Project Sapphire
Project Sapphire was a successful 1994 covert operation of the United States government in cooperation with the Kazakhstan government to reduce the threat of nuclear proliferation by removing nuclear material from Kazakhstan as part of the Cooperative Threat Reduction Program, which was authorized by the Soviet Nuclear Threat Reduction Act of 1991. A warehouse at the Ulba Metallurgical Plant outside Ust-Kamenogorsk housed 1,322 pounds (600 kg) of weapons grade enriched uranium (90% 235U) to fuel Alfa class submarines.