GTRI: Removing Vulnerable Civilian Nuclear and Radiological Material | National Nuclear Security Administration

Mission

In 2004 NNSA established the Global Threat Reduction Initiative (GTRI) in the Office of Defense Nuclear Nonproliferation to, as quickly as possible, identify, secure, remove and/or facilitate the disposition of high risk vulnerable nuclear and radiological materials around the world that pose a threat to the United States and the international community.

GTRI achieves its mission via three initiatives – Convert, Remove and Protect - which provide a comprehensive approach to preventing terrorists’ access to nuclear and radiological materials. GTRI’s Remove Program works around the world to remove excess nuclear and radiological materials that could be used for a nuclear weapon or radiological dispersal device (RDD), or “dirty bomb”.

These efforts result in permanent threat reduction because they permanently eliminate material so it can no longer be used by terrorists for malevolent purposes.

Key initiatives that fall within the Remove subprogram include:

• Repatriating Russian-origin fresh and spent HEU fuel from Russian-designed research reactors worldwide to Russia;
• Repatriating U.S.-origin HEU and LEU spent nuclear fuel from research reactors to the United States;
• Addressing Gap nuclear materials by removing or verifying the disposal of vulnerable nuclear materials that are not covered under the Russian-origin and U.S.-origin nuclear remove activities; and
• Recover and secure disused and unwanted radiological sources around the world.

Accomplishments

Since it was established in 2004, GTRI has greatly accelerated efforts to remove vulnerable civilian nuclear and radiological materials.

GTRI has removed 3,500 kilograms of highly enriched uranium (HEU) and plutonium -- enough for more than 135 nuclear weapons – and cleaned out 22 countries and areas of all HEU including:

• Austria, Brazil, Bulgaria, Chile, Colombia, Denmark, Greece, Latvia, Libya, Mexico, Philippines, Portugal, Romania, Serbia, Slovenia, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, and Ukraine

Russian-Origin Material

GTRI has successfully conducted 50 shipments totaling more than 1,900 kilograms of HEU and plutonium, enough for more than 70 nuclear weapons.

U.S.-Origin Material

GTRI has successfully conducted 57 shipments totaling more than 1,260 kilograms of HEU, enough for about 50 nuclear weapons.

Gap Material

GTRI has successfully conducted 24 shipments totaling more than 300 kilograms of HEU and plutonium, enough for more than 10 nuclear weapons.

Radiological Source Recovery

GTRI has successfully:

• Recovered more than 33,000 disused and unwanted sources domestically containing hundreds of thousands of curies of activity; and
• Recovered, with international partners, more than 730 Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generators, or RTGs, from Russia containing millions of curies of activity.