U.S. and Japan remove all highly enriched uranium from additional research reactor — two years ahead of schedule

President Biden and Prime Minister Kishida highlight their continued commitment to HEU minimization during Japan State Visit 

WASHINGTON – President Biden and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida welcomed news of the successful removal of all remaining highly enriched uranium (HEU) from the Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA)’s Japan Materials Testing Reactor Critical Assembly (JMTRC). The announcement also highlighted their continued commitment to minimize the use of HEU in civilian applications and reported progress since President Biden’s state visit to Japan in May 2022.

In the two years since President Biden and Prime Minister Kishida announced the removal of HEU from three Japanese sites, the two countries also have removed all HEU from the Kyoto University Critical Assembly and committed to convert the Kindai University Teaching and Research Reactor, Japan’s last remaining HEU-fueled research reactor, to high-assay low-enriched uranium (HALEU) and remove its remaining HEU to the United States.

In December 2023, the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA); Japan’s Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT); and the JAEA transported the remaining HEU from the JMTRC to the United States. The removal fulfills a commitment made by NNSA Administrator Jill Hruby and MEXT former Deputy Minister Yanagi Takashi in November 2021 and was completed over two years ahead of schedule through the financial support of the Defense Threat Reduction Agency.

“This most recent removal highlights the shared commitment of the United States and Japan’s to minimize highly enriched uranium and the close partnership between our countries,” said Corey Hinderstein, Deputy Administrator for Defense Nuclear Nonproliferation. “The Defense Threat Reduction Agency helped our teams achieve this milestone years earlier than would have otherwise been possible.”

The majority of the facility’s HEU was repatriated to the United States between 2003 and 2009 following its decommissioning in 1996. The removal represents years of coordination between NNSA, MEXT, JAEA, and the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, which provided U.S. technical support for the project and received the HEU upon its arrival in the United States. The HEU will be downblended to low-enriched uranium.

NNSA’s Office of Material Management and Minimization works with partner countries and international institutions around the world to eliminate the need for, presence of, or production of weapons-usable nuclear material. To date, the office has worked jointly with domestic and international partners and successfully converted or verified as shut down 109 research reactors and medical isotope production facilities and removed or confirmed the disposition of over 7,340 kilograms of weapons-usable nuclear material—enough for approximately 328 nuclear weapons.