Overview
- The operation finished in early May, moving about 30 pounds of highly enriched uranium from Venezuela’s dormant RV-1 research reactor to the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina.
- The fuel left the shuttered site south of Caracas in a nighttime convoy guarded by the Venezuelan military that carried it roughly 100 miles to a port for export.
- A British‑flagged specialist vessel operated by the UK’s Nuclear Transport Solutions carried the secured cask to the United States, with International Atomic Energy Agency experts observing the effort.
- The National Nuclear Security Administration says the material will be processed at the H Canyon facility to produce high‑assay low‑enriched uranium, a needed fuel for some next‑generation reactors.
- Originally supplied under the Atoms for Peace program, the fuel’s removal was completed more than two years ahead of plan as part of an NNSA effort that has secured or confirmed over 7,340 kilograms of weapons‑usable nuclear material worldwide.