Follow along with the video below to see how to install our site as a web app on your home screen.
Note: This feature may not be available in some browsers.
2,000ton FFG vs 4,000ton FFGVPA Navy's Gepard 3.9 frigate - HQ-11 vs PLAN's Type 054A frigate - 570 (repost with higher resolution)
VN returns 11kg of highly-enriched uranium to Russia
TUOITRENEWS
UPDATED : 07/04/2013 12:31 GMT + 7
Vietnam has returned the last remaining 106 highly enriched uranium (HEU) fuel assemblies (FAs), weighing 11 kilograms, from the Da Lat Nuclear Research Institute to Russia, the Vietnam Atomic Energy Institute reported.
The return was completed on Wednesday, July 3, when the FAs was transported to Russia on a Russian AN-124-100 cargo plane, said Dr Nguyen Nhi Dien, deputy head of the institute and head of the Da Lat Nuclear Research Institute.
In order to load the HEU onto a plane safely for return, eight experts from Russia, the US and the Czech Republic, as well as 16 Vietnamese engineers from the Da Lat Nuclear Research Institute, worked together for nearly a month, Dien said.
This is the result of the cooperation between the Vietnamese Ministry of Science and Technology, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Russia's State Atomic Energy Corporation (ROSATOM), and the United States' National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA).
Le Vinh Vinh, deputy director of the Institute’s Reaction Center, said that in 2009 the institute returned 36 HEU fuel assemblies (36 percent of U-235) to Russia.
Those HEU FAs had not been used before being returned so transfer was easy, Vinh said.
Meanwhile, the 106 FAs that were returned on July 3 were completely different, since they had been placed in the reactor since 1983, when the former Soviet Union manufactured and supplied them for the institute.
After 28 years of being used, they were handled to reduce their radioactivity, but the radioactivity remains high and can cause major problems if a leak occurs, Vinh said.
In order to ensure safety for the return process, a 12-ton container with30 cm thick walls was sent to Da Lat from the Czech Republic to hold the FAs.
Security was tightened before and during the return to ensure safety until the Russian plane took off, Dr Dien said.
With this shipment, Vietnam became the eleventh country, after Romania and the Czech Republic, from which all HEU has been removed since US President Barack Obama’s 2009 announcement in Prague of an international effort to secure all vulnerable nuclear material around the world.
“After these HEU FAs are returned to Russia, their uranium enrichment levels will be lowered to make them suitable for use for civil purposes, Dien said.
In response to speculation spread online that the returned 11 kg uranium is equal to the material needed for half of an atomic bomb, experts from the Da Lat Reactor Center rejected the rumors as groundless.
“It is unlikely for HEU fuel assemblies 36 percent of U-235 tio be sued to produce atomic bomb. According to current technologies, the enrichment level must be more than 80 percent,” Dr Dien said.
VN returns 11kg of highly-enriched uranium to Russia | Tu
In VN news, its said 16 kg instead of 11 kg.
in fact : No one can check our enrichment level, thats why it has a rumor of making Nuke bomb in VN during Cold war
China nuclear technology is just a cheap copy from Soviet or USA when we were taught secretly by Soviet big bro during cold war coz we were Soviet's allyMake a nuclear bomb, and China shall sanction you. If you launch nuclear missiles (Which I doubt Vietnam has expertise on nuclear warhead miniaturization) on China, China will retaliate.
Anyway, Vietnam is years behind China in nuclear technology.
Whatever 16kg or 11kg highly-enriched uranium, they'r only 36% purity far far away for 80% nuclear weapon-level.VN returns 11kg of highly-enriched uranium to Russia
In VN news, its said 16 kg instead of 11 kg.
in fact : No one can check our enrichment level, thats why it has a rumor of making Nuke bomb in VN during Cold war
1983 former S.U provided 106 36% FAs to Vietnam, now 2013 Vietnam still return 36% uranium to Russia. At least we know Vietnam didn't get the nuclear centrifugal machines(ofcourse no country could export it) and can't purify weapon-level uranium, or must less than original weight.the 106 FAs that were returned on July 3 were completely different, since they had been placed in the reactor since 1983, when the former Soviet Union manufactured and supplied them for the institute.
to made nuke warhead of course, 36% is just a news to please China and our ASEAN neighbours, China cant check it. We were not so crazy when sided with Soviet to fight against China without possessing nuke bombWhatever 16kg or 11kg highly-enriched uranium, they'r only 36% purity far far away for 80% nuclear weapon-level.
I'm just curious what Vietnam did by using these HEU fuel assemblies in 1983 ?
.
Soviet sent many secret machines to VietNam during cold war, who knows they sent nuclear centrifugal machines and assembled them in secret place VN or notcnleio said:1983 former S.U provided 106 36% FAs to Vietnam, now 2013 Vietnam still return 36% uranium to Russia. At least we know Vietnam didn't get the nuclear centrifugal machines(ofcourse no country could export it) and can't purify weapon-level uranium, or must less than original weight.