U.S. President Donald Trump has long sought to bring Iran’s enriched uranium under American control, but so far those efforts have failed. However, while Washington could not secure uranium from Iran, it has now succeeded in removing enriched uranium from the South American nation of Venezuela.
According to a report published Friday (May 8) by The Guardian�, the U.S. Department of Energy announced that 13.5 kilograms of highly enriched uranium had been removed from an aging research reactor in Venezuela. The operation was carried out jointly by the United States, the United Kingdom, and Venezuela.
Brandon Williams, head of the National Nuclear Security Administration under the U.S. Department of Energy, said the safe removal of enriched uranium from Venezuela sends a strong signal that the country is returning to the international system.
The International Atomic Energy Agency stated that the highly sensitive mission involved transporting the uranium safely by land and sea routes to North America. It was later transferred to a Department of Energy facility in Southern California.
Earlier this year, relations between Washington and Caracas shifted significantly after the Trump administration made the controversial decision to seek the arrest of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. Since then, the two countries have begun rebuilding diplomatic ties. Several senior American officials have visited Venezuela, commercial flights between the two nations have resumed after more than seven years, and the United States has reopened its embassy there.
Business leaders have welcomed what they describe as the beginning of a new era in commercial relations with Venezuela, home to the world’s largest proven oil reserves. However, pro-democracy activists have criticized the Trump administration for supporting figures aligned with the Venezuelan government while sidelining exiled opposition leader and Nobel laureate María Corina Machado.
US takes 13.5 kg of enriched uranium from Venezuela
