In 1994, the United States conducted a secret operation for several weeks in Kazakhstan to recover 600 kilograms of enriched uranium left abandoned after the fall of the USSR.
Trucks loaded with enriched uranium speed along icy roads in eastern Kazakhstan. The vehicles are preparing to load their cargo onto cargo planes for a 10,000-kilometer journey. The Sapphire project, led by the United States for several weeks in this former Soviet republic, is coming to an end. The operation involved around thirty Americans on the ground with a mission to bring back 600 kilograms of enriched uranium to the United States, left abandoned in a Kazakh factory after the fall of the Soviet Union, and prevent this stock from falling into the wrong hands.
This secret operation may well inspire President Donald Trump. On April 17, the American president indicated that the enriched uranium stored by Iran would be “returned to the United States soon.”
“We are going to need the biggest tractors you can imagine,” declared the American president in front of a crowd of supporters. These statements were later dismissed by Tehran.
Former Secretary of the American Embassy in Kazakhstan in the early 1990s, Andrew Weber was the first American to discover this stock of Soviet uranium. He recounts to BFM Business the context and the unfolding of the Sapphire project.
Context: – The United States conducted a covert operation in Kazakhstan in 1994 to recover 600 kilograms of enriched uranium.
Fact Check: – The article mentions that there was an operation to recover uranium in Kazakhstan after the fall of the USSR. It is reported that the uranium was abandoned, and the United States mobilized a team to secure and transport it back to America.
