Kazakhstan Eliminates Nuclear Weapon-Usable Uranium

Kazakhstan has nearly completed a project to eliminate tons of nuclear weapon-usable uranium by converting the material into fuel for nuclear power plants, officials announced Saturday (see GSN, April 4).

Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, Kazakhstan found itself with a variety of nuclear weapons and facilities. More than 1,400 nuclear warheads were returned to Russia in the early 1990s, but tons of highly enriched uranium have remained in the country, creating a potential target for terrorists seeking nuclear weapons.

To address the risk, Kazakhstan moved 2,900 kilograms of fresh reactor fuel, containing as much as 26 percent of the weapon-usable isotope U-235, to a facility where technicians have begun to blend the material down into lower concentrations that can be used for civilian power reactors. The highly enriched uranium contained enough material for as many as two dozen nuclear weapons, according to a press release.

The down-blending process began early this year and is expected to be completed by January.

The Nuclear Threat Initiative shared the $2 million cost with Kazakhstan’s nuclear agency and the International Atomic Energy Agency has supervised the process, according to a press release (Nuclear Threat Initiative release, Oct. 8).

Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev praised the progress and looked forward to future efforts.

“Now we are capable of converting the highly enriched uranium, or any remains of that uranium, into low-enriched uranium,” he said. “Maybe one day our factory here in Kazakhstan can be a place where highly enriched uranium from other countries can be processed into a low-enriched form” (Ethan Wilensky-Lanford, New York Times, Oct. 9).

Nazarbayev also urged the United States and Russia to reduce their nuclear arsenals.

“Some countries are allowed to have nuclear weapons and modernize them. Other countries are banned from having them, even to do research,” he said. “It’s wrong, disproportionate and unfair” (Bagila Bukharbayeva, Associated Press/PhillyBurbs.com, Oct. 8).

[EDITOR’S NOTE: The Nuclear Threat Initiative is the sole sponsor of Global Security Newswire, which is published independently by the National Journal Group.]

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