Electricity for Americans From Russia’s Old Nuclear Weapons

informally known as Megatons to Megawatts

In the last two decades, nuclear disarmament has become an integral part of the electricity industry, little known to most Americans.

Salvaged bomb material now generates about 10 percent of electricity in the United States — by comparison, hydropower generates about 6 percent and solar, biomass, wind and geothermal together account for 3 percent.

Today, former bomb material from Russia accounts for 45 percent of the fuel in American nuclear reactors, while another 5 percent comes from American bombs, according to the Nuclear Energy Institute.

Enriching raw uranium is more expensive than converting highly enriched uranium to fuel grade.  To make fuel for electricity-generating reactors, uranium is enriched to less than 5 percent of the isotope U-235. To make weapons, it is enriched to about 90 percent U-235.

Electricity for Americans From Russia’s Old Nuclear Weapons - NYTimes.com