H/T Bear
Yahoo News:
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The United States and its allies have secured 68 kilograms (149.91 pounds) of highly enriched uranium from the Czech Republic as part of an effort to keep nuclear materials from falling into the hands of extremists, the White House said on Friday.
The uranium, enough material for two nuclear weapons, was transported to Russia where it will be blended down into low-enriched uranium for nuclear power reactors, according to a statement from Caitlin Hayden, spokeswoman for the National Security Council.
The Czech Republic becomes the 10th country from which all highly enriched uranium has been removed in the last four years, Hayden said.
As far as I understand it, it was a cold war “remainder,” perhaps originally intentioned for research.
(Czechs and or Slovaks did not have an official nuclear weaponization program. So far we havent learned about an unofficial one either. On the other hand, there (more likely than not) were plenty of Soviet nuclear warheads stationed in former Czechoslovakia.)
The Soviets wouldn’t have trust Czechoslovakia with nuclear weapons or that much HEU, I was stationed in Germany in 1968 when the Soviets moved more tanks into Czechoslovakia then NATO had world wide. They didn’t trust their client states in Eastern Europe, and were correct not to, as soon as they could all of them got rid of the communists.
“the Soviets moved more tanks into Czechoslovakia then NATO had world wide”
And yet battles over the defense budget were & are so contentious. It hardens a heart to be subjected to that much malice & stupidity.
It sure does when you are the one going to pay the price if the situation turns into a battle.