Overview
- NNSA confirmed the complete removal of 13.5 kilograms of highly enriched uranium from Venezuela’s RV‑1 research reactor in Caracas.
- The operation wrapped less than six weeks after an initial site visit, which the agency highlighted as an unusually fast timeline.
- Teams packed the material into a spent‑fuel cask, moved it about 100 miles to a Venezuelan port, and shipped it on a U.K. carrier to the United States.
- At the Savannah River Site in South Carolina, the DOE took custody and plans to use the H‑Canyon facility to make high‑assay low‑enriched uranium, a fuel needed for many advanced reactor designs.
- The mission ran with oversight from the IAEA and support from Venezuelan authorities, U.K. specialists, and U.S. State Department staff, extending a long‑running NNSA effort that has removed or confirmed over 7,350 kilograms of weapons‑usable material since 1996.