http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-offi....

wtf over?

Letter--Russian Highly Enriched Uranium

snip

TEXT OF A LETTER FROM THE PRESIDENT TO THE SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES AND THE PRESIDENT OF THE SENATE

June 25, 2012

Dear Mr. Speaker: (Dear Mr. President:)

Pursuant to section 204(b) of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), 50 U.S.C. 1703(b), I hereby report that I have exercised my authority to declare a national emergency to deal with the threat posed to the United States by the risk of nuclear proliferation created by the accumulation in the Russian Federation of a large volume of weapons-usable fissile material.

In Executive Order 13159 of June 21, 2000, the President found that this same risk constituted an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States and declared a national emergency to deal with that threat. The United States and the Russian Federation had entered into a series of agreements that provide for the conversion of highly enriched uranium (HEU) extracted from Russian nuclear weapons into low enriched uranium (LEU) for use in commercial nuclear reactors. There were concerns that payments due to the Russian Federation under these agreements may be subject to attachment, garnishment, or other judicial process, in the United States, which could put implementation of such agreements at risk. In Executive Order 13159, the President therefore ordered blocked all property and interests in property of the Government of the Russian Federation directly related to the implementation of the HEU Agreements so that it would be protected from the threat of attachment, garnishment, or other judicial process.

my read between the lines on this - USEC the company that administers the HEU down-blending program is on the verge of going bankrupt (ticker USU, bonds due 10/2014 are trading at just under 50c on the dollar).

US gov is providing assurances to Russian gov that the program & payments will continue without disruption even through any litigation (like chapter 11).

Reposting from tinfoil, since people are freaking out all over the internet on this:

Do this, search the whitehouse for "Executive Order 13159": http://search.whitehouse.gov/search?affi....

Now do it on the Bush archived site: http://search.archives.gov/query-bush.ht....

Notice that the original Order was issued on June 21st of 2000.

This happens at the same time every year.

it's also possible this is a pre-emptive against any anti-dumping lawsuits wrt these russian uranium sales...i think i recall that was an issue a while ago...

anyway yeah, i don't think it's anything to freak out about unless i'm really missing something.