bbc news
22 December 2010 Last updated at 17:58 GMT
By Gordon Corera Security correspondent, BBC News
IAEA's John Kelly on the dangers of transporting nuclear fuel rods
A shipment of nuclear fuel has arrived in Russia after a top-secret international operation to remove it from Serbia, where it was feared terrorists could seize it to make a nuclear or dirty bomb.
In the dead of night, armed men in balaclavas surround a long convoy of trucks in the woods just outside Belgrade. Radios crackle as they prepare for a long journey.
Their mission is to escort a dangerous cargo, the kind terrorists would dearly like to get their hands on.
Inside blue, bomb-proof, fire-proof containers on the trucks are 2.5 tons of radioactive material, including 13kg of highly enriched uranium that could be used for a nuclear weapon.
This is the largest shipment of its type ever made, and will clear Serbia of all its civilian highly enriched uranium.
Just before two in the morning, the president of Serbia, Boris Tadic, sweeps in.
"We have significant security here," he tells me. "This is extremely important."
Two hours earlier I had been taken into the decommissioned reactor building where the Soviet-origin nuclear material had been stored.
During the Cold War, the US and Soviet Union both provided countries with reactors to carry out research. Some, like that here in Vinca, ran on highly enriched uranium which came from the USSR.
Most of Vinca's highly enriched uranium was removed in 2002, but the remaining enriched uranium and large amounts of spent fuel were still kept here, in often poor conditions. ...more...
This is the largest shipment of its type ever made, and will clear Serbia of all its civilian highly enriched uranium.
Just before two in the morning, the president of Serbia, Boris Tadic, sweeps in.
"We have significant security here," he tells me. "This is extremely important."
Two hours earlier I had been taken into the decommissioned reactor building where the Soviet-origin nuclear material had been stored.
During the Cold War, the US and Soviet Union both provided countries with reactors to carry out research. Some, like that here in Vinca, ran on highly enriched uranium which came from the USSR.
Most of Vinca's highly enriched uranium was removed in 2002, but the remaining enriched uranium and large amounts of spent fuel were still kept here, in often poor conditions. ...more...
read more: bbc news
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