How America uses uranium from Russian Cold War nuclear warheads to heat millions of homes

• In the last two decades 10 per cent of US electricity was fueled by the decommissioned Russian warheads
• The Megatons-to-Megawatts programme was agreed in 1993 and has seen 500 tonnes of old warheads converted into electricity
• Around one in 10 light bulbs have been powered through the scheme in the last 20 years
• Last shipment reached the Port of Baltimore from St Petersburg this month
• US Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz said programme has been instrumental in the elimination of nuclear weapons left over from the Cold War 
  

By LIZZIE PARRY

PUBLISHED: 14:40 GMT, 28 December 2013 | UPDATED: 15:58 GMT, 28 December 2013

It is a post-Cold War collaboration between the US and Russia, which has provided heat to millions of homes across America.

But the little-known Megatons-to-Megawatts programme, which has seen 20,000 decommissioned Russian nuclear warheads transformed into nuclear energy in the US, has drawn to a close this month.

The final shipment of low enriched uranium (LEU) was unloaded at the Port of Baltimore in Maryland on December 10 after a four-week journey by sea from St Petersburg.

It was the last of the LEU converted from more than 500 tonnes of highly enriched uranium from the Russian warheads, deactivated under the 1991 START treaty at the end of the Cold War.

The recycling and transfer of the uranium to the US was formalised in a 1993 agreement and has seen hundreds of shipments arrive in the US destined for the country's nuclear reactors.

The programme has supplied nearly 10 per cent of all American electricity and around one in 10 light bulbs powered via the scheme in the last two decades.

The shipment marks the end of the unprecedented programme, which has seen the US pay its former enemy $8billion (£5bn) in the last 20 years.

The four cylinders of LEU was taken from Baltimore to the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant in Kentucky, where it will be turned into uranium oxide pellets destined for nuclear power plants across the country.

FULL STORY: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2530318/How-America-uses-ur...