Chris Schneidmiller
WC Monitor
9/18/2015
Switzerland has sent 2.2 kilograms of weapon-grade uranium reactor fuel to the United States for storage, the Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration said on Wednesday.
The shipment makes Switzerland the 27th country, plus Taiwan, to divest itself of all highly enriched uranium, according to an NNSA press release. The spent HEU fuel had previously been used at the University of Basel’s now-retired AGN-211-P research reactor.
The NNSA worked with the university, the Swiss government, and the Paul Sherrer Institute to package and transport the 13 irradiated HEU fuel elements, which ultimately were shipped by sea in a single storage cask for storage at the DOE’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina.
“We are delighted to share this important milestone with the Swiss Government and the Paul Sherrer Institute, and want to take this opportunity to acknowledge the important partnership that made this possible,” NNSA Deputy Administrator Anne Harrington said in the release. “Our collaboration advances global efforts to secure, consolidate, and minimize the use of highly enriched uranium so that it does not fall into the hands of terrorists.”
The press release did not indicate when the HEU transfer occurred. But in a post Tuesday on the International Panel on Fissile Materials (IPMF) blog, Savannah River Site Watch Director Tom Clements said the Swiss government had confirmed by email that the ship arrived in the U.S. on Aug 18. The vessel, the Oceanic Pintail, also carried low-enriched spent fuel from a research reactor in Berlin, according to Clements. The material will be kept in safe storage at the Savannah River Site’s L basin “pending final disposition, which often involves blending to low enrichment and distribution to the Tennessee Valley Authority for generation of electricity,” the NNSA said.
Switzerland has returned 36.4 kilograms of U.S.-origin highly enriched uranium through the federal Foreign Research Reactor Spent Nuclear Fuel Acceptance Program, according to the NNSA.
