‘Provocative’ removal of Venezuela’s uranium by US and UK ‘adds to grievances’

The US, enabled by the UK, has been accused of “provocatively” removing Venezuela’s highly enriched uranium (HEU), which has added to “grievances” relating to the country’s loss of sovereignty following the capture of former President Nicolás Maduro by US special forces.

Maduro was arrested in Caracas, Venezuela, on 3 January 2026 and taken to the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, New York, USA, where he is awaiting trial on federal charges including narco-terrorism and drug trafficking.

His former deputy, Delcy Rodríguez, took over as acting president and is cooperating with the US Government. Since the transfer of power took place, the US Government has been working to extract Venezuela’s natural resources for the benefit of US companies.

Trump’s nuclear spoils of war

On 8 May, the US Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) announced it had removed the uranium, which it described as “a win for America, Venezuela, and the world”. The HEU, enriched to 20%, was removed from the Venezuelan Institute for Scientific Research’s RV-1 research reactor.

The US Department of State said in a statement on 14 May:

The RV-1 was the country’s first and only nuclear reactor, originally built for peaceful scientific research and later repurposed for gamma-ray sterilization of medical supplies, food, and other materials.

The NNSA statement from 8 May said officials from its Office of Defense Nuclear Nonproliferation (DNN) worked:

in close cooperation with the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) throughout, the team securely packaged the uranium into a spent fuel cask.

It added:

The group then escorted the material 100 miles overland to a Venezuelan port. There, they transferred the cargo to a specialized carrier supplied by the U.K.’s Nuclear Transport Solutions (NTS).

The vessel carried the material to the United States arriving on U.S. shores in early May. Upon arrival, U.S. teams unloaded the casks and transported them to the Savannah River Site (SRS) for processing and reuse.

UK taxpayer helped cover risk of transport of Venezuela’s uranium

NTS is owned by the UK Government via the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA). NTS is described by the NDA as “the most experienced transporter of nuclear material in the world” and has a fleet of three “specialist nuclear vessels”.

UK Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) minister of state Michael Shanks made a statement to parliament on 14 May where he said:

The UK had received requests for assistance from both the United States and the International Atomic Energy Agency which had in turn received a request for assistance from the de facto authorities in Venezuela.

“De facto” means the reality on the ground, which can be different from “de jure”, which means what is officially written down. This reflects the fact that the government in Venezuela entered a period of change due to the arrest of Maduro.

Shanks continued:

The UK’s main contribution was the provision of a purpose-built vessel from Nuclear Transport Solutions to transport the material by sea. The arrival of the material in the US represents the conclusion of the UK assistance to this project.

He went on to explain that it is “normal practice” for the government to inform parliament:

when a government department proposes to undertake a contingent liability in excess of £300,000 for which there is no specific statutory authority.

This was to enable the government to “take on an indemnity” to cover the risk of the operation.

He added:

The indemnity was required to cover any residual risk that was left between commercial insurance and the United States of America’s Price-Anderson Act. The maximum potential liability was capped at £10bn.

The risk of this indemnity being relied upon was deemed to be very low. NTS operate a unique maritime transport capability and have done for half a century. They have had no significant safety incidents over that time.

Manner and timing of HEU removal was ‘for propaganda purposes’ – campaigner

The Hands Off Venezuela (HOV) Campaign was established in December 2002 and organises “solidarity activities with Venezuela’s Bolivarian revolution”, according to its website.

HOV secretary Jorge Martin gave his reaction to the seizure and the UK’s involvement to the Canary:

The problem is not so much the removal of the HEU, but the very provocative way in which the US has chosen to do so, for propaganda purposes and also to send a message to Iran.

Many Venezuelans are unhappy in general about the loss of sovereignty regarding oil and mineral resources, the control the US exercises over these and other aspects of policy, so the removal of the HEU by the US in the way in which it was carried out adds to the grievances.

The US Government has made removal of Iran’s nuclear materials – specifically its approximately 440kg of HEU – a key objective of the conflict the US started on 28 February.

The US says it has concerns that the HEU could be used to develop nuclear weapons, while Iran maintains that it only wants to use its HEU for peaceful purposes, such as research.

Martin also reacted to the UK’s involvement in the seizure of Venezuela’s HEU. He said:

I do not think the participation of the UK in this particular question is very significant. Of much more significance is the continued participation of Britain in the imperialist bullying of Venezuela for the last 25-30 years, and particularly the seizing of the Venezuelan Central Bank gold reserves deposited in the Bank of England, on instructions from the US.

He also conceded that the HEU “had to be removed for safe disposal once it was no longer of any use for scientific research”, and that his main concern about the US/UK operation was “the manner in which it was done and the timing.”

The NNSA’s 8 May statement said that, since 1996, it had:

removed or confirmed the disposition of over 7,350 kilograms (16,250 pounds) of highly enriched uranium and plutonium from dozens of countries.

The UK’s assistance to the US with its removal of Venezuela’s HEU raises the possibility of UK involvement with any future removal of Iran’s HEU, which would likely be much more complicated.

Complications could arise from the presence of hostile state or non-state armed forces, the fact that the HEU is likely underground and buried under rubble, and that transport out of the region would involve navigating more complex air, land or sea routes than the journey that Venezuela’s HEU took to the US.

Featured image via Jesus Vargas / Getty Images