Dec 27 - Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News - Nancy Gaarder Omaha World-Herald, Neb.

 

Most people now going gray can remember childhood school drills where they were admonished to duck and cover in the event of a nuclear attack by the Soviet Union.

Those old-timers might be surprised to learn that some of the electricity that powers their Nebraska homes and businesses comes from the warheads they feared so much.

Most of the fuel at the Fort Calhoun Nuclear Station and about 40 percent of the fuel at Cooper Nuclear Station comes from decommissioned Soviet warheads, according to the utilities that own the reactors.

According to the Nuclear Energy Institute, nearly half the fuel used in U.S. reactors comes from diluted uranium from decommissioned Soviet nuclear weapons.

Over the years, uranium from the equivalent of about 10,000 Soviet warheads has been converted to domestic fuel.