Massive Secret Uranium Shipment Revealed

U.S. Oversees Complex Trans-National Relocation Of 340lbs Of Uranium To Russian Facility

(AP)  More than 340 pounds of weapons-grade uranium was transported secretly over thousands of miles by truck, rail and ship on a monthlong trip from a research reactor in Budapest, Hungary, to a facility in Russia so it could be more closely protected against possible theft, U.S. officials revealed Wednesday.

The shipment, conducted under tight secrecy and security, included a three-week trip by cargo ship through the Mediterranean Sea, up the English Channel and the North Sea to Russia's Arctic seaport of Murmansk, the only port cleared by Russia for handling nuclear materiel.

The 13 radiation-proof casks, each weighing 17,000 pounds, arrived by rail at the secure nuclear material facility at Mayak in Siberia on Wednesday, said Kenneth Baker, an official at the U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration who oversaw the complex project.

It is the largest recovery to date of highly enriched uranium provided either by the former Soviet Union or the United States under a program, begun in the 1950s, aimed at spreading the peaceful use of nuclear energy. The two countries have been working to return the spent fuel from reactors around the world because at many of the facilities, including the one in Budapest, security is lax, which raised the possibility of the materiel being stolen by terrorists.

"It was a big shipment, the biggest one we've ever done," said Baker in an interview Wednesday with The Associated Press, hours after he received word that the shipment had arrived at its final destination in Russia. "It was basically enough to make six nuclear weapons."

Under the U.S.-Russian program, the NNSA, part of the Energy Department, has completed 15 recoveries of U.S.-origin highly enriched uranium, or HEU, from research reactors in more than a dozen countries since 2005. The agency also was involved in three earlier shipments of Russian-origin HEU that were removed from the Czech Republic, Latvia and Bulgaria and returned to Russia.

But the project targeting the 341 pounds of highly radioactive fuel from the Budapest research reactor was particularly complex and challenging, said Baker, the NNSA's assistant deputy administrator for defense nuclear nonproliferation.

It began at 3 a.m. in Budapest in late September and ended early Wednesday, Washington time, at the nuclear facility at Mayak, in Russian Siberia. In between, the shipment moved without notice aboard truck and rail to the port of Koper in Slovenia and then by special cargo ship through the ocean shipping lanes that encircle Europe, always staying in international waters at least 12 miles from shore, according to Baker.

The unusually roundabout route was needed because "we couldn't ship it through Ukraine," which would have allowed a more direct route to Russia, said Baker.

Early one morning in late September the 13 casks were secretly loaded onto trucks at the Budapest research reactor and taken to the city's train station, where they were transported - one cask per train car - onto a special train for the eight-hour trip to the port of Koper in Slovenia on the Adriatic Sea.

The shipment then moved through the Mediterranean, through the strait of Gibraltar, up the Atlantic and into the English Channel and the North and Norwegian seas into the icy waters of the Arctic with a final destination of Murmansk, where it arrived last Saturday. From there the shipment was loaded on a train for the long trip to Siberia.

"It was the most complicated trip we've ever taken by far," said Baker, who oversaw the loading and early part of the operation, but did not accompany the shipment after it went to sea, instead returning to Washington.

Early Wednesday, he received notice that the shipment had arrived at Mayak, where security is far tighter than it was in Budapest.

In Budapest "they had a fence and a guard," said Baker, although some security improvements have been made with U.S. help over the past year. Still, said Baker, "You don't want to leave it there."

The Hungarian reactor now is being converted to use low-enriched uranium that cannot be used in a weapon and will not be a potential terrorist target.

So far, including the shipment from Budapest, 1,685 pounds of Russian-origin uranium has been retrieved from 11 countries. A significant number of reactors remain that have either U.S. or Russian highly enriched uranium, including some with security far less than what is desirable, according to nuclear nonproliferation activists.

[longtree-2009]

not much tight security and secrecy if the movement of uranium is exposed. Election: if you support either the mccain or obama ticket, then donate money until it hurts and volunteer at your ticket''s local campaign headquarters.

[checkthepast]

Posted by daddadah

Good morning, the article is not about politics.
Please be relevant, and have a nice day!

[checkthepast]

tannerbird, doctor--cool, andor3

Ditto

[presjfk]

I assume this transfer cost the US taxpayer millions. If Hungary has spent fuel, and the fuel came from Russia - someone explain to me why it should be the US taxpayer that should pick up the tab for the transfer and destruction of this material?

We seem to make deals with the Russian that makes them richer and us poorer. An example of this was the Kursk being raised, and then scrapped at US expense.

"Russia''s Arctic seaport of Murmansk, the only port cleared by Russia for handling nuclear materiel."
--
All terrorists please avert your eyes. Please do not put 2 and 2 together. It probably will never happen again.

And John McCain wants 45 new nuclear reactors built in THIS country, without a clear plan disposal, transport, holding and security for the radioactive fuel. Maybe they can''t tell us what the plans are, if there are any, for fear the wrong people would know something, but then we can''t evaluate the plans to see if they are acceptable. Is this a catch-22? Or E=MC2kiss America goodbye?

[questionnews]

Only two posts relevant to the article.
The politically obsessed apparently are unable to read a headline. Or it could just be their brain tumors are getting worse.

[marcosis78]

hahaha! For better protection from theft?! Give me a break! Russia''s security isn''t as good as ours and ours is **** poor. Seriously, does ANYONE in the white house have at least a half a brain? Russian secrets are compromised what seems like every other day.

[toolmangler-2009]

13? ????????? There were 15 cases shipped!!!!!!! Yikes

[dewbug2]

TRUSTING GOOD OLD ROOSHA TO GUARD ANYTHING FROM THEFT IS LIKE ASKING THE MAFIA TO KEEP AN EYE ON CRIME.THAT BUNCH OF CROOKS IN THAT GOVERNMENT ARE NOT OUR FRIENDS, AND PLEASE DON''T MAKE THE MISTAKE OF THINKING THEY ARE OR EVER WERE.THINK BACK TO 1980 AND THE GUNNING DOWN OF A 747 PASSENGER PLANE,THEIR KILLING 300 OTHER PEOPLE TO KILL CONGRESSMAN MCDONALD
AND THE SOUTH KOREAN GENTLEMAN WITH HIM.OH,GEE, WE''RE SORRY, WE THOUGHT IT WAS A BOMBER.....THE MOST RECOGNIZABLE AIRCRAFT IN THE WORLD, LOOKED LIKE A BOMBER TO THEIR PILOTS????DEFINITELY NOT, BUT THE CONTROLLERS SAID TO SHOOT IT DOWN REGARDLESS.

[jim_dc]

The research institute is www.kfki.hu - I used to work there years ago. The security was guards with machine guns and an electric fence around the campus, plus probably a whole lot of locked doors (not to mention some fearsome radiation). Possibly you could steal some HEU, but I would be surprised if you could do it quickly enough not to get caught. You could argue that a whole load of distributed radiation detectors would be cheaper, but I think the "authorities" are just taking a "one less thing to worry about" approach. Probably the US is paying for it because they want it done when it suits the US, not the Russians. As for the poster who stated how easy it was to recognize civilian aircraft, it seems to be equally hard for the US Navy when they are dealing with an Iranian Airbus.

[jim_dc]

The research institute is www.kfki.hu - I used to work there years ago. The security was guards with machine guns and an electric fence around the campus, plus probably a whole lot of locked doors (not to mention some fearsome radiation). Possibly you could steal some HEU, but I would be surprised if you could do it quickly enough not to get caught. You could argue that a whole load of distributed radiation detectors would be cheaper, but I think the "authorities" are just taking a "one less thing to worry about" approach. Probably the US is paying for it because they want it done when it suits the US, not the Russians. As for the poster who stated how easy it was to recognize civilian aircraft, it seems to be equally hard for the US Navy when they are dealing with an Iranian Airbus.

[toolmangler-2009]

it seems to be equally hard for the US Navy when they are dealing with an Iranian Airbus.
Posted by jim_dc at 02:27 PM : Oct 25, 2008


Kinda makes you wonder, who was on that plane......