Fade
06-30-2009, 06:45 PM
Romanian uranium taken to secure site
Jun 30 06:34 PM US/Eastern
By H. JOSEF HEBERT
Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) - The last remaining bomb-grade uranium has been shipped out of Romania as part of a U.S.-Russian nuclear nonproliferation program, the Energy Department reported Tuesday. Officials at the department's National Nuclear Security Administration said the highly enriched uranium was taken from two research reactors in Romania and flown to Russia for secure storage. The shipment weighed 118 pounds.
Russia had provided the uranium years ago. The NNSA, working with Romanian officials, moved all the highly enriched uranium, or HEU, of U.S. origin, out of Romania in 2008.
The effort in Romania is part of a broader program to return all of the HEU that had been provided to various countries by either the former Soviet Union or by the United States for civilian nuclear research back to the originating countries where the material can be kept in more secure locations.
A crude nuclear bomb can be made from as little as 33 pounds of highly enriched uranium. Nuclear nonproliferation watchdog groups say lax security is a problem at many of the research reactors around the world where HEU continues to be located.
Recently, a shipment of 52 pounds of HEU was taken from a research reactor in Magurele, Romania, and a shipment of 66 pounds was removed from a reactor in Pitesti, Romania. The uranium was shipped in special containers to two separate secure sites in Russia, the U.S. officials said.
"With these shipments, all HEU has been successfully removed from Romania," NNSA Administrator Thomas D'Agostino said in a statement released Tuesday. The shipments were completed this week, but the announcement was not more specific on a timetable.Article continued at http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D99595LG0&show_article=1&catnum=0
Jun 30 06:34 PM US/Eastern
By H. JOSEF HEBERT
Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) - The last remaining bomb-grade uranium has been shipped out of Romania as part of a U.S.-Russian nuclear nonproliferation program, the Energy Department reported Tuesday. Officials at the department's National Nuclear Security Administration said the highly enriched uranium was taken from two research reactors in Romania and flown to Russia for secure storage. The shipment weighed 118 pounds.
Russia had provided the uranium years ago. The NNSA, working with Romanian officials, moved all the highly enriched uranium, or HEU, of U.S. origin, out of Romania in 2008.
The effort in Romania is part of a broader program to return all of the HEU that had been provided to various countries by either the former Soviet Union or by the United States for civilian nuclear research back to the originating countries where the material can be kept in more secure locations.
A crude nuclear bomb can be made from as little as 33 pounds of highly enriched uranium. Nuclear nonproliferation watchdog groups say lax security is a problem at many of the research reactors around the world where HEU continues to be located.
Recently, a shipment of 52 pounds of HEU was taken from a research reactor in Magurele, Romania, and a shipment of 66 pounds was removed from a reactor in Pitesti, Romania. The uranium was shipped in special containers to two separate secure sites in Russia, the U.S. officials said.
"With these shipments, all HEU has been successfully removed from Romania," NNSA Administrator Thomas D'Agostino said in a statement released Tuesday. The shipments were completed this week, but the announcement was not more specific on a timetable.Article continued at http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D99595LG0&show_article=1&catnum=0