Securing Loose Nukes in Chile

Highly Enriched Uranium
As part of a worldwide effort to secure potentially dangerous nuclear materials, a team from the U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) was at work in Chile when a devastating earthquake struck the country on Feb. 26, 2010. The team's job is to gain control of the global supply of HEU (Highly Enriched Uranium) — the compound from which a nuclear bomb can be most easily fabricated — before it can be accessed by terrorists. In this photo, an officer from the Chilean police guards a cask of HEU at the La Reina reactor facility in Santiago.

• Article: Chasing Bombs in Chile