Combating the risk of nuclear terrorism by reducing the civilian use of highly enriched uranium

Every effort must be made to eliminate all uses of highly enriched uranium in civilian nuclear programmes.

Agreement on the supply and leasing of enriched uranium and the transfer of equipment and special nuclear materials

The global stockpile of highly enriched uranium is about 1,300, at the low end, to about 2,100 metric tons.

Efforts had been initiated to minimize and eventually eliminate the use of high enriched uranium in peaceful nuclear applications.

So, what I'd like to show you is what it would take to hold 75 pounds of highly enriched uranium.

If Iran were interested solely in peaceful uses, the Russian offer or some other plan (such as placing stocks of low enriched uranium in Iran) could meet their needs. Iran s insistence on enrichment inside the country is widely attributed to its desire to produce highly enriched uranium for a bomb.

With respect to the application of sensitive materials in civilian nuclear programmes, the continued use of highly enriched uranium was particularly worrisome.

It also had to verify the origin of the enriched uranium particles found at a number of locations, and find out how the Islamic Republic of Iran had come into possession of a P 2 uranium enrichment centrifuge technology.

About 121 incidents were reported to the Agency in 2004, some of which involved weapons usable highly enriched uranium or plutonium being smuggled across national borders.

In most of these cases, however, low enriched uranium (LEU) can be substituted for HEU, or other techniques can be applied to achieve the required results.

A moratorium on the production and use of highly enriched uranium for civilian use should be negotiated, with a total ban as a long term objective.

It is time for cooler heads to prevail with a strategy that helps Iran step back. The key players here are Brazil and Turkey, whose governments negotiated an ill timed deal with Iran in May 2011, whereby Iran would transfer 1,200 kilograms of low enriched uranium to Turkey in exchange for 1,200 kilograms of medium enriched uranium for medical research at a Tehran reactor.

There are many, many sites where warheads are stored and, in fact, lots of sites where fissionable materials, like highly enriched uranium and plutonium, are absolutely not safe.

This includes, in accordance with the IAEA definition, nuclear material that can be used for the manufacture of nuclear explosive devices without further adaptation or additional enrichment. This is plutonium containing less than 80 per cent plutonium 238, highly enriched uranium (HEU) and uranium 233.

Among a number of worrying cases, a significant amount of highly enriched uranium was discovered in the Caucasus and it is possible that a larger amount remains unaccounted for.

From 1993 through 2006, the International Atomic Energy Agency documented 175 cases of nuclear theft, 18 of which involved highly enriched uranium or plutonium, the key ingredients to make a nuclear weapon.

During Yugoslavia s violent collapse, adversaries never struck or invaded Serbia s research reactor, powered by weaponizable enriched uranium. When Serbian fighter jets flew threateningly low over Slovenia s nuclear power plant, they spared the reactor.

On 2 April 2002 Uruguay was declared free of nuclear material by IAEA safeguards authorities who, on inspecting the Nuclear Research Centre, where a research reactor had been installed and subsequently dismantled, removed any remaining plutonium or enriched uranium (total fissionable uranium 235) and certified that Uruguay's inventory contained none of either element.

One example was the announcement that some of its enriched uranium is being diverted to medical research in other words, uranium enrichment, according to this message, can be slowed down. At this point, however, there are no indications that Iran is interested in more than reducing external pressure and the impact of the sanctions.

We believe that that project, together with Kazakhstan's national practices in the processing of highly enriched uranium into low grade nuclear material, could serve as a model for the development of such projects in other countries.

The agreement known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) limits Iran s nuclear program to peaceful purposes in exchange for lifting all international sanctions on the country. For the next 15 years, Iran will not be permitted to enrich uranium to more than 3.67 (to build a nuclear bomb requires uranium enriched to at least 85 ).

Highly enriched uranium (HEU) is of particular concern in this context, due to the technical feasibility of constructing a crude nuclear explosive device from HEU, making it a possible choice for a terrorist group non State actor.

In 2011, for example, Moldovan police seized highly enriched uranium from a group of smugglers who were trying to sell it. The smugglers, exhibiting a worrying level of technical knowledge, had tried to evade detection by building a shielded container.

The Six have refused because verification cannot provide an absolute guarantee against the diversion of some enriched uranium to military use. But as the superpowers learned in the Cold War, the absence of airtight verification does not render inspections useless.

Every technically competent person knows that the paths to civilian nuclear power and to nuclear weapons are the same, except for a few last, comparatively simple steps. The hard part is obtaining the fissionable materials plutonium or highly enriched uranium.

For its part, after announcing the cessation of the production of plutonium and highly enriched uranium for nuclear weapons, France decided in February 1996 to close and dismantle its facilities for the production of such materials at Pierrelatte and Marcoule.

11. Also welcomes the independent action taken by the United States of America to dispose of 174 metric tons of excess highly enriched uranium from its nuclear weapons programme, of which 50 metric tons have already been down blended for use as reactor fuel

Last month, I proposed a key measure to strengthen non proliferation to the IAEA s Board of Governors establishing an IAEA bank of low enriched uranium (LEU) to guarantee supplies to countries that need nuclear fuel for their power reactors. LEU cannot be used to make weapons.

Governments around the world cannot stand by and watch that game play out across the world s energy lifeline. It is time for third parties to step in and facilitate solutions that allow Iran to save face while significantly and credibly reducing its supply of enriched uranium.

The framework places significant limits on Iran s nuclear program, including the number and type of centrifuges, the sort of reactors, and the amount and quality of enriched uranium that the country may possess. Standards are set for the inspections needed to provide confidence that Iran is fulfilling its obligations.

And then we get to uranium.

Of course, it is possible that these events are an aberration. After all, the only conflict so far in which authorities have lost control of sensitive nuclear materials was the Georgia Abkhazia War in the 1990s, when unknown forces seized a small amount of highly enriched uranium from a research institute.

The reactor is also subjected to the IAEA's safeguards under the Agreement between the IAEA and the Governments of Malaysia and the United States of America concerning the Transfer of a Research Reactor and Enriched Uranium or better known as the Project and Supply Agreement, which was concluded in 1980.

And found you in need, and enriched you?

And found you in need, and enriched you?

The Uranium Enrichment Technology (Prohibition on Disclosure) Regulations 2004 make it an offence to make an unauthorised disclosure of uranium enrichment technology.

And He found thee destitute, so He enriched thee.

And He found thee destitute, so He enriched thee.

Other minerals include calcium, uranium, lignite and copper.

An incident in Moldova two years ago involving highly enriched uranium which can be used in a nuclear weapon illustrates both the scale of the threat and the possibility of effective counter measures if countries take the problem seriously. Police seized a quantity of the substance from an individual who was attempting to sell it.

In November 2005, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) accused the South Korean government of having enriched a tiny amount of uranium to a level close to what could be used in an atomic weapon. The government denied this, claiming that the experiments were conducted without its knowledge by academic researchers for scientific interest.

So, uranium, which is very big, wants to split.

Such uranium was the material of choice for terrorists.

In early October, Iranian officials met in Geneva with representatives of the permanent members of the UN Security Council (plus Germany) and agreed to allow the International Atomic Energy Agency to inspect the hitherto secret plant. In addition, the Iranians said that they would export their existing low enriched uranium to be fabricated into nuclear fuel outside of Iran.