THURSDAY, March 28, 2024
nationthailand

Vietnam ends production of weapons-grade uranium

Vietnam ends production of weapons-grade uranium

A Russian transport aircraft left Vietnam yesterday carrying 106 spent, highly enriched uranium (HEU) fuel assemblies, containing almost 11 kilogrammes of HEU, from the Da Lat research reactor to the Russian Federation.

This was the last remaining HEU fuel to leave the country, authorities stated.
With this shipment, Vietnam has fulfilled its commitment to a 2006 agreement signed by then president Nguyen Minh Triet and US president George W Bush. It stated that Vietnam would convert Da Lat’s research reactor from Highly Enriched Uranium (HEU) to Low Enriched Uranium (LEU).
Da Lat research reactor was upgraded from an early 1960s TRIGA reactor and was restarted in March 1984 with a nominal power capacity of 500 kW.
Following the IAEA’s recommendations and based on an agreement between the US and Russia, all research reactors using uranium enriched to 20 per cent or higher have to be converted to use low enriched uranium (LEU) (below 20 per cent), because unlike HEU, LEU cannot be used to make nuclear weapons.
Da Lat research reactor is one of more than 20 research reactors in 17 countries that use HEU fuel supplied by the former Soviet Union.
From 2007 to date, Vietnam’s Ministry of Science and Technology has worked closely with the IAEA, the US National Nuclear Security Administration and Russia’s State Atomic Energy Corporation to implement the programme. 
In November 2011, the Da Lat Nuclear Research Institute had successfully completed replacing all the remaining HEU fuel, therefore the Da Lat research reactor was converted to operate on LEU fuel.
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