Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD)

DATE=12/24/03

TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT

TITLE= U-S / BULGARIA / URANIUM (S)

NUMBER=2-311174

BYLINE=DAVID GOLLUST

DATELINE=STATE DEPARTMENT

CONTENT=

VOICED AT:

INTRO: A U-S-led team of international nuclear experts has successfully evacuated 17 kilograms of highly enriched uranium from an inactive nuclear research reactor in Bulgaria. The operation was the latest in a series of missions involving U-S and Russian authorities aimed at keeping nuclear material out of the hand of terrorists. VOA's David Gollust reports from the State Department.

TEXT: Officials at the U-S State and Energy Departments say the enriched uranium, kept at the Bulgarian reactor for more than a decade, was removed from the complex amid secrecy and tight security Tuesday and flown to a plant in southern Russia, where it will be blended-down for use as reactor fuel.

The operation was the third of its kind since August of last year under a tripartite program involving the United States, Russia and the International Atomic Energy Agency. Funded by the United States, the program repatriates back to Russia highly-enriched uranium sent to research reactors in eastern Europe by the former Soviet Union.

Many of those reactors are now closed and in disrepair, and the nuclear fuel stored under questionable security conditions, raising the prospect that it might be stolen or otherwise acquired by terrorists. Previous rescue missions have targeted uranium at reactors in Romania and Yugoslavia.

/// REST OPT /// Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham hailed Tuesday's operation, saying the Bush administration has "taken the lead" in non-proliferation efforts to make the world safer. (SIGNED)

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