U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration announced today that it completed removal of all HEU from Czech Republic. The shipment included 68 kg of HEU, apparently in spent fuel of the LVR-15 reactor at the Research Centre Řež of the Nuclear Research Institute. According to the NNSA photo account of the shipment, the cask with spent fuel left Řež on 22 March 2013 and arrived in Gdansk, Poland on 24 March 2013. Containers with the casks were loaded in the ship Mikhail Dudin that arrived in Murmansk several days ago. The spent fuel will be transported to the Mayak plant. The reactor reportedly used IRT-2M fuel assemblies with uranium enriched to 36% U-235.

The LVR-15 reactor has been converted to LEU, although it reportedly uses HEU targets to produce medical isotopes. Nevertheless, the amount of HEU in this process is very small, so Czech Republic could be added to the list of countries from which HEU has been removed. According to NNSA, "the Czech Republic becomes the tenth country from which all HEU has been removed since President Obama announced in Prague an international effort to secure all vulnerable nuclear material around the world."

UPDATE: According to Bellona, previous shipments of HEU from Czech Republic included 80 kg of spent fuel of the LVR-15 reactor in 2007, and three shipments of fresh fuel: 6 kg in 2004, 14 kg in 2005, and 12.2 kg in 2010. Also, in 2006 Russia removed from Czech Republic 0.2 kg of plutonium. LEU fuel for the LVR-15 reactor was supplied by TVEL in March 2011.