US removes highly enriched uranium from Venezuelan research reactor

The United States, working with the United Kingdom and International Atomic Energy Agency, successfully removed highly enriched uranium from a Venezuelan research reactor.

The operation was carried out by the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration. The existence of the highly enriched uranium had long been known, being used in an old RV-1 reactor for research purposes well before the socialist takeover of the country. It ceased operations in 1991 and hasn’t been used since.

Beginning in April, the uranium was transferred from the shutdown reactor south of Caracas, Venezuela, 100 miles overland to a port in a nighttime convoy protected by the Venezuelan military. The uranium was placed in a British ship and shipped to the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina.

“The safe removal of all enriched uranium from Venezuela sends another signal to the world of a restored and renewed Venezuela,” Brandon Williams, NNSA administrator,