Multilateral Nonproliferation Cooperation: U.S.-led Effort to Remove HEU/LEU Fresh and Spent Fuel from the Republic of Georgia to Dounreay, Scotland (Auburn Endeavor/Project Olympus)

In early March 1998, the United States government approved a plan in cooperation with the United Kingdom and Georgian governments to rapidly retrieve and transport about 4.3 kilograms of enriched uranium. This material consisted largely of highly enriched uranium and a small amount of low-enriched uranium fresh fuel, as well as about 800 grams of HEU/LEU-based spent fuel from a shutdown IRT-M research reactor on the outskirts of Tbilisi in Georgia, a former Soviet republic. A technical team led by DOE consisted of HEU handling, packing and transportation experts from the Oak Ridge Y-12 Plant, managed and operated by Lockheed Martin Energy Systems, and spent fuel handling and transportation experts from NAC International in Norcross, Georgia, U.S.A. The team was part of an interagency task force formed with Department of Defense military personnel under U.S. European Command and headed by a senior official from the Department of State. The operation was executed in full cooperation with the government of the Republic of Georgia and the staff at the Institute of Physics. In April of 1998, the fresh fuel was repacked in U.S.-supplied 6M- 2R containers [USA/0002/B(U)F] and the spent fuel was repacked in the NAC-LWT cask [USA/9225/B(U)F-85]. All the containers were then transported in one U.S. Air Force C-5B cargo aircraft via air-to-air refueling from Tbilisi, Georgia, to Kinloss Royal Air Force Base outside Inverness, Scotland. In Scotland the fresh and spent fuel was transported north to the Dounreay Nuclear Complex west of Thurso, Caithness, Scotland, for interim storage and final disposition. This successful national security project was the first time the United States teamed with a NATO partner to remove nuclear material from a site of proliferation concern.