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The first HEU removal operation was Project Sapphire, a secret operation undertaken by Kazakhstan and the United States. That operation airlifted 581 kg of HEU (enough for nearly 50 nuclear weapons) from the Ulba Metallurgical Plant in Kazakhstan to Oak Ridge National Laboratory in the United States in 1994.
The second effort was Operation Auburn Endeavor, a joint U.S.-British-Georgian operation that in 1998 removed slightly more than 13 kg of fresh and spent nuclear fuel from Mtskheta, Georgia, to the Dounreay Nuclear Complex in Scotland.
HEU fuel elements packaged for shipment from Yugoslavia.
In August 2002, a joint project undertaken by the IAEA, Russia, Serbia, and the United States, with support from the Nuclear Threat Initiative, transferred approximately 48 kg of HEU from Vinca, near Belgrade, Serbia, to the Russian Institute of Atomic Reactors in Dmitrovgrad for subsequent downblending.
In September 2003, 14 kg of HEU was transferred from the Pietistic Institute for Nuclear Research near Bucharest, Romania to Russia's Novosibirsk Chemical Concentrates Plant for safe storage and conversion to LEU.
A joint U.S.-Russian-IAEA team removed over 16 kg of HEU (enriched to 36 percent U-235) from the Institute of Nuclear Research and Nuclear Energy in Sofia, Bulgaria, to Dmitrovgrad, Russia, in December 2003.
Soviet-origin research reactor fuel was also repatriated to Russia from Libya in March 2004. The U.S. DOE and the IAEA worked together to remove about 17 kg of HEU enriched to 80 percent U-235 stored at the Tajoura Nuclear Research Center near Tripoli to Dmitrovgrad for conversion to LEU.
In September 2004, 11 kg of reactor fuel were transported from the Institute of Nuclear Physics of the Academy of Sciences of Uzbekistan, near Tashkent, to Dmitrovgrad. About 3 kg of this fresh fuel consisted of HEU.
In December 2004, six kg of HEU were returned to Russia from the Czech Republic. The mission was a joint effort involving the Czech Republic, the IAEA, Russia, and the United States.
In May 2005, three kilograms of HEU were returned to Russia from Latvia under a joint effort involving the IAEA, Latvia, Russia, and the United States.
In September 2005, about 14 kilograms of HEU were returned to Russia
from the Czech Republic in a cooperative effort involving the IAEA, the
Czech Republic, Russia, and the United States.
In July 2006, three kilograms of HEU were repatriated to Russia from
Libya’s Tajoura research reactor. This operation involved the IAEA,
Libya, Russia, and the United States.
In August 2006, almost 40 kilograms of HEU were returned to Russia from
a research reactor in Poland.
In December 2006, in the largest shipment to date of Soviet-origin HEU,
268 kilograms were returned to Russia from Germany. The research reactor
that had held the HEU had been located in the former East Germany. The
operation involved the IAEA, Germany, Russia, and the United States.
Since May 2004, the United States has repatriated more than 81 kilograms
of HEU in spent reactor fuel from Germany, Austria, Greece, Japan,
Argentina, the Netherlands, and Sweden. In addition, the United States
has secured 35 kilograms of U.S.-origin fresh HEU fuel from Canada and
Belgium.
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