Spent fuel of a research reactor in Vinca shipped to Russia

Shipment containing spent fuel of the research reactor in Vinča, Serbia, arrived in Murmansk on December 15, 2010 and will proceed to the Mayak plant in Ozersk. Bellona quotes a Rosatom official as saying that the shipment contains "8.6 kilograms of highly enriched uranium and 45 kilograms of low-enriched uranium." The shipment completed transfer of HEU containing material from the Vinča reactor.

The removal of spent HEU fuel is part of the Global Threat Reduction Initiative program. The GTRI budget for FY2011 included funds for fuel removal from Serbia. The shipment was also part of Russia's commitment to take back Soviet-origin HEU fuel, made at the Nuclear Security Summit in April 2010.

UPDATE 12/22/2010: NNSA announced that the shipment included "13 kg of HEU spent fuel [and] approximately 2.5 metric tons of low-enriched uranium spent fuel." Now that the material has been shipped, no HEU remains in Serbia. According to NNSA, the total amount of material removed from Serbia is "3,031 kilograms of HEU and plutonium."

UPDATE 12/23/2010: The shipment was reported to have reached Mayak on December 22, 2010.