Oak Ridge Today

NNSA partners with Russia to recover ‘dirty bomb’ material

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WASHINGTON, D.C.— The National Nuclear Security Administration, in partnership with the Russian Federation, has successfully completed the removal of 14 Russian radioisotope thermoelectric generators, or RTGs, from the Northern Sea Route. These devices, which contain high-activity radioactive sources, powered navigational beacons along Russia’s northern coastline. With this removal, the U.S. Department of Energy has completed its efforts to recover RTGs along the Northern Sea Route, a press release said.

RTGs were used for many years in Russia to generate electrical power at remote locations, including lighthouses and navigational beacons. The 14 RTGs recently recovered by DOE contain more than one million curies of strontium-90, a high-activity radioisotope that could be used in a dirty bomb. [Read more…]

U.S., international partners remove last weapons-grade uranium from Hungary

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Highly Enriched Uranium Removed from Hungary

The U.S. Department of Energy announced Monday that all remaining highly enriched uranium has been removed from Hungary. (Photos courtesy National Nuclear Security Administration)

Note: This story was updated at 6:23 a.m. Nov. 6.

WASHINGTON, D.C.—The U.S. Department of Energy announced Monday that all remaining highly enriched uranium has been removed from Hungary.

There was enough material removed in the multi-year international effort to fuel nine nuclear weapons, DOE said in a press release.

The removal of the highly enriched uranium, or HEU, was coordinated between Hungary, the United States, the Russian Federation, and the International Atomic Energy Agency, or IAEA.

Hungary is the 12th country to completely eliminate HEU since President Barack Obama announced an international effort in 2009 to secure all vulnerable nuclear material around the world, the release said. [Read more…]

US, international partners remove last highly enriched uranium from Vietnam

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Vietnam HEU Removal

A worker prepares a special container carrying highly enriched uranium before loading onto a cargo plane for repatriation to Russia. (Photo courtesy NNSA)

Official in the United States, Vietnam, and Russia announced this month that they have removed 11 kilograms of highly enriched uranium, or HEU, from the Dalat Nuclear Research Institute in Dalat, Vietnam.

“With this shipment, the Socialist Republic of Vietnam became the eleventh country from which all HEU has been removed since President Obama’s 2009 announcement in Prague of an international effort to secure all vulnerable nuclear material around the world,” the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration said in a press release. “The U.S. will work with our international partners to remove the remaining HEU from another country by the end of 2013 in support of this global effort and the goals of the Nuclear Security Summits.” [Read more…]