. R. began work on high-density LEU research reactor fuels for use in foreign research reactors operating with Soviet fuel (Arkhangelsky, 2011). However, there was no contact or collaboration between these U. S. and Soviet conversion pro­grams until 1993.

The first formal contact to discuss collaboration on research reactor conversions took place in Moscow in March 1993. At that meeting it was decided to initiate a contract between Argonne National Laboratory (ANL) and the Dollezhal Scientific Research and Design Institute of Energy Tech­nologies (NIKIET) on conversion studies and fuel development. Following these interactions, the Russian program began to develop fuel with a less than 20 percent enrichment based on uranium dioxide fuel for the conver­sion of foreign research reactors.[20]

Significant progress has been made to convert HEU-fueled research and test reactors around the world. As of June 2011, a total of 74 research reactors have been converted from HEU fuel to LEU fuel or shut down since 1978. Of these, 35 have been converted or shut down since 2004, including seven U. S. domestic conversions; 18 foreign conversions; and 10 domestic and foreign shutdowns prior to conversion (Chamberlin, 2010; Roglans, 2011b).

At present, the United States and Russia are cooperating on the conver­sion of U. S.- and Russian-designed reactors in other countries. The February 2005 Joint Statement by President George W. Bush and President Vladimir V. Putin on nuclear security cooperation affirmed this cooperation:

The United States and Russia will continue to work jointly to develop low-enriched uranium fuel for use in any U. S.- and Russian-design research reactors in third countries now using high-enriched uranium fuel, and to return fresh and spent high-enriched uranium from U. S.- and Russian — design research reactors in third countries. (Bush-Putin, 2005)

This cooperation was reaffirmed and expanded by U. S. President Barack Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev in a July 2009 joint state­ment (Obama-Medvedev, 2009). To implement the Obama-Medvedev Joint Statement, Rosatom Director General Sergey Kiriyenko and DOE Deputy Secretary Daniel Poneman signed an agreement during their December 6-7, 2010, meeting to begin studies to determine the technical feasibility and economic impact of converting six HEU-fueled research reactors in Russia (Arkhangelsky, 2011; D’Agostino, 2011).