U.S., Russia nab Bulgarian uranium

MOSCOW, Dec. 24 (UPI) -- Armed agents and an international team of nuclear specialists have swooped into a shuttered Bulgarian reactor and recovered highly enriched uranium.

The team, working with the cooperation of Bulgarian authorities, removed 37 pounds of highly enriched uranium in a secretive operation intended to forestall nuclear terrorism, the Washington Post reported Wednesday.

The uranium, which was enough to make a small nuclear bomb, was sent by plane on Tuesday to a Russian facility where it will be converted into a form that cannot be used for weapons.

It was the third time since last year that U.S. and Russian authorities teamed to remove highly enriched uranium from Soviet-era facilities.

In August 2002, such a team retrieved 100 pounds of weapons-grade uranium from an aging reactor in Yugoslavia. The second seizure of uranium took place three months ago, when 30 pounds was removed from a Romanian facility.

"We must not allow terrorists and others with bad intentions to acquire deadly material, and the Department of Energy will continue doing its part," Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham said.