Russia airlifting enriched uranium out of Germany

DRESDEN, Germany, Dec 18: Russian experts were removing a large quantity of highly enriched uranium from a Soviet-era atomic reactor in eastern Germany early today and flying it to Russia for processing, officials said.

German police were providing security for the transport from the Rossendorf research reactor site to Dresden airport, police spokesman Thomas Herbst said, adding the operation involved between 300 and 500 police and more undercover officers.

Details of the operation, including the route the transport would take, were being kept secret for security reasons, he said.

Asked about possible anti-nuclear protests, Herbst said: ''We know that there was a mobilisation planned, which was posted on the internet, but we are not expecting a large action.'' Some 326 kg of enriched uranium was being flown out of Germany to a processing centre near Podolsk in Russia, nuclear officials familiar with the transport details said.

Roughly two thirds of the uranium is highly enriched, though it is unclear how pure the uranium fuel is. If enriched to a sufficient level of purity, there could be enough highly enriched uranium (HEU) for several atomic bombs.

The other third is low enriched uranium, the officials said.

Experts from the United Nations' Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and the US National Nuclear Security Administration would be on site assisting the Russians handling the transport.

Once back in Russia, the HEU will be mixed with low-grade uranium so that it becomes low-enriched reactor fuel that will no longer represent a proliferation risk.

The Rossendorf research reactor was built by the Soviet Union in the former communist East Germany, which ceased to exist after German reunification in 1990. The Rossendorf centre remains a key site for scientific research, though the reactor was shut down shortly after reunification.

The transfer of the uranium is part of a joint US-Russian programme in cooperation with the IAEA called the Global Threat Reduction Initiative (GTRI). Its aim is to find, secure and recover dangerous nuclear materials around the world to prevent them from falling into the hands of terrorists.

In an August 2006 fact sheet, the US Department of Energy said the GTRI programme had secured more than 400 sites around the world containing enough radioactive material for 6,000 ''dirty bombs'', conventional explosives laced with nuclear material.

The amount of HEU being transported to Russia overnight is more than in all the other GTRI recovery actions combined.

The GTRI was launched in 2004.

REUTERS