Trump admin seeks $672 million to extracate Iranian nuclear materials

The Trump administration is seeking $672 million to remove and eliminate Iranian nuclear materials, including uranium hexafluoride (UF6), uranium in various forms, and highly enriched uranium from research reactor fuel. This forms part of a larger $80 billion supplemental funding request tied to the Iran conflict and its aftermath.

The funding would support U.S. verification activities inside Iran, International Atomic Energy Agency inspections, nuclear-smuggling detection efforts, and expanded Nuclear Emergency Support Team operations across the Middle East. It is intended to terminate Iran's ability to develop or acquire a nuclear weapon through the disposition of sensitive nuclear material, technology, equipment, and infrastructure.

The request comes as U.S. and Iranian negotiators work to translate a June 17 memorandum of understanding into a detailed agreement on Iran's nuclear program and its roughly 900-pound stockpile of near-weapons-grade enriched uranium. The MOU calls for downblending the material on site under IAEA supervision, though the ultimate fate of the stockpile remains unresolved.

Iran has agreed to allow IAEA inspectors back into the country for the first time since last year's U.S. and Israeli strikes on its nuclear infrastructure. President Trump stated Iran has agreed to "highest level Nuclear inspections long into the future (Infinity!!!)."

The challenge of disposing of Iran's enriched uranium stockpile is substantial, as shown by the 1994 Project Sapphire operation that removed roughly 600 kilograms of highly enriched uranium from Kazakhstan after the Soviet Union's collapse.