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Spent HEU fuel shipped from Poland

U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration announced removal of about 187 kg of spent HEU fuel from Poland. According to NNSA, the operation, which took five shipments over the year, included the largest single shipment of spent HEU fuel, which used the entire fleet of spent fuel transportation casks that are used in the Russian-origin HEU removal program. This shipment brought the amount of spent HEU fuel removed from Poland to "more than 450 kg."

The shipments included spent fuel from Ewa and Maria reactors of the Atomic Energy Institute in Sverk. NNSA reports that all spent fuel of the Ewa reactor has been removed from the site. The reactor was reportedly shut down in 1995. The Maria reactor continues to operate using 36% HEU fuel supplied by Russia. According to the NNSA report, it is working with the Atomic Energy Institute to convert this reactor to LEU fuel.

Previous shipments of HEU fuel from Poland to Russia took place in August 2006 and August 2007. The August 2006 shipment in removed about 40 kg of fresh HEU fuel of the Maria reactor. 

At the Nuclear Security Summit held in Washington in April 2010, Russia pledged to remove spent HEU fuel from five countries, Poland among them. 

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