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23 December 2004

Highly Enriched Uranium Repatriated from Czech Republic to Russia

Joint effort also involved United States, International Atomic Energy Agency

U.S. Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham announced December 22 that six kilograms of highly enriched uranium (HEU) that could be used for nuclear weapons have been safely returned to the Russian Federation from the Czech Republic.

Abraham applauded the Czech Republic for taking measures to secure the uranium and then working cooperatively with the United States, Russia and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to return it to a secure facility in Dimitrovgrad, Russia, where it will be down-blended to low enriched uranium.

This is the sixth successful shipment of HEU returned to Russia. 

Following is a Department of Energy release:

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U.S. Department of Energy
http://www.energy.gov/

December 22, 2004

HIGHLY ENRICHED URANIUM REPATRIATED FROM THE CZECH REPUBLIC

-- Fuel Returned to Secure Facility in Russia

WASHINGTON, D.C.-- Six kilograms of highly enriched uranium (HEU) that could be used for nuclear weapons were safely returned to the Russian Federation from the Czech Republic in a secret mission completed ­­early Wednesday morning, U.S. Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham announced today. The mission was a joint effort between the United States, the Czech Republic, Russia, and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and is another accomplishment of the Bush Administration’s Global Threat Reduction Initiative (GTRI).

“The recovery, return and eventual elimination of this highly enriched uranium is an important milestone in our efforts to reduce this dangerous nuclear material worldwide,” Secretary Abraham said. “We applaud the strong leadership of the Czech Republic for taking measures to secure this material and working cooperatively with the United States, Russia and the IAEA to successfully return it to Russia.”

According to Secretary Abraham, the highly enriched uranium was airlifted under guard from an airport near Prague, Czech Republic to a secure facility in Dimitrovgrad, Russia. There, the highly enriched uranium will be down-blended to low enriched uranium.

The nuclear fuel was originally supplied to the Czech Republic by the Soviet Union for use in the Soviet-designed 10 megawatt LVR-15 multi-purpose research reactor, located in Rez near the Czech capital, Prague.  In 2000, NNSA and the Czech Nuclear Research Institute completed a joint project to upgrade security of the nuclear material at Rez until it could be returned to Russia. Earlier this year, Secretary Abraham and Russian Federal Atomic Energy Agency Director Alex­­­ander Rumyantsev signed a bilateral agreement between the U.S. and Russian Federation governments to facilitate the repatriation of Russian-origin HEU research reactor fuel to Russia.

During the one-day mission, approximately six kilograms of HEU were loaded into four specialized transportation containers. IAEA safeguards inspectors and NNSA technical experts were present in Rez to monitor the process of loading the fuel into canisters. The facility in Russia that received the material has worked closely with the NNSA to implement security upgrades.

The mission of the GTRI is to identify, secure, recover and/or facilitate the final disposition of high-risk vulnerable nuclear and radiological materials around the world that pose a threat to the United States and the international community. The initiative will comprehensively address vulnerable material and radiological materials throughout the world and secure and/or remove these materials of concern as expeditiously as possible.

This is the sixth successful shipment of HEU being returned to Russia.  In the past two years, NNSA has repatriated a total of 51 kg of HEU to Russia from Romania, Bulgaria, Libya, and Uzbekistan. And in August 2002, 48 kg of Russian-origin HEU were repatriated from a research reactor near Belgrade, Serbia.

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(Distributed by the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)

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