The United States and Russia have helped move the final shipment of highly enriched uranium from a research reactor in the Czech Republic, representing the last of the material in the country that could be used in a nuclear weapon.
Since 2004, a partnership under the Global Threat Reduction Initiative has moved six shipments representing about 400 pounds of HEU from the Czech Republic. The last shipment removed about 150 pounds of HEU – potentially enough for two weapons – from the Nuclear Research Institute via truck, rail and ship to Russia, according to the U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration. The material will be down blended to produce commercial reactor fuel that cannot be used to create an explosive device.
As part of the broader non-proliferation program, NNSA has worked with Russia to remove HEU and plutonium from 14 countries to date. In the Czech Republic, the program also helped the institute convert the reactor using the HEU to work with low-enriched uranium.