Uranium Removed in Anti-Terror Mission

An international team of nuclear specialists backed by armed security personnel removed 37 pounds of highly enriched uranium from a shuttered Bulgarian reactor in an operation intended to forestall nuclear terrorism, U.S. officials said.

The mission, organized with Bulgaria’s cooperation, removed nearly enough uranium to make a small bomb, the officials said. The material was flown to a Russian facility to be converted into a form that cannot be used for weapons, they said.

It was the third time that U.S. and Russian authorities have teamed up on such a mission since last year.