Poland Returns 40 Kg Uranium To Russia
Shaveta Bansal - All Headline News Staff Writer Vienna, Austria (AHN) - The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) on Thursday said that Poland has returned some 40 kg (88 pounds) of highly enriched uranium, enough to make an atomic bomb, back to Russia. The U.N. watchdog said the move is in part of a global effort to secure high-risk nuclear material. The two-day operation, which ended Wednesday, was conducted jointly by the United States, Poland, Russia and the UN atomic watchdog IAEA. The highly enriched uranium (HEU), was airlifted from Poland's Otwock-Swierk research reactor to a secure facility near Novosibirsk, central Russia, where it will be downgraded to low-enriched uranium which cannot be used in bombs, IAEA said. IAEA said the loading of the uranium into canisters was monitored by agency's safeguards inspectors and technical experts from the U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration. The highly enriched uranium (HEU) was repatriated under a U.S. Global Threat Reduction Initiative to prevent nuclear materials falling into the hands of militant groups or states regarded as sponsors of terrorism. A statement by the Vienna-based IAEA said a total of around 195 kg (430 pounds) of HEU of Russian origin had been returned to Russia from foreign research reactors in the past few years. "This was another critical step towards enhancing security of fissile material by eliminating stockpiles of HEU |
