The MNSR Low-Enrichment Reconstruction project in cooperation between China and the USA was recently accomplished.

(Yicai Global) Sept. 4 -- With the support of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), the highly-enriched uranium fuel from Ghana's Miniature Neutron Source Reactor (MNSR) successfully returned to China from the West African nation on Aug. 29, China National Nuclear Corp. (CNNC) was quoted as saying by The Paper.

The highly enriched uranium fuel is from GHARR-1 MNSR, built by the China Institute of Atomic Energy in 1995. Though the highly-enriched uranium is only 1kg, the concentration is as high as 90 percent, and the uranium may be used to produce nuclear weapons.

MNSR low-concentration changes highly enriched uranium clusters to low-concentration uranium clusters without changing the size of the reactor core and satisfies the requirements of MNSR application. Low-concentration reconfiguration eliminates the possibility of nuclear fuel being used to produce nuclear weapons. 

Coordinated by the IAEA, Ghana, China and the US jointly started implementing MNSR low concentration in 2014, with China mainly in charge of fuel and technology. This is the first international nuclear project in which China has helped other countries with MNSR low-concentration reconstruction after gaining success in this field.

China helped MNSR low-concentration reconstruction in Ghana and supports the reduced use of highly-enriched uranium whenever economically and technically feasible, Chinese President Xi told the 2014 Nuclear Security Summit in the Hague, the Netherlands.

China and the USA actively cooperated in MNSR low-concentration reconstruction in Ghana, with their nuclear scientists spending 10 years elaborately planning MNSR reconstruction, sharing their advantages and working in each other's laboratories.