14.11 First Chapter of US-Russian Megatons-to-Megawatts Deal Closes

ST.PETERSBURG, November 14 (RIA Novosti) - Russia started delivery Thursday of the last batch of low-enriched uranium to the United States under a long-standing program to convert Soviet-made nuclear weapons into fuel.

A state nuclear corporation Rosatom official told RIA Novosti that 160 metric tons of low-enriched uranium are being loaded in 10 containers onto a ship that will deliver the cargo to the US port of Baltimore.

The program, which is known as the Megatons-to-Megawatts agreement, was signed in February 1993 and expires this year.

Russia has earned $17 billion in revenue converted 500 metric tons of high-enriched uranium -- equivalent to 20,000 nuclear warheads -- from dismantled nuclear weapons into low-enriched uranium to be used for fuel in US commercial reactors.

Fuel derived from Russian nuclear weapons provided nearly half of the United States