The US Department of Energy (DoE) has begun converting two more research reactors from using highly-enriched uranium (HEU) to low-enriched uranium fuel (LEU) as part of the Administration’s efforts to reduce the amount of weapons-grade nuclear material worldwide.
Reactors at the University of Florida and Texas A&M University are the latest to be converted under the Global Threat Reduction Initiative’s Reduced Enrichment for Research and Test Reactors programme. The DoE has targeted 25 American research reactors for conversion, of which 11 have already been completed.
The planned completion date for the conversions of the University of Florida and Texas A&M University reactors is in late 2006 and the DoE’s goal is to complete all remaining conversions by 2014.
