{"id":14661,"date":"2019-01-18T12:41:31","date_gmt":"2019-01-18T12:41:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/?p=14661"},"modified":"2019-01-18T12:41:31","modified_gmt":"2019-01-18T12:41:31","slug":"how-the-us-and-china-collaborated-to-get-nuclear-material-out-of-nigeria-and-away-from-terrorist-groups","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/?p=14661","title":{"rendered":"How the US and China collaborated to get nuclear material out of Nigeria \u2014 and away from terrorist groups"},"content":{"rendered":"

https:\/\/www.defensenews.com\/news\/pentagon-congress\/2019\/01\/14\/how-the-us-and-china-collaborated-to-get-nuclear-material-out-of-nigeria-and-away-from-terrorist-groups\/
\nBy: Aaron Mehta<\/strong>
\nWASHINGTON \u2014 At a staging ground in Ghana, a group of nuclear experts watched the clock and nervously waited for the news.
\nThe team \u2014 a mix of American, British, Norwegian and Chinese experts, along with Czech and Russian contractors \u2014 were supposed to head into the Kaduna region of Nigeria to remove highly enriched uranium from a research reactor that nonproliferation experts have long warned could be a target for terrorists hoping to get their hands on nuclear material.
\nBut with the team assembled and ready to go on Oct. 20, 2018, the mission was suddenly paused, with the regional governor declaring a curfew after regional violence left dozens dead. As American diplomats raced to ensure the carefully calibrated window of opportunity didn\u2019t shut, the inspectors were unsure if the situation would be safe enough to complete the mission.
\n\u201cFrankly speaking, yeah, I was nervous for my people on the ground and everyone else who was on the ground. It was important, but we had to go at it in a prudent way\u201d said Peter Hanlon, assistant deputy administrator for material management and minimization, an office within the U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration. \u201cAs someone responsible for this organization, I was nervous.\u201d
\nMoving the nuclear material out of Nigeria has been a long-sought goal for the United States and nonproliferation advocates. But the goal has taken on increased importance in recent years with the rise of militant groups in the region, particularly Boko Haram, a group the Pentagon calls a major terrorist concern in the region.
\nUnderscoring the importance of the operation: the key role China played in transporting and storing the plutonium, with the operation happening just hours after U.S. President Donald Trump made an explicit threat to China about growing America\u2019s nuclear arsenal.
\nFor those gathered in Ghana that evening, however, the focus was on watching the clock and hoping that the negotiators could come through and allow them to finally get the material out of Nigeria \u2014 and get everyone home safely.
\n\u2018Material that is attractive to terrorists\u2019<\/strong>
\nIt was the mid-1990s when Nigeria, with technical support and backing from China, began work on what would become Nigerian Research Reactor 1, located at Ahmadu Bello University in Kaduna. The location opened in 2004, and is home to roughly 170 Nigerian workers.
\nNIRR-1 is classified as a miniature neutron source reactor, designed for \u201cscientific research, neutron activation analysis, education and training,\u201d per the International Atomic Energy Agency. Essentially, the reactor powers scientific experiments, not the local grid.
\nThe design, however, used highly enriched uranium, or HEU, a type of nuclear substance often referred to by the general public as weapons-grade uranium. This kind of uranium forms the core of any nuclear weapons material, and the Nigerian material was more than 90 percent enriched, making it particularly attractive for anyone looking to use it.
\nSince NIRR-1 went online, however, improvements in technology meant that experiments involving highly enriched uranium could now be run with a lesser substance. Across the globe, the IAEA and its partners have worked to swap out weapons-grade material with lightly enriched uranium, or LEU, which is enriched at less than 20 percent, and hence unusable for weapons. In all, 33 countries have now become free of HEU, including 11 countries in Africa.
\nWith just over 1 kilogram of HEU, the Nigerian material, if stolen, would not be nearly enough to create a full nuclear warhead. However, a terrorist group would be able to create a dirty bomb with the substance or add the material into a stockpile gathered elsewhere to get close to the amount needed for a large explosion.
\nIn a statement released by the IAEA, Yusuf Aminu Ahmed, director of the Nigerian Centre for Energy Research and Training, was blunt about his concerns over keeping the weapons-grade material in his country. \u201cWe don\u2019t want any material that is attractive to terrorists,” he said.
\nAnd the nature of these types of reactors, used primarily for research, means they are ideal targets for terrorist groups looking for nuclear material, said Jon Wolfsthal, a nuclear expert who served as senior director for arms control and nonproliferation at the U.S. National Security Council from 2014 to 2017.
\n\u201cThey\u2019re small reactors, they\u2019re not power reactors where the fuel is so radioactive it kills you,\u201d he said. \u201cThis is very attractive to a proliferation point of view, and they are research reactors, so they are often at universities without high security.\u201d
\nAll of which gave the governments involved incentive to get the material out of Nigeria sooner rather than later, and which led to the group of experts sitting in Ghana, waiting for a call.
\nIt wasn\u2019t until Oct. 22 \u2014 two days after the initial delay \u2014 that American diplomats, working with their Nigerian counterparts, were able to get an exemption to the curfew in Kaduna and prepare to roll out. But for security reasons, an operation that usually took days would have to happen in just one 24-hour period.
\nAt 1:30 a.m. on Oct. 23, a Russian Antonov An-124 cargo plane touched down in Nigeria. Aboard were the team of experts, but also a TUK-145\/C \u2014 a 30-ton cargo container designed specifically for moving such uranium from place to place and doing so securely.
\nFrom the outside, the TUK-145\/C looks like a large, silver cylinder, designed to keep its precious cargo safe even in the event of a plane crash \u2014 as part of the safety testing before certification, the container is put into a pool of jet fuel, with the whole thing then lit on fire for 60 minutes. If you somehow could cut it down the middle, the container would appear to be two parts \u2014 an outer shell for security, and an innermost cask containing the spent uranium rods.
\nBoth the plane and the TUK-145\/C are owned and operated by the Russian Sosny Research and Development Company, a specialty firm that has been used in other HEU removal procedures.
\nLoading the equipment off the plane took hours, as did the trip from the airstrip to the reactor. But finally, the team arrived at the reactor around 9 a.m. The group now included U.S. State Department security and Nigeria\u2019s Army First Division, considered a top-end unit of the Nigerian military.
\nTiffany Blanchard-Case, a nuclear expert from the National Nuclear Security Administration, was one of the officials on the ground to oversee the transfer. She described a \u201cgrueling\u201d day as the team rushed to condense what needed to be done into the secure window.
\n\u201cNo one was concerned about breaks, no one was concerned about lunch, everyone was just working 100 percent in order to make sure we could meet this schedule,\u201d she said. \u201cA long day for everyone.\u201d
\nGetting at the uranium is tricky business. The reactor core, which holds the actual material, is located at the bottom of a six-meter-deep pool. Above the pool, technicians have to create a platform and then center a vessel, known as the interim transfer cask, above the core. The cask contains a grapple, which reaches into the reactor and lifts out the core; when the core is loaded in, a plug is placed over the core and the cask is sealed, loaded onto the Skoda shipping cask, and then that unit is sealed inside the TUK-145\/C.
\nReplacing HEU with LEU in research reactors naturally requires caution, as anything nuclear-related comes with risks. But the Nigerian mission was particularly difficult because of security concerns, Hanlon said. He noted that Boko Haram, while not in the Kaduna region, has been operating in Nigeria for quite some time.
\n\u201cWe had concerns about the security on the ground, in the region. Working very closely with the U.S. embassy, there were additional security requirements put upon us and limitations for us on having people on the ground at the facility itself,\u201d Hanlon said.
\nHanlon and Blanchard-Case declined to discuss details of the security, other than to say it was heavy and that the U.S. State Department added extra forces as part of the agreement to allow the team to go in.
\nAlice Hunt Friend, a regional expert with the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said that Boko Haram is not necessarily \u201cactive\u201d in the region, but added that an attack by the group in that area shouldn\u2019t be ruled out.
\n\u201cThe city is a transport hub, pretty much right between Abuja and Kano on the main route. It is also in the belt that has experienced a lot of communal violence over the past 10 years, so I can also imagine that security for HEU sites would be of concern more generally, even absent a specific threat,\u201d she said. \u201cWith much of the Nigerian military concentrating on the northeast, I would imagine security for sites in Kaduna is inconsistent.\u201d
\nBoko Haram is just one threat that worries security teams on the ground, said Peter Haynes, an analyst with the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments.
\n\u201cFueled by ethnic and religious differences, there has been lots of violence in the Kaduna region in the last six months, but that has been between Fulani Muslim herders and Christian villagers,\u201d said Haynes, adding that it is not \u201cuncommon as of late to have curfews to dampen the communal violence.\u201d
\nWhile the technicians were able to leave the country once their daylong mission was complete, security on site remained thick for the next five weeks as administrators worked the logistics and clearances needed to fly nuclear material over other nations’ airspace. Asked about the security level during this down period, Dov Schwartz, an NNSA spokesman, said that \u201cextensive planning went into ensuring the removed highly enriched uranium was safe and secure prior to transport.”
\n“All of our partners understood that operational security was paramount,\u201d Schwartz said. “The world is a safer place today as a result of the determined work to remove this weapons useable Uranium from Nigeria.\u201d
\nFinally, on Dec. 4, the HEU was escorted by the Nigerian military toward the An-124, loaded onto the aircraft and sent on its way to its final destination.
\nThe material was heading for China.
\nThe removal operation cost roughly $5.5 million, with the United States contributing $4.3 million. The United Kingdom ($900,000) and Norway ($290,000) also chipped in. But while it didn\u2019t contribute money, China\u2019s role in the operation was outsized \u2014 and occurred as the war of words from the Trump administration toward Beijing was reaching a fever pitch, one that did not die down in the weeks to come.
\nAs the October operation was just hours from starting, U.S. President Donald Trump took to the press to discuss nuclear material and China.
\n\u201cUntil people come to their senses, we will build [the nuclear arsenal] up,” Trump told reporters just hours before the Nigeria operation was to begin. “It\u2019s a threat to whoever you want. And it includes China, and it includes Russia, and it includes anybody else that wants to play that game. You can\u2019t do that. You can\u2019t play that game on me.\u201d
\nBy the time the Antonov plane \u2014 carrying the HEU, along with American inspectors and security \u2014 arrived at Shijiazhuang airport in China on Dec. 6, the arrest of a Chinese technology executive in Canada had inflamed fears of a trade conflict between the two countries.
\nOnce the material landed in China, local officials took possession of the uranium, marking the end of the Nigerian mission \u2014 but not necessarily the end of the material.
\nHanlon acknowledged the United States doesn\u2019t know what China will do with the material, noting they could dispose of it in whatever way they see fit. But Wolfsthal, the former National Security Council staffer, doesn\u2019t think Beijing will let it go to waste.
\n\u201cMy guess is China will reprocess it and then recycle some of the materials,\u201d Wolfsthal said. \u201cIt could end up in China\u2019s stockpile after being reprocessed, or used for civilian fuel. But getting it out of Nigeria is the biggest thing.\u201d
\nIn a statement released by the IAEA, Shen Lixin, deputy director general of the department of business development and international cooperation at the China National Nuclear Corporation, said the project \u201cmanifests the determination and joint effort of several governments and organizations in preventing nuclear proliferation.”
\n\u201cThis is also a demonstration of CNNC\u2019s meeting its social responsibilities and the commitment to peaceful uses of nuclear energy,\u201d the statement continues. \u201cCNNC is more than willing to work together and cooperate whole heartedly with relevant parties to facilitate other MNSR conversion projects.\u201d
\nThat the United States and China were able to ignore politics to get the HEU removal done shouldn\u2019t be a surprise, Wolfsthal said. Traditionally, countries that supply uranium to partners around the world take that material back if needed.
\n\u201cEven though the national level conversation is really poor because of trade and other issues, the technical collaboration between laboratories, between nuclear engineers, that\u2019s generally gone pretty well,\u201d he said. He added that China has invested heavily in LEU over the last decade, and therefore also has an interest in encouraging others to switch to that technology.
\nWhether that cooperation continues if relations between the two nations continue to deteriorate will be a true test going forward. On Jan. 3, the U.S. State Department issued a travel warning for China, urging American citizens to use caution when traveling, as the Chinese government may detain Americans.
\nAnd an agreement to develop new nuclear technology between CNNC and TerraPower, an American nuclear firm led by Microsoft founder Bill Gates, appears doomed due to American restrictions on technology sharing with China.
\nHanlon, for his part, is optimistic that China and the U.S. will continue to work on nuclear security.
\n\u201cThese nuclear security efforts of removing this dangerous material, most countries agree with that,\u201d he said. \u201cThat work has continued unabated.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

https:\/\/www.defensenews.com\/news\/pentagon-congress\/2019\/01\/14\/how-the-us-and-china-collaborated-to-get-nuclear-material-out-of-nigeria-and-away-from-terrorist-groups\/ By: Aaron Mehta WASHINGTON \u2014 At a staging ground in Ghana, a group of nuclear experts watched the clock and nervously waited for the news. The team \u2014 a mix of American, British, Norwegian and Chinese experts, along with Czech and Russian contractors \u2014 were supposed to head into the Kaduna region of Nigeria […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":14662,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5777],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14661","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-features"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14661","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14661"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14661\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14661"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14661"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14661"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}