Q: Are any of the nuclear power plants in Georgia or elsewhere in the U.S. using nuclear material derived from dismantled weapons in the U.S. or the former Soviet Union states?

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Q: Are any of the nuclear power plants in Georgia or elsewhere in the U.S. using nuclear material derived from dismantled weapons in the U.S. or the former Soviet Union states?

— Mel Liles, Stockbridge

A: Highly enriched uranium from more than 14,700 Russian nuclear weapons uranium has been converted to fuel for use in American nuclear power plants, according to the National Nuclear Security Administration at the Department of Energy. The effort, called the NNSA’s Highly Enriched Uranium Transparency Program, expects to eliminate the equivalent of 20,000 nuclear weapons by 2013. The resulting uranium provides fuel for commercial U.S. reactors, totaling 10 percent of all electricity, according to the NNSA. That equates to one in 10 light bulbs powered by material that previously was part of Soviet nuclear weapons. An agency spokeswoman says at least two reactors in the state, the Hatch Nuclear Plant in Baxley and Vogtle Electric Generating Plant near Waynesboro, owned by Georgia Power, Oglethorpe Power Corp., the Municipal Electric Authority of Georgia and city governments, have received fuel through the government-to-government nonproliferation agreement, which began in 1993 and has supplied almost half of all nuclear energy in the U.S.

Lori Johnston wrote this column. Do you have a question about the news? We’ll try to get the answer. Call 404-222-2022 or e-mail q&a@ajc.com (include name, phone and city).