Secret weapons-grade uranium shipments to Canada near end
IAN MACLEOD More from Ian MacLeod
Published on: June 4, 2014Last Updated: June 4, 2014 6:00 PM EDT
One of the last secret shipments of controversial U.S. weapons-grade uranium to Canada is in the works, according to new documents filed in Washington.
An application submitted to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission shows federal nuclear officials there want a licence to export seven kilograms of highly enriched uranium (HEU) to the Chalk River Laboratories, northwest of Ottawa.
The HEU will be used as “target’ material and irradiated in the National Research Universal research reactor to produce six varieties of radioactive isotopes for life-saving nuclear medicine.
The Canadian government has vowed to end NRU isotope production by Oct. 31, 2016, when the current five-year operating licence for laboratories and the NRU expire. (NRU is expected to continue with its other scientific research missions, including neutron beam research.)
In recent years, the U.S. has shipped seven kilograms of bomb-grade HEU — enriched to 93.35 per cent uranium-235 — to Chalk River approximately once every 12 months. The material is secretly transported to Eastern Ontario by road and under heavy guard from the Y-12 National Security Complex, a nuclear-weapons production facility in Oak Ridge, Tenn.
It appears seven kilograms of HEU amounts to about a year’s supply of NRU target material.
If the proposed export licence application is approved, as expected, the shipment would occur between August and next April, according the application filed with the USNRC. Based on the previous shipments, that suggests the NRU will require no more than one additional seven-kilogram shipment before isotope production is to cease. The latest proposed U.S. shipment, therefore, is likely the penultimate load to Canada.
“For nuclear non-proliferation reasons, use by Canada and other countries of HEU in medical isotope production and in research reactors must cease and reactors must either halt operation or be converted to low-enriched uranium that cannot be used in nuclear weapons,” said Tom Clements, director of Savannah River Site Watch, a nuclear watchdog group in Columbia, S.C.
“Canada and other countries must with all deliberate speed develop and deploy non-reactor options for production of essential medical isotopes.”
Pressure mounted on Canada in recent years over the use of HEU, rather than isotope production using safer, low-enriched uranium. Critics have accused the federal government of failing to honour the spirit of non-proliferation commitments. Others have raised alarms about nuclear theft and nuclear terrorism.
The Canadian government is now pouring millions of research dollars into three promising Canadian projects that use cyclotrons and linear accelerators in the production of technetium-99m (Tc99m), the most widely used medical isotope in the world.
“If Canada does not halt HEU use by 2016, we will oppose any further export from the U.S. of highly enriched uranium and consider a formal intervention with the (US) NRC,” said Clements.
In the meantime, Canada ranks near the very top in the world at safeguarding its weapons-grade nuclear material stockpile, says a respected U.S. group tracking data on weapons of mass destruction.
Canada placed second, behind only Australia, in the a nuclear materials security index of 25 countries possessing at least one kilogram of weapons-usable nuclear materials, according to January report by the Washington-based Nuclear Threat Initiative (NTI). That’s up from a 10th place tie with the United Kingdom and Germany in NTI’s inaugural 2012 index.
The significant jump earned Canada special NTI recognition this year for the most improved national performance, along with Belgium and Japan.
Canada Nuclear Weapons
IAN MACLEOD More from Ian MacLeod
Published on: June 4, 2014Last Updated: June 4, 2014 6:00 PM EDT
One of the last secret shipments of controversial U.S. weapons-grade uranium to Canada is in the works, according to new documents filed in Washington.
An application submitted to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission shows federal nuclear officials there want a licence to export seven kilograms of highly enriched uranium (HEU) to the Chalk River Laboratories, northwest of Ottawa.
The HEU will be used as “target’ material and irradiated in the National Research Universal research reactor to produce six varieties of radioactive isotopes for life-saving nuclear medicine.
The Canadian government has vowed to end NRU isotope production by Oct. 31, 2016, when the current five-year operating licence for laboratories and the NRU expire. (NRU is expected to continue with its other scientific research missions, including neutron beam research.)
In recent years, the U.S. has shipped seven kilograms of bomb-grade HEU — enriched to 93.35 per cent uranium-235 — to Chalk River approximately once every 12 months. The material is secretly transported to Eastern Ontario by road and under heavy guard from the Y-12 National Security Complex, a nuclear-weapons production facility in Oak Ridge, Tenn.
It appears seven kilograms of HEU amounts to about a year’s supply of NRU target material.
If the proposed export licence application is approved, as expected, the shipment would occur between August and next April, according the application filed with the USNRC. Based on the previous shipments, that suggests the NRU will require no more than one additional seven-kilogram shipment before isotope production is to cease. The latest proposed U.S. shipment, therefore, is likely the penultimate load to Canada.
“For nuclear non-proliferation reasons, use by Canada and other countries of HEU in medical isotope production and in research reactors must cease and reactors must either halt operation or be converted to low-enriched uranium that cannot be used in nuclear weapons,” said Tom Clements, director of Savannah River Site Watch, a nuclear watchdog group in Columbia, S.C.
“Canada and other countries must with all deliberate speed develop and deploy non-reactor options for production of essential medical isotopes.”
Pressure mounted on Canada in recent years over the use of HEU, rather than isotope production using safer, low-enriched uranium. Critics have accused the federal government of failing to honour the spirit of non-proliferation commitments. Others have raised alarms about nuclear theft and nuclear terrorism.
The Canadian government is now pouring millions of research dollars into three promising Canadian projects that use cyclotrons and linear accelerators in the production of technetium-99m (Tc99m), the most widely used medical isotope in the world.
“If Canada does not halt HEU use by 2016, we will oppose any further export from the U.S. of highly enriched uranium and consider a formal intervention with the (US) NRC,” said Clements.
In the meantime, Canada ranks near the very top in the world at safeguarding its weapons-grade nuclear material stockpile, says a respected U.S. group tracking data on weapons of mass destruction.
Canada placed second, behind only Australia, in the a nuclear materials security index of 25 countries possessing at least one kilogram of weapons-usable nuclear materials, according to January report by the Washington-based Nuclear Threat Initiative (NTI). That’s up from a 10th place tie with the United Kingdom and Germany in NTI’s inaugural 2012 index.
The significant jump earned Canada special NTI recognition this year for the most improved national performance, along with Belgium and Japan.
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