The National Nuclear Security Administration this month announced that Switzerland is now free of all separated plutonium, partly because of a shipment of about 20 kilograms that arrived at Savannah River Site in February. The plutonium was initially used in research and development of fuel elements for nuclear reactors and had been stored for several decades at the Paul Scherrer Institute in Villigen, Switzerland. NNSA press secretary Francie Israeli this week said the operation was conducted by the Office of Material Management and Minimization, "which works cooperatively with countries to remove or dispose of high-risk nuclear materials at civilian facilities across the globe that could be used by terrorists to make an improvised nuclear device."
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