2007 Press Releases
U.S. delegation, led by U.S. Senator Richard Lugar and former Senator Sam Nunn, visited the Urals region
August 31, 2007
On August 30-31, U.S. Senator Richard Lugar and former Senator Sam Nunn led a delegation to the Urals region to celebrate the 15th anniversary of the Nunn-Lugar Cooperative Agreement with Russia. The Cooperative Agreement provided American funding to assist Russia in its protection of nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons, and of destruction of excess weaponry. In Shchuchy’e, Kurgan oblast, the senators toured a chemical weapons destruction facility that is now under construction with funding from the United States, as well as from the United Kingdom, Canada, and several other nations. They held a brief ceremony for a soon-to-be-completed bridge that will permit weapons to come to the facility for dismantlement. Former Senator Nunn heads an American NGO called Nuclear Transitions Initiative (NTI), which funded construction of the bridge.
The Senators also visited the Mayak nuclear facility in Ozersk. The Agreement provides for security and control systems to secure dangerous materials in Russian facilities. As a result, almost 7,000 nuclear warheads have been dismantled, and three other countries have become nuclear free: Belarus, Ukraine, and Kazakhstan. Uranium from the warheads is processed into civilian nuclear fuel, which the United States purchases from Russia. Such fuel provides 10 per cent of all electricity in the United States.
The benefit of these programs is to make both countries safer, by preventing such weapons from falling into the wrong hands.
ROSATOM organized and hosted the Senators to the Mayak facility. The Shchuchy’e visit took place thanks to the assistance of the Ministry of Defense.
