Notable Projects
The NDF typically has 18-25 active projects ongoing, worth a total of more than $289 million. The following projects are examples of such activities:
Nuclear
- Removed more than 100 pounds of at-risk highly enriched uranium (HEU) from the Vinca Institute in Belgrade, Serbia, to secure storage in Russia, regulated by the International Atomic Energy Agency.
- Worked with the National Nuclear Security Administration to develop new forensic technologies to distinguish nuclear detonations from seismic events.
- Facilitated the safe removal of nuclear infrastructure from Libya to secure facilities in the United States within a few weeks’ time.
Biological
- Destroyed high-capacity fermenters in Kazakhstan.
Chemical
- Delivered chemical weapon threat reduction equipment and training on the equipment to Syrian civilian healthcare providers and first responders to help them detect, diagnose, mitigate, and report chemical weapons attacks in Syria.
- Assisted the Libyan Government of National Accord, the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, Denmark, Germany, and the international community with removing from Libya and destroying under international verification the last remnants of Libya’s Qadhafi-era chemical weapons program.
- Provided financial and in-kind assistance to the United Nations and the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons in their effort to verify the Assad regime’s Chemical Weapons Convention declaration.
Conventional
- Destroyed nearly 40,000 munitions (including fuses, detonators, sea mines, air bombs, and torpedo bodies) in the Republic of Albania.
- Since 2009, the NDF has worked with the government of Egypt to install truck and car X-ray scanning systems on Egypt’s borders with Libya and Sudan, in the Sinai and at selected crossing points of the Suez Canal.
Ballistic Missile
- Eliminated Soviet-era short-range, tactical ballistic surface-to-surface Missile Technology Control Regime Category I missiles in Bulgaria, Slovakia, Poland, Hungary, and Libya.
- Eliminated SCUD missiles in Ukraine — U.S. State Department Helps Ukraine Eliminate SCUD Missile System
Kazakhstani Fermenter Destruction
In 2005, NDF acquired, decontaminated, and destroyed high-capacity dual-use equipment currently housed in the privately owned Biokombinat vaccine production facility located in Almaty, Kazakhstan. Seventy-two vessels were removed from the facility and all were destroyed at a destruction facility in Almaty. This photo depicts a fermenter prior to elimination.
North Korea Nuclear Disablement
The photo depicts the June 27, 2008 elimination of the cooling tower at the 5 MW(e) reactor at North Korea’s Yongbyon complex. The reactor building itself can be seen on the left. The NDF provided the majority of the U.S. Government’s logistics support to the North Korean nuclear disablement effort.
