WASHINGTON, April 12 (Reuters) - Ukraine will get rid of its stockpile of highly enriched uranium by 2012, the White House said on Monday, announcing the first tangible result from a 47-nation summit aimed at preventing nuclear terrorism.
White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said Ukraine intended to remove a "substantial part of its stocks" this year and would convert its civil nuclear research facilities to operate with low enriched uranium fuel.
Ukraine President Viktor Yanukovich told U.S. President Barack Obama of the decision on the first day of the two-day summit, the two countries said in a joint statement released by the White House.
The United States would provide financial and technical assistance to Ukraine and was likely to store some of the highly enriched uranium on U.S. soil, Gibbs said.
The move by Ukraine, which voluntarily gave up the nuclear weapons it had inherited with the collapse of the Soviet Union, is designed to make it harder for terrorists to get hold of fissile material that could be used in an atomic bomb.
"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," Gibbs told reporters at the summit 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.
Canada added another success to Obama’s summit list, saying it would return spent nuclear fuel to the United States, its supplier, as part of a global drive to secure fissile materials.
Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper said a "significant quantity" of used highly enriched uranium stored at Canada’s Chalk River National Laboratories will be repatriated by 2018.
"We welcome this important announcement from Prime Minister Harper, which demonstrates Canada’s strong leadership on nuclear security, and its close partnership with the United States on key global issues," Gibbs said in a statement.
SAFE HANDS
Diplomats said the summit’s final communique may urge nations to convert nuclear reactors using highly enriched fuel into reactors using low enriched fuel, which is harder to adapt to produce nuclear weapons.
Gibbs said the United States was a more secure location for the highly enriched uranium than many other places in the world and lauded Ukraine for its decision.
"This demonstrates Ukraine’s continued leadership in non-proliferation and comes in an important region where we know a lot of highly enriched uranium exists," he said.
Ukraine is acutely aware of the dangers of nuclear power after the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear reactor disaster.
The United States and Ukraine agreed to work together on peaceful use of nuclear energy and Washington, which has contributed $250 million to efforts to safeguard the Chernobyl site, would continue to support Ukraine and others in making the area safe, the statement from the two countries said.
"The two leaders agreed to explore ways to strengthen cooperation in the peaceful uses of atomic energy, including development of Ukrainian nuclear research capabilities and efforts to diversify Ukraine’s nuclear power industry’s fuel supply," it said.
"They also agreed to continue working together on nuclear safety, including efforts to safeguard the Chernobyl nuclear reactor site."
The Washington summit aims to reach a common understanding on the threat posed by nuclear terrorism and outline a plan to secure all loose nuclear material within four years to prevent terrorists from getting it.
Gibbs said the location for the 2012 nuclear summit would likely be announced on Tuesday.
