The USA is releasing up to 200 tonnes of high-enriched uranium (HEU) - almost half of the total - from its weapons stockpiles for other uses "in the next decades". This is 40% of the amount from Russian weapons stockpiles liberated under the 1994 agreement to supply US civil power programs, and the largest US reduction so far. The HEU will be distributed: 160t to naval fuel, to give some 50 years' reserves there, 20t reserved for space or research reactors requiring HEU pending development of high-density cores using low-enriched uranium, and 20t to be downblended for use in civil nuclear power reactors or research reactors. For civil use the 20t HEU would make about 500-600 tonnes of fuel, displacing up to 4500 tonnes of mine production.
