Global Security Newswire

The last notable amount of highly enriched uranium in Turkey has been withdrawn and shipped back to the United States as part of Washington's global effort to prevent terrorists from acquiring nuclear material, the National Nuclear Security Administration said yesterday (see GSN, Sept. 15, 2009).

To remove the final 11.9 pounds of uranium from Turkey, the nuclear agency collaborated with the Turkish Atomic Energy Authority and the Cekmece Nuclear Research and Training Center to encase the material in a secure container that was taken under guard to a port and shipped to the United States.

Turkey is the 17th country to be cleared of almost all highly enriched uranium in accordance with the NNSA Global Threat Reduction Initiative, according to an agency press release. U.S. President Barack Obama has called for all at-risk nuclear material to be made secure within four years.

"This shipment of HEU from Turkey represents a major step forward in NNSA’s ongoing efforts to implement President Obama’s unprecedented nuclear security agenda to reduce the threat of nuclear terrorism," NNSA Administrator Thomas D’Agostino said in a released statement. "This cooperative effort with the Turkish government underscores our mutual commitment to nonproliferation and nuclear security."

To date, roughly 2,728 pounds of highly enriched uranium has been sent back to the United States under the NNSA initiative. An additional 2,013 pounds of Russian-created material and 411.4 pounds of "gap" material have also been withdrawn as part of the program (U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration release, Jan. 12).