NNSA Removes 13.5 kg HEU from Venezuelan Reactor

The U.S. Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration, working with the United Kingdom, the International Atomic Energy Agency and Venezuela's transitional government, completed the removal of 13.5 kilograms of highly enriched uranium from a former research reactor at the Venezuelan Institute for Scientific Research in Miranda state last month.

The operation, conducted between April 18 and 29, targeted surplus material from the RV1 reactor that had exceeded the 20 percent enrichment threshold since the facility shut down in 1991. NNSA teams, alongside experts from the institute and the Venezuelan Ministry of Science and Technology, packaged the uranium into a spent fuel cask. The material was then transported overland about 160 kilometers to the docks at Puerto Cabello before loading onto a specialized vessel operated by the British firm Nuclear Transport Solutions. The shipment arrived at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina in early May, where it will be processed into high-assay low-enriched uranium for civilian use.

NNSA Administrator Brandon Williams described the effort as a nonproliferation success. "The safe removal of all enriched uranium from...