It occurred one night at the end of April next year.

The 160 kilometers that separate the Venezuelan Institute of Scientific Research ( IVIC ), which is located on the outskirts of Caracas, from the port of Puerto Cabello in the state of Carabobo, were made as discretely as possible.

The army was escorting a car carrying a container with about 13 kilograms of highly enriched uranium inside it in order to bring it to the United States, but the circumstances for the evening and secrecy would only be known a few days later.

The governments of Venezuela, the United States, and the United Kingdom all joined the extraction operation, which had the assistance of the International Atomic Energy Agency ( IAEA ), which, as they later revealed, worked for years to ensure that it was carried out in a safe manner.

The IAEA stated in a statement from May 8 that it was" a carefully planned shared vision, carried out under stringent security measures, because this type of radioactive material can represent a development chance or security risk if it falls into the wrong hands. "

It is thought to be uranium that has been enriched above 20 %. Highly enriched uranium ( HEU) is regarded as such uranium.

This type of uranium is used in nuclear reactors around the world for peaceful purposes, such as research or the propulsion of nuclear submarines, but it can also be used to produce fissile material or even for bombs, according to Jack Crawford, a researcher in the Royal United Services Institute ( RUSI) nuclear proliferation and policy group.

Although it contained only over 20 % uranium-235, and HEU is typically regarded as arms class at 90 % or higher, Crawford told BBC Verify," The 13kg of highly enriched uranium that was removed ] from Venezuela is, theoretically, enough to be more refined into a small nuclear tool. "

The removal of highly enriched uranium is the most recent global effort to prevent the possibility that non-state stars or governments seeking to develop nuclear weapons might acquire it.

The Cuban government's relations to Iran, Russia, Cuba, and North Korea have for centuries been a source of concern for both the US government and, according to experts, for the IAEA as well.

However, how did Venezuela acquire highly enriched uranium, and why did it give it to the US?

Molecules for harmony

Venezuela had 13 pounds of HEU that was used as energy for the RV-1, the first nuclear reactor in Latin America.

In the context of the Atoms for Peace initiative, which was started by US President Dwight Eisenhower in the 1950s, this experimental reactor was installed in the Venezuelan Institute for Scientific Research ( IVIC ) in the early 1960s.

Eisenhower addressed the UN General Assembly on December 8, 1953, about the danger posed by nuclear weapons used in combat, which had been used for many years before the United States, and about the potential for development as more nations learned how to make nuclear bombs.

Next, he stated that we needed to go beyond attempting to reduce this risk and that he suggested putting this technology in the service of humanity.

It is insufficient to remove this tool from the men. It must be given to those who are skilled in removing its military surface and converting it to the art of peace, he said.

Then, he suggested the establishment of a UN-led company for atomic energy that would be in charge of developing methods for" serving the peaceful purposes of humanity" and where nuclear energy could be used to meet different needs in fields like medicine or agriculture.

The thought was that the nations that could produce nuclear weapons would give it to the UN company, which would keep it safe and give it to researchers who may investigate the calm uses of it.

Eisenhower's conversation inspired the establishment of the IAEA, which also served as the catalyst for the United States ' initiative" Atoms for Peace," which may assist developing nations in achieving peaceful nuclear energy use.

The United States changed the Atomic Energy Act to permit the import of nuclear technology and materials to other nations as long as they agreed not to use them for the development of weapons less than a year after that talk to the UN.

The Eisenhower management authorized the US Atomic Energy Commission to provide "free world" state with limited amounts of fissile material as well as funding for the development of nuclear reactors in March 1955.

The Colombian government purchased the RV-1 boiler from the American company a year later, and it was suddenly inaugurated on November 22, 1960. It had a power of 3 megawatts.

Up until 1991, RV-1 was half shut down as a research reactor.

The clear closure, in the eyes of Colombian authorities, took place in 1997 when the fuel it used to run its business was taken out and the rest has since been kept in custody under strict security.

The furnace was later transformed into a center where gamma rays can be used to sterilize medical equipment and other materials.

According to the IAEA, the RV-1 used nuclear energy during the centuries it was in operation.

From the record of Maduro to the uranium recovery

The British government, which was also involved in the operation, informed BBC Verify that Venezuelan officials had requested the removal of the remaining nuclear energy in 2017 and that the United Kingdom had joined the planning at the IAEA's ask the year before.

However, it appears that Nicolás Maduro's seize on January 3 was a determining factor in the completion of the uranium extraction.

Venezuela's Foreign Minister Yván Gil stated in a speech on May 7 that the US military's request to get Maduro "objectively increased the level of risk and confirmed the necessity" of carrying out the operation to remove the uranium.

Gil claims that the US military operation reached a distance of about 50 meters from the ancient furnace in the area around the IVIC offices.

Thus, the Venezuelan government, the US National Nuclear Security Administration ( NNSA ), the IAEA, and the United Kingdom government all joined forces at the beginning of April to launch this covert operation.

The IAEA was in charge of supervising the safeguards, carrying out the necessary technical verification, structurally supporting the process, and training Cuban personnel, according to the declaration from the Cuban authorities.

The Savannah River nuclear power plant in Aiken ( South Carolina, USA ), whose facilities are currently used to practice radioactive materials, received enriched uranium from Venezuela.

According to US government, Nuclear Transport Solutions, a section of the UK's Nuclear Decommissioning Authority, provided the cargo ship Pacific Egret on which the uranium was transported out of Venezuela.

This vessel stopped transmitting its satellite location on April 11, when it was in Charleston (South Carolina). A week later, it was docked in Puerto Cabello, as BBC Verify was able to verify through high-resolution satellite images.

Images taken on May 4 show the Pacific Egret - followed by what appears to be an escort ship - during its return to the United States, a country in which it was already on May 8, as shown in images of the port of Charleston taken on that date.

“This was a meticulously coordinated effort, with strict safety measures in place at all times,” the UK Office for Nuclear Regulation stated.

In a statement, the US State Department also reported on the successful conclusion of this operation and highlighted that as of early May the NNSA had “removed or confirmed the removal of more than 7,340 kilograms of weapons-grade nuclear material.”

According to the IAEA, although most of the nuclear research reactors built in the 1960s and 1970s required highly enriched uranium to carry out their experiments, currently these research can be done with low-enriched uranium (LEU), in which the concentration of uranium-235 is below 20%.

That institution states that around the world, more than a hundred research reactors and medical isotope production facilities have been adapted to use low-enriched uranium instead of highly enriched uranium or have been closed.

This, in turn, has allowed the recovery of some 7,000 kilos of highly enriched uranium, to which that from Venezuela has now been added.

*With information from BBC Verify.

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