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International Response: United States Targets 24 Sites to Move Fissile Material The United States plans to remove weapon-grade nuclear materials from two dozen sites around the world in operations similar to the removal last week of materials from a site in Yugoslavia, officials said last week (see GSN, Aug. 23). U.S. State Department officials said last week’s operation, in which U.S. and Russian experts cooperated to remove more than 100 pounds of nuclear materials from the Vinca Institute of Nuclear Sciences in Belgrade, was an unprecedented occurrence of international cooperation to prevent nuclear proliferation. The operation will set the standard for future efforts, State officials said. There are about 350 sites in 58 countries that possess highly enriched uranium, nonproliferation experts have said. Of those sites, about two dozen have enough materials to arm a weapon. The United States has targeted those sites, a senior State official said. “We want to get at all of them,” the official said. “And some of them are going to be a lot more pernicious than others.” Officials declined to say where the sites are located, citing security reasons. Many of the sites are located in Russia and other former Soviet republics, specialists have said. Others are located in the Middle East and other regions of the world. The 24 targeted sites have been given top priority because of their age and weak security, a State spokeswoman said (Robert Schlesinger, Boston Globe, Aug. 24). Extraction Jeopardizes Research Project Meanwhile, the extraction of nuclear materials from the Vinca Institute has damaged an international research project designed to help Yugoslavia develop a civilian nuclear power program and reduce dependence on coal, Science magazine reported this week. Institute researchers had planned to use 10 kilograms of the highly enriched uranium in an experiment designed to simulate conditions within a light-water nuclear reactor. While Yugoslavia does not yet have nuclear power, scientists have been exploring the option because of uncertainties over the state of Kosovo and its coal reserves, said Nebojsa Neskovic, a member of the group of institute scientists that had planned to conduct the experiment (Richard Stone, Science, Aug. 30).
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