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American and Kazakh officials feared that the stash might fall into the wrong hands if word of its location and potency leaked out. Iran had reportedly bought some low-grade uranium from the plant in 1992. News that Tehran or other outlaw regimes may have been sniffing around for the high- grade cache compelled action. "The concern about security was the driving factor," said Defense Secretary William Perry. After extensive negotiations, the U.S., according to a Pentagon source involved in the deal, agreed to pay Kazakhstan about $100 million in cash and other forms of assistance for the uranium.
Only one hurdle remained. The nuclear material was made in Russia, and both Washington and Almaty knew they had to gain Moscow's approval for the unprecedented transfer. It did come, and apparently without rancor, in June. "We didn't want this material," said Vitaly Nasonov of Moscow's nuclear- power ministry after the deal was disclosed. "We produce enough of it ourselves." So back in the U.S., a team from the Energy Department's Oak Ridge nuclear-storage facility planned its unusual post-cold-war mission.
President Clinton approved the $7 million transfer operation -- christened Project Sapphire -- on Oct. 7. Within hours, three Air Force C-5s, laden with 29 men and two women, their nuclear laboratory and nearly 500 foam-filled, stainless-steel drums, were winging eastward. The team consisted of 25 scientists and technicians, a communications expert, a doctor and four military men, including three Russian-speaking interpreters.
The Americans spent their first four days in Kazakhstan setting up their chemical-assay lab inside one of the plant's 20-ft. by 40-ft., unheated World War II-vintage brick vaults. Until their arrival, one of the vaults had held freshly minted Kazakh coins, unused because inflation had rendered them nearly worthless. The Americans set up three "glove boxes," long plastic tubes, each with five or more pairs of special gloves protruding into the boxes, with which technicians could safely handle the uranium while processing and packing the material into the transport containers.
"It was a very big endeavor. We had about 1,050 nuclear containers to empty," said Riedy, who works for Martin Marietta, the company that runs the Oak Ridge storage site. Once out of its old containers, the uranium was assayed and, in some cases, baked to remove moisture that might make the material dangerous during transport. Ultimately, the uranium was repackaged into 1,400 qt.-size steel cans, which, in turn, were placed into the special 55-gal. drums. The teams worked up to 14 hours a day, six days a week, trying to beat winter's approach. The Americans, said Energy Secretary Hazel O'Leary, "spent six weeks doing six months of work."
While the suitability of most of the material for nuclear weapons was questioned in Moscow and Almaty, U.S. officials and several nuclear experts said nearly all of it could be processed for use in nuclear weapons. "It would be a relatively simple process," said Spurgeon Keeny, president of the Arms Control Association in Washington, a private group. "Anyone capable of making a bomb is capable of that."