Cameco (CCO-T), France’s Compagnie Gnrale Des Matires Nuclaires (Cogema), an 85% state-owned private nuclear company, and Nukem, a U.S. subsidiary of Germany’s Nukem Nuklear, have reworked a 1999 deal allowing them to buy from Russia-based Techsnabexport (Tenex) natural uranium derived from highly enriched uranium (HEU) contained in Russian nuclear weapons.
Under an amendment to the original deal, the three western companies have committed to exercise their options to buy enough natural uranium (U3O8) to at least cover their respective U.S. sales quota from 2002 through 2013 — about 53 million lbs. U3O8 for both Cameco and Cogema and 18 million lbs. for Nukem.
Tenex has retained to sell, through its agent Globe Nuclear Services and Supply (GNSS), about 82 million lbs. over the period. Any natural uranium component not sold is returned to Russia to be held in a specially designated and monitored inventory and used either as blend stock for future HEU or for future sales.
Sales of natural uranium to utility end users in the U.S. are subject to annual quotas climbing to 20 million lbs. per year between 2009 and 2013 from 10 million lbs. in 2002.
The March 1999 agreement between Tenex and the companies is officially called the UF6 feed component implementing contract. Another 1994 agreement between Tenex and the United States Enrichment Corp. covers the enrichment services component of the fuel. Both deals stem from a 1993 agreement between the United States and Russia to dismantle Russian nuclear weapons and make the resulting uranium available for peaceful purposes.
Under the plan, weapons are dismantled in Russia and the HEU is diluted to low-enriched uranium (LEU), and delivered to the United States for use in western nuclear power plants. Since the signing of the 1993 agreement between the U.S. and Russia, some 5,000 Russian nuclear warheads have been dismantled.
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