Project Sapphire Removes Highly Enriched Uranium from Kazakhstan
November 1994
For nearly a month in autumn 1994, an American team worked twelve hour days at the Ulba Metallurgical Plant in Ust-Kamenogorsk, identifying and packaging a stock of uranium containing 600 kilograms of highly enriched material. Project Sapphire would remove it from Kazakhstan to the United States. [1]
Kazakhstan had inherited the material from the Soviet Union. Leaving it at the plant carried a proliferation risk, but removing it safely required technical preparation and close cooperation with the Kazakh authorities. After a preliminary survey in August, a larger American team arrived in October with specialists, equipment, and protective shipping containers. [1]
By 11 November, the team had repacked the stock into 448 containers. Bad weather delayed departure until 20–21 November, when two C-5 transport aircraft carried the uranium out, refueling in the air on the journey to Delaware. It then traveled overland to the Y-12 plant at Oak Ridge, Tennessee. [1]
Related Diplomats
Sources
- Project Sapphire after-action report — declassified operational record
Mission overview; deployment; repackaging; departure and transport
- Project Sapphire anniversary — U.S. Embassy in Kazakhstan
Original preview reference
- Сулейменов Т.С.
Biographical entry with bibliography
- DoD News Briefing: Secretary of Defense William J. Perry, et al
pp. 1–3
Related Reading
Cite This Article
Project Sapphire Removes Highly Enriched Uranium from Kazakhstan. Chanceries Diplopedia. Record 69f9fd4c020646493a3d. https://chanceries.org/research/history/kazakhstan-sapphire-597a3e887d/