MOSCOW, August 10 (RIA Novosti) - Russia has taken back dozens of kilograms of highly enriched spent uranium from a reactor built with Soviet assistance in Poland, the Russian Federal Agency for Nuclear Power said Thursday.
About 40 kilograms (90lb) of 20-80% 235 HEU was repatriated from the Maria research reactor, in the Polish city of Swierk, as part of a U.S.-Russian presidential agreement reached last year.
Under the document, signed by presidents George Bush and Vladimir Putin during a meeting in Bratislava in February 2005, HEU of U.S. and Russian origin should be repatriated to prevent non-civilian use of fissile material by third countries.
Russia has already repatriated about 900kg (2,000lb) of spent HEU from Soviet-built plants in six countries: Serbia, Romania, Bulgaria, Libya, Latvia and Uzbekistan.
Spent nuclear fuel from all 17 reactors built by Russia's specialists outside the country is expected to return by 2012-13.
