Indonesia recently converted its remaining holdings of highly enriched uranium (HEU) into a low-enriched form, becoming the final nation in Southeast Asia to divest itself of the weapon-grade material, the U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) said Monday.
The NNSA said it worked with the Indonesian Nuclear Industry LLC, National Nuclear Energy Agency, and the Nuclear Energy Regulatory Agency of the Republic of Indonesia to downblend 1.4 kilograms of HEU.
The White House announced on April 1 that Indonesia had converted all of its fresh, or unirradiated, HEU to LEU, with U.S. assistance. The nations pledged to downblend the nation’s stock of irradiated HEU – kept in more than 500 bottles held in hot cells – by September of this year. The uranium was “residual material” from manufacturing of the medical isotope molybdenum-99 by Indonesian Nuclear Industry LLC, according to an NNSA press release.
Indonesia is the 30th country, plus Taiwan, to be declared free of HEU – defined as holding less than 1 kilogram of highly enriched uranium, the release says. The International Panel on Fissile Materials said the number of countries is actually 31, as the NNSA list did not include Iraq.
The NNSA said it provided $250,000 to assist with equipment procurement and other facility preparations for the downblending. The effort included input from experts at the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge, Tenn., who were instrumental in developing the process for the downblending, training facility personnel, and overseeing initial operations.
“The elimination of all highly enriched uranium from Indonesia permanently reduces the threat that it could be used by a terrorist to make a nuclear weapon,” NNSA Deputy Administrator Anne Harrington said in the release. “This nonproliferation achievement is particularly significant as it makes all of Southeast Asia HEU-free. It also highlights NNSA’s commitment to finding domestic disposition solutions for proliferation-sensitive nuclear material around the world.”
Indonesia used HEU for molybdenum-99 production through 2011 to ensure a domestic and regional supply of medical isotopes for medical imaging, the NNSA said. The nation plans before the end of the year to resume production using low-enriched uranium.
Though the material is staying in Indonesia, the NNSA has also been in the business of eliminating HEU by bringing it to the Savannah River Site near Aiken, S.C. and converting the material to LEU. Last year, SRS received uranium from Jamaica and Switzerland. This year, it is expected to receive uranium from Canada. In 2014, the NNSA outlined plans to remove an additional 1,431 kilograms of plutonium and uranium from foreign countries by 2022, with expectations for SRS to receive most, if not all, of the material at some point. Those plan fall under the U.S. Global Threat Reduction Initiative, which launched in 2004.
