A billet of highly enriched uranium. Iran dispatched a shipment of more than 25,000 pounds of low-enriched uranium to Russia. Photo: WikiCommons.

JNS.org – Iran authorized the transfer of 25,000 pounds of low-enriched uranium to Russia, fulfilling a key obligation in last summer’s nuclear deal made by six world powers, US Secretary of State John Kerry announced on Monday.

“All the enriched uranium envisaged by the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) has been removed from Iran’s territory with Russia’s assistance,” Russia’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

Iran was required to ship out all but 660 pounds of their low-enriched uranium, in an effort to reduce Iran’s ability to make nuclear weapons.

“The shipment included the removal of all of Iran’s nuclear material enriched to 20 percent that was not already in the form of fabricated fuel plates for the Tehran Research Reactor,” U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said in a written statement.

“This removal of all this enriched material out of Iran is a significant step toward Iran meeting its commitment to have no more than 300 kg of low-enriched uranium by Implementation Day,” Kerry added.