(prHWY.com) November 19, 2011 - zhengzhou, China -- Swords (military weapons) to plowshares (tools that benefit mankind) is a concept in which military weapons/technologies are converted to peaceful civilian applications.
"They will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks." Isaiah 2:4
The destruction of some of the former USSR's nuclear weapons and the down-blending of HEU to LEU would be a good example.
When the USSR collapsed Russia inherited over a thousand tons of weapons-grade uranium and a massive nuclear refining and fabricating infrastructure - 40% of world total.
During the twenty year Megatons to Megawatts Program Russia will convert 500 tonnes of highly enriched uranium (HEU - uranium 235 enriched to 90 percent) from dismantled Russian nuclear weapons into low enriched uranium (LEU - less than 5 percent uranium 235) for nuclear fuel and sell it to the US. The terms of the Megatons to Megawatts Program also required that the HEU be converted to LEU in Russian nuclear facilities.
The United States established a government corporation - United States Enrichment Corporation (USEC) to purchase and transport the LEU to the US. Russia designated Tekhsnabeksport ("Tenex") a commercial subsidiary of its Ministry of Atomic Energy (MinAtom) to implement their side of the program.
The Megatons to Megawatts program had, as of August 2011, down-blended 425 tonnes of HEU - equivalent to 17,000 nuclear warheads. The twenty year program to down-blend 500 tonnes of weapons grade Russian HEU into fuel for nuclear reactors will eliminate the equivalent of 20,000 warheads by the time it comes to an end in 2013.
Truly swords into plowshares, nuclear warheads that were once on Russian ICBMs aimed at American cities are now providing 50% of the electricity produced by America's nuclear power plants.
Russian stockpiles of weapons grade material being down-blended for civil nuclear reactors has filled a very large part of global uranium demand. This has exerted significant downward pressure on uranium prices. Long term low uranium prices, just starting to climb before the Japanese nuclear accident, has seriously affected mining activity.
The world's uranium miners currently produce 40 million pounds less than the world's nuclear power plants need - this figure doesn't include the power plants under construction or the hundreds in planning stages. According to the World Nuclear Association China is currently building 26 reactors with plans for dozens more, the UK has plans to build eight more, Russia has 10 reactors under construction, 14 planned, and another 30 proposed. India has 6 reactors under construction, 17 planned, and another 40 proposed.
A host of other countries plan to build nuclear capacity, or expand upon their existing nuclear power capacities - emerging markets such as Brazil, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Turkey, and Vietnam as well as developed nuclear markets such as South Korea, Canada and France. This author believes Germany's decision to close all of its reactors will be reversed and the Japanese closing all of their reactors is unlikely.
The Megatons to Megawatts Program, according to the USEC, was supplying roughly 50% of the US's LEU demand. Mining accounted for 8% with the rest coming from other sources (rapidly depleting utility and government stockpiles).
A ten year replacement contract, signed in March 2011, will see Tenex continue to supply low-enriched uranium (LEU) from Russian commercial enrichment activities to the USEC after the Megatons to Megawatts program finishes.
Under the terms of the contract, the supply of LEU to the USEC will begin in 2013 and ramp up until it reaches a level, in 2015, that is approximately one-half the level currently supplied by TENEX to the USEC under the Megatons to Megawatts program. There is an option clause to increase the quantities up to the same level of supply as the Megatons to Megawatts program.
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