Ukraine to get rid of highly enriched uranium

Ukraine will remove all of its stockpile of highly enriched uranium by 2012 and convert its civil nuclear research facilities to operate with low enriched uranium fuel, the White House said on Monday. "Today Ukraine announced a landmark decision to get rid of all of its stockpile of highly enriched uranium by the time of the next nuclear security summit in 2012," White House spokesman Robert Gibbs told reporters at a nuclear summit hosted by President Barack Obama in Washington.

"This is something that the United States has tried to make happen for more than 10 years. The material is enough to construct several nuclear weapons," Gibbs said.

Obama had just finished a meeting with new Ukrainian President Victor Yanukovich when the announcement was made.