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.

Iran has tripled uranium production, says UN

Iran has tripled its journal production of higher-grade enriched uranium and the UN nuclear watchdog has “serious concerns” about likely military dimensions to Tehran’s atomic activities, according to the agency’s director general.Yukiya Amano, director common of the International Atomic Energy Agency, also told the IAEA’s 35-nation board of governors concerning the lack of progress in two rounds of talks among the Vienna-based UN agency and Tehran this year.

Iran denies accusations that it is covertly seeking nuclear weapons capability, in part by co-ordinating efforts to procedure uranium, test high explosives and revamp a ballistic missile cone to accommodate a nuclear warhead. But its refusal to curb sensitive atomic work that can have both civilian and military applications has strained increasingly tough UN and western sanctions against the major oil producer. During the meetings in the Iranian capital in January and February, Iranian officials stonewalled the IAEA’s requests intended for access to a military site seen as central to its investigation into the nature of the Islamic state’s nuclear activity.

“The agency continues to have serious concerns regarding likely military dimensions to Iran’s nuclear programme,” Mr Amano told the closed-door meeting, according to a copy of his speech. The agency “is unable to provide credible assurance regarding the absence of undeclared nuclear material and activities in Iran, and therefore to conclude that all nuclear material in Iran is in peaceful activities”, he added.A report by the IAEA to member states last month said Iran was considerably stepping up uranium enrichment, a finding that sent oil prices elevated on fears that tensions between Tehran and the west could boil over into military conflict.

Iran Pressed to Resolve Discrepancy on Uranium

The Obama administration pressed Iran to account for a inconsistency of nearly 20 kilograms in its reporting to the United Nations' nuclear agency on how much natural uranium metal it has in its stockpile. U.S. diplomats told a quarterly gathering Friday of the International Atomic Energy Agency's 35-nation board so as to Washington fears this nuclear material can be diverted for use in Tehran's weapons programs.

Natural uranium metal can specifically be utilized as a surrogate material to conduct replicated tests of nuclear detonations, according to U.S. officials. It can also be used to manufacture high-explosive weapons, such as armor-piercing rockets.The IAEA calculated 20 kilos added than Iran had reported.

"It remains to be seen whether this discrepancy could eventually represent another piece in the puzzle the IAEA is assemble to show Iran's nuclear weapons-related activities," said Glyn Davies, U.S. ambassador to the IAEA. "The secretariat and the board must accept no delay in Iran's response."The agency's board voted by consensus Friday to officially censure Tehran for its nuclear activities, but didn't take steps to begin new economic sanctions on Iran. The resolution followed the release last week of an IAEA report that detailed Tehran's alleged efforts to develop the technologies used to create nuclear weapons.

DR Congo signs nuclear proliferation contract with US

The United States and Democratic Republic of Congo on Tuesday signed an contract to avoid trafficking of nuclear and radioactive materials, the US embassy said. The agreement comes after a November UN report revealed that a group of Rwandan rebel in the east of the country effort to sell six containers of uranium which dated back to the days of Belgian colonial rule. The contract highlights Washington's commitment to helping DR Congo efficiently deal with propagation of nuclear materials, the US embassy said in a statement.

The United States has signed related deals with Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Georgia, Kyrgyzstan and Armenia, the statement said. The uranium exposed by UN experts came from the country's only uranium mine in Shinkolobwe, Katanga province, which blocked in 1960. Uranium from Shinkolobwe was sold to the United States by Belgium in 1943 and used in the nuclear bomb dropped on Hiroshima. DR Congo and French nuclear huge Areva agreed a contract to develop uranium mining in March last year.