May 8, 2026, 9:57 p.mMay 8, 2026, 9:57 p.m
35 years after the RV-1 research reactor in Venezuela was decommissioned, 13.5 kilograms of highly enriched uranium were shipped to the United States. Experts from Venezuela and the USA removed the 20 percent enriched material from the reactor, secured it in a special container and brought it over 160 kilometers by land to the coast, as the US embassy in Caracas announced. There the uranium was loaded onto a British ship and brought to the USA. The material is now to be processed and reused at the Savannah River Site nuclear facility in South Carolina.
“The safe removal of all enriched uranium from Venezuela sends another signal to the world that Venezuela is making a new beginning,” said Brandon Williams, head of the US Department of Energy’s Nuclear Safety Division.
US attack near the research reactor
The Venezuelan government has repeatedly pointed out to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) the need to get the highly enriched uranium out of the country, said Foreign Minister Yvan Gil. During the US operation to arrest President Nicolás Maduro at the beginning of the year, targets in the immediate vicinity of the old reactor were also attacked. That made the risk clear again.
RV-1 was one of the first nuclear reactors in Latin America. Nuclear research was carried out there from 1960 to 1991. For this purpose, the uranium was enriched to 20 percent. Uranium enriched to over 90 percent is required to build nuclear weapons. (sda/dpa)