US and Partners Remove All Remaining Enriched Uranium from Venezuela Reactor

The U.S. and partners completed the removal of all remaining enriched uranium from a legacy research reactor in Venezuela, the Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration announced Friday.

For decades, the RV-1 reactor supported physics and nuclear research. Once that work finished in 1991, its uranium, enriched above the crucial 20 percent threshold, became surplus material, the NNSA said.

The NNSA's Office of Defense Nuclear Nonproliferation team and technical experts from the Venezuelan Institute for Scientific Research safely removed 13.5 kilograms (about 30 pounds) of uranium from the RV-1 reactor, the administration said. Working in close cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency throughout, the team securely packaged the uranium into a spent fuel cask.

The material was then transported to the U.S., where it will be processed and reused, the NNSA noted.

The group escorted the material 100 miles overland to a Venezuelan port. There, they transferred the cargo to a specialized carrier supplied by the U.K.'s Nuclear Transport Solutions, the announcement said. The vessel carried the material to the United States, arriving on U.S. shores in early May. Upon arrival, U.S. teams unloaded the casks and transported them to the Savannah River Site for processing and reuse.

The Savannah River Site is located in South Carolina, near Augusta, Georgia.

The Department of Energy Office of Environmental Management took custody of the material at the Savannah River Site. There, technicians will process the material at the H-Canyon chemical separations facility to obtain high-assay low-enriched uranium for America's nuclear renaissance, the NNSA said.

The move comes months after President Donald Trump ordered the U.S. military operation capturing Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, in early January.

"The safe removal of all enriched uranium from Venezuela sends another signal to the world of a restored and renewed Venezuela," NNSA Administrator Brandon Williams said in a statement. "Thanks to President Trump’s decisive leadership, the dedicated teams on the ground completed in months what would have normally taken years."