# @60minutes on TikTok

- **Type:** Video
- **Original URL:** https://www.tiktok.com/@60minutes/video/7630613156041084174
- **Gondola URL:** https://gondola.cc/posts/64228056-60minutes-tiktok
- **Thumbnail:** https://img.gondola.cc/tr:w-,h-,fo-auto/postThumbnails/29b869877f.jpg
- **Posted:** 2026-04-19T23:16:43.000+00:00
- **Account Owner:** 60 Minutes (@60minutes) — https://gondola.cc/60minutes

## Caption

In 1994, after the fall of the Soviet Union, the newly minted country of Kazakhstan held the fourth-largest nuclear arsenal in the world, left behind by the Soviets. Some of it was sitting inside a factory, vulnerable to countries like Iran and North Korea getting ahold of it Andrew Weber, a foreign service officer at the time, began pressing for more information. Months later, he learned more than 1,300 pounds of bomb-grade uranium sitting in a mothballed factory in the Far Eastern city of Ust-Kamenogorsk. Weber became the point person for a high-stakes operation, code-named Project Sapphire, to secure the uranium and bring it to the United States. “It was a crazy time after the Soviet Union fell apart. And we knew that Iran was pursuing nuclear material throughout the region,” says Weber. #sovietunion #nuclear #uranium #foreignpolicy 

## Stats

- **Views:** 7,581
- **Likes:** 227
- **Shares:** 2
- **Comments:** 11

## Tags

sovietunion, nuclear, foreignpolicy, uranium

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