Multilateral Nonproliferation Cooperation US-Led Effort To Removed HEU/LEU Fresh and Spent Fuel From Tbilisi, Georgia To Dounreay, Scotland

I early March 1998, the U.S. Government approved a plan in cooperation with the U.K. and Georgian Governments to rapidly retrieve and transport 4.3kg of enriched uranium, consisting largely of HEU and a small amount of LEU-based fresh fuel and 800grams of HEU/LEU-based spent fuel from a shutdown IRT-M research reactor on the outskirts of Tbilisi, Georgia a former Soviet Republic. A technical team led by DOE was formed with HEU handling, packaging, 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, United State. The team was part of an interagency task force armed with Department of Defense Military personnel under U.S. European command and headed by senior official from the department of state. The operation was executed in full cooperation with the Government of Georgia and the staff at the Institute of Physics. In April-May 1998, the fresh fuel was repackaged in U.S.-6m-2r containers (USA/0002/B(U)F) and the spent fuel was repackaged in the NAC-LWT cask and both were transported in one U.S. Air Force C-5B cargo aircraft via air-to-air refueling from Tbilisi, Georgia to Kinloss RAF Base outside Inverness Scotland. In Scotland the fresh and spent fuel was transported north to the final disposition. This successful project project marked two important precedents: the rime fuel was moved by U.S. military aircraft, and the first time the U.S. teamed up with NATO partner to remove nuclear material from a site of proliferation concern.