U.S. Removes Highly Enriched Uranium From Venezuela | GRAVITAS

Added: 2026-05-19

[00:00:01][music] [music] >> The Trump administration has announced a major nuclear security operation leading to the removal of a foreign country's stockpile of highly enriched uranium.

[00:00:29]It's not Iran that we are talking about.

[00:00:32]After months of pressuring Tehran to hand over its stockpile of highly enriched uranium, one of Trump's stated objectives of going to war with Iran early this year, Washington now says it has successfully removed enriched uranium from Venezuela. In an official announcement, the US administration has said that American teams working with Venezuela, the UK, the International Atomic Energy Agency removed 13.5 kilograms of highly enriched uranium from a Venezuela's shuttered research reactor, RV1 research reactor located around 15 km from the national capital.

[00:01:12]The material, it says, had been stored for decades after the reactor stopped operating in the early 1990s. US officials said the uranium was moved under tight security by land and sea from the facility to a nuclear site in South Carolina.

[00:01:29]The IAEA described the mission as complex and sensitive. The US State Department, meanwhile, said the mission, which normally it claims could have taken years, was completed in just months, it says, under Trump's leadership. The department also claimed that the removal of dangerous nuclear material from Venezuela made the United States safer and, quote unquote, has strengthened nuclear security worldwide.

[00:01:56]The development also highlighting the contrast when it comes to the situation in Iran. Remember, one of Trump's main war goals was to force Tehran to give up more than 400 kg of highly enriched uranium. Those efforts so far have failed even as Washington celebrates that success in Venezuela. The operation comes as the US rebuilds ties with Venezuela, the country that holds the world's largest proven oil reserves following the US-led capture of the Venezuelan leader, Nicolas Maduro, at the start of this year.

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