Weapons-grade Uranium from around the world comes to Y-12 for disposal

East Tennessee is playing a key role in a global effort to safe weapons-grade Uranium located all over the world. Decades ago, Oak Ridge was a location where Highly Enriched Uranium (HEU) was produced and affected into the atomic bomb that was dropped on Hiroshima during World War II. Today it is a warehouse for the nuclear material.

"Y-12 was involved in going down, securing the Uranium, wrapping it into containers, next bringing it back to Tennessee," said Gerald DeVault, Director of Nuclear Non-proliferation and Global Security Programs at Y-12.

Nuclear experts beginning the United States traveled to Mexico in February, 2012 to get Mexico's Uranium out of the country. It wrecked up at Y-12 in Oak Ridge. "It will be dispositioned for passive uses, such as medical isotope production," said DeVault.