Weapons Grade Uranium Removed From University Reactors

Environment News Service, April, 2005

WASHINGTON, DC (ENS) — --> The Department of Energy (DOE) has begun to convert research reactors at the University of Florida and Texas A&M University from using highly-enriched uranium (HEU) to low-enriched uranium fuel (LEU).

Highly-enriched uranium is weapons-grade nuclear material that can be used to make a nuclear weapon or a dirty bomb that can spread radioactive contamination with a non-nuclear explosion.

This effort, by DOE’s National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) and the Office of Nuclear Energy, Science and Technology, are the latest steps under the Global Threat Reduction Initiative’s Reduced Enrichment for Research and Test Reactors program.

As part of the program, the NNSA is minimizing the use of HEU in civilian nuclear programs by...

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