Minimizing Civil Highly-Enriched Uranium Stocks by 2015: A Forward-Looking Assessment of U.S.-Russian Cooperation

At a June 2015 summit, the U.S. and Russian presidents announce that by the end of the year, almost all highly enriched uranium (HEU) will have been removed from civil sites, the culmination of an effort launched by the two countries almost a decade earlier. Proliferation risks remain, but one key danger has been effectively eliminated. Is this scenario a pipe dream? If the task is feasible, does it merit the effort required to realize it? And what steps need to be taken now to make this goal a reality? This paper argues that the goal of having HEU removed from civil sites, is both plausible and desirable and lays out specific actions the United States and Russia should take to realize it. Minimizing civil HEU by 2015 is desirable. As concern about nuclear proliferation to both states and terrorists has grown in recent years, policymakers and non-governmental analysts have increasingly seized on the importance of preventing access to nuclear-explosive material.