Today, NNSA anounced conversion from HEU to LEU fuel of two U.S. research reactors--the University of Wisconsin Research Reactor and the INL's Neutron Radiography Reactor. Thus, the U.S. fulfilled its commitment to convert 6 reactors as part of the the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America. Moreover, these conversions brought to 17 the total number of U.S. reactors converted since 1984. The two remaining HEU-powered reactors in the U.S. are located at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MITR) and the University of Missouri (MURR).

Earlier this year, NNSA also made public the conversion of the General Atomics' TRIGA reactor in California, Bulgaria's IRT-2000 in Sofia, and the Budapest Research Reactor (BRR) in Hungary. In 2009, GTRI has also confirmed removal of 18kg from the BRR, as well as Kazakhstan's 73.7kg spent HEU fuel, and Romania's 53.7kg spent HEU fuel. These materials were Russian-origin. (Earlier this month, The Washington Post profiled Operation Sapphire that removed Russian-origin HEU from Kazakstan in 1994.)

GTRI has also noted progress in removing U.S.-origin HEU fuel. In May, GTRI announced clean-out of US-origin spent HEU fuel from Australia (14.5kg). Thus, all eligible U.S.-origin materials were declared to have been removed from Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Denmark, Germany, Greece, Italy, Philippines, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, and Thailand. (This annex of DOE's 1996 report Striking the Balance provides a useful snapshot of all countries that have imported U.S.-origin HEU.)

In sum, having converted or shut down 67 research reactors out of a total of 129  that are targeted under the program, GTRI is a little over a halfway there.

When Russia shut down its last plutonium production reactor, ADE-2 in Zheleznogorsk, in May 2009, it did so with the understanding that the reactor would be restarted in the fall if the replacement heat plant is not ready by then. Now that the heating season is about to start, the replacement plant is still not operational.  According to a Nuclear.ru report, Rosatom made a decision to restart the reactor on September 20, 2009. It will operate it during the entire 2009-2010 heating season. The report says that the reactor is certified to work until 2011, even though a U.S.-Russian agreement calls for complete shutdown of the reactor in 2010.

The Guardian reported today that Atomenergoprom was in collaboration talks with Centrica and Rolls-Royce. Atomenergoprom's executive director Kirill Komarov confirmed that there were contacts between the companies and said that, "We can do everything [from providing nuclear fuel to operating plants] if one compares us with other players, such as Areva, so we are not limiting our options."

Centrica is seeking to purchase 20 percent of UK's major nuclear power plant operator British Energy from its French-owned parent company EDF. EDF and Centrica have announced formation of a new nuclear build (NNB) joint venture that would entail construction of four nuclear power units in the UK. (As an aside, Centrica's US-based subsidiary Direct Energy Business will reportedly provide "green" electricity for the duration of September's G-20 summit in Pittsburgh.)

In July of this year, turbine manufacturer Rolls-Royce was selected to head up the development of UK's Nuclear Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre. The company also signed a memorandum of understanding with the French conglomerate Areva in December 2008. The two will seek to collaborate on the UK's "supply chain development, manufacturing and engineering services."

From July 14-16, DOE NNSA representatives reportedly met with their Russian colleagues from Rosatom, Atomenergoprom, RAS Institute of Problems of Safe Development of Nuclear Energy, and others, to discuss emergency response in nuclear and radiological incidents. The working group met under the aegis of the 2005 U.S.-Russian Bratislava Nuclear Security Initiative. Both sides reportedly pointed out that cooperation between the two countries in the areas of improving accounting, control, and physical protection of nuclear materials, training of emergency personnel, and sharing of best practices has been successful.

U.S. president Barack Obama and Russian president Dmitriy Medvedev met in Moscow on July 6-7 to discuss a range of pressing issues on the international and bilateral agenda. One of the deliverables of the Moscow summit was a Joint Statement on Nuclear Cooperation. The summit, however, yielded little visible progress on plutonium disposition. Further, on conversion of Russian research reactors, the sides again agreed to cooperate "on conducting feasibility studies to explore possibilities for conversion of such individual reactors in the United States and Russia." The two also presidents created a bilateral presidential commission, which will include a working group on nuclear energy and nuclear security. This WG will be headed up by Rosatom's Sergey Kiriyenko and Deputy Energy Secretary Daniel Poneman.

On June 29, 2009, NNSA, Rosatom, and Romanian organization, working together with IAEA removed 23.7 kg of spent HEU fuel from the VVR-S research reactor on Magurele, Romania. It was the first time spent fuel was transported by air. The aircraft, An-124, transported Russian-made TUK-19 containers with spent fuel to the Koltsovo airport (the plane landed on June 30, 2009), from where they were transferred to the Mayak facility.

After this shipment, which was preceded by shipments of fresh fuel, in September 2003 and in June 2009, all HEU has been removed from Romania.

On June 27, 2009 Romania shipped 30 kg of "fresh HEU from a reactor in Pitesti" to a facility in Dimitrovgrad in Russia (this would be NIIAR). The fuel was transported by air.

It is not immediately clear why Russian HEU fuel remained in Pitesti so long (according to Rosatom is was Russian-origin fuel). Earlier, on 21 September 2003, Russia removed 14 kg of HEU (the shipment reportedly contained 50 IRT-2M assemblies and 150 S-36V assemblies with 14166.58 g of U of which 9703.04 g was U-235) from Pitesti to the fuel fabrication plant in Novosibirsk. That was the fuel that was originally supplied for the VVR-S reactor in Magurele. It was moved to Pitesti after the reactor in Magurele was shut down in 1997. If the current shipment also contained fuel of the VVR-S reactor, it is not clear why it was not removed in 2003.

UPDATE 07/17/09: According to NNSA representatives, the material removed on June 27, 2009 was in the form of uranium dioxide pellets that were intended to be used in fuel for the TRIGA reactor. The pellets contained uranium with enrichment of slightly higher than 20%. It was not removed in 2003 because at the time Romania expected to downblend the uranium. These plans did not materialize, however, and the material was removed.

Techsnabexport signed another contract with a U.S. utility that would provide direct supply of enriched uranium to the United States in 2014-2020 - this time with Exelon. This is a second contract like this, after the first one with Fuelco.

Russia's last plutonium production reactor, ADE-2 at Zheleznogorsk, was shut down at midnight on May 31, 2009 (at 24:00 MSK according to one report, which was 04:00, June 1st in Zheleznogorsk). The shutdown is not permanent yet - officially, the reactor has been stopped for maintenance and could be restarted in September if the replacement power station is not ready by that time. According to the U.S.-Russian agreement, the reactor should be shut down completely no later than 2010.

Tenex director Alexei Grigoryev was quoted as saying that Russia is in negotiations about a possibility of building a centrifuge uranium enrichment facility in the United States. According to Grigoryev, this project would most likely be a joint venture with some other company.