27 March 2012
Seoul, South Korea
Prime Minister Stephen Harper today announced that Canada and the United States are expanding their efforts to return additional inventories of highly enriched uranium (HEU) materials, currently stored at Atomic Energy of Canada Limited’s Chalk River Laboratories in Ontario, to facilities in the United States. The announcement was made at the Nuclear Security Summit in Seoul, Republic of Korea.
"Canada is committed to working cooperatively to combat the threat of nuclear terrorism," said Prime Minister Harper. "This initiative demonstrates Canada’s continued leadership by returning more highly enriched uranium inventories to the United States.”
At the 2010 Nuclear Security Summit, Canada committed to returning spent HEU fuel to the United States by the end of 2018. Canada has made significant progress in implementing this initial commitment with the first shipment of fuel returned in 2010. With today’s announcement, Canada will now be returning an even broader range of HEU material to the United States.
This initiative, which will also be completed by the end of 2018, supports international efforts being promoted at the Nuclear Security Summit to consolidate HEU at a smaller number of very secure locations. These efforts have resulted in several countries returning fresh and spent HEU to original suppliers as well as the consolidation of HEU inventories within countries.
