Ukraine Getting Rid of its Stock of Enriched Uranium

KYIV, Ukraine, June 9, 2011 -

The Prime Minister of Ukraine Mykola Azarov announced that
Ukraine accomplished nearly all of its commitments concerning the removal of
enriched uranium from the country's territory. In April 2010 the President of
Ukraine Viktor Yanukovych took on the responsibility to eliminate the
remaining enriched uranium stock in exchange for the provision of necessary
technical and financial assistance to the project by the United States.

"Ukraine has practically fulfilled its obligations to remove
enriched uranium," such was the statement by Mykola Azarov after his meeting
with the International Atomic Agency Director General Yukiya Amano. The Prime
Minister believes that this accomplishment is Ukraine's contribution to the
world nuclear security.

The amount of nuclear materials exported from Ukraine in 2010
totaled 106 kg. In exchange for enriched uranium Ukrainian research
institutions were provided with low enriched uranium for research purposes as
well as financial support for other scientific projects. The remaining
enriched uranium is to be exported from Ukraine by April 2012 before the
start of Seoul 2012 Nuclear Security Summit.

The White House press secretary Robert Gibbs had previously
stated that the amount of uranium removed from Ukraine in 2010 would be
enough to make "several nuclear weapons." The chief counterterrorism advisor
to the US President Barack Obama John Brennan earlier warned that Al Qaeda
had been attempting to buy enriched uranium for over 15 years.

Back in 2010 the Ukrainian Ministry for Foreign Affairs
disclosed that none of the heads of the Ukrainian specialized scientific
institutions had stated the need for enriched uranium for research. Enriched
uranium was stored as waste and not used in research.

In December 1994 Ukraine has joined the Treaty on the
Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons and proclaimed its non-nuclear status.
Ukraine reaffirmed its non-nuclear status in its Constitution and the
declaration "On the State Sovereignty of Ukraine."

The last nuclear warhead was shipped from Ukraine to Russia in
1996 but a significant amount of enriched uranium remained in storage at the
Kyiv Institute for Nuclear Research, the Kharkiv Institute of Physics and
Technology, and the Sevastopol National University of Nuclear Energy and
Industry.

For more information, please contact Maria Ivanova +380443324784 news at wnu-ukraine.com, Project Manager at Worldwide News Ukraine