U.S., Russia set plan for plutonium
They are creating procedures to dispose of 34 metric tons from Moscow's program. The United States also is to get rid of 34 metric tons.
The United States and Russia signed an accord yesterday establishing procedures for the disposal of 34 metric tons of surplus plutonium from Russia's nuclear-weapons program.
"The Russian program will ensure that enough plutonium for thousands of weapons is converted into a form that cannot be used to construct a weapon and will instead be used to provide fuel to produce clean energy," Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman said in a statement.
The United States will contribute $400 million to the Russian disposal program, according to a joint statement by Bodman and Sergei Kiriyenko, director of Russia's Federal Atomic Energy Agency.
Starting in 2012, Russia will use up some of the fuel in an existing reactor and some in a reactor now under construction.
The two countries will cooperate to transform the weapons-grade plutonium into mixed-oxide fuel, or MOX, by blending it with low-enriched uranium.
Under a 2000 accord, the United States also will get rid of 34 metric tons of weapons-grade plutonium. Construction began in August on a $4.8 billion South Carolina plant that will convert U.S. weapons-grade plutonium to reactor fuel.
The joint statement signed yesterday provides the "mechanics of how they're going to do this," said John Broehm, spokesman for the Energy Department's National Nuclear Security Administration.
The agreement covers enough plutonium to make 8,000 nuclear bombs and "will help turn swords to plowshares," former Democratic Sen. Sam Nunn of Georgia, cochairman of the Nuclear Threat Initiative advocacy group, said in a statement.
"Reducing global stockpiles of weapons-usable material is an essential component to preventing the spread of nuclear weapons and avoiding the catastrophe of nuclear terrorism," Nunn said.
When the two countries tentatively agreed to the plutonium-disposal program seven years ago, it was hailed as a breakthrough in safeguarding some of Russia's nuclear material.
But progress stalled because of a variety of disagreements, most recently over how Russia would destroy the plutonium.
Russia's ambivalence in turn caused Congress to balk at approving money for the U.S. portion of the plutonium-disposal effort because of what lawmakers called the apparent inability to get Russia to agree on a disposal plan.
William Tobey, deputy administrator at the Energy Department's National Nuclear Security Administration, said in an interview that the agreement should resolve some of the key concerns in Congress and keep the program on track.
"We nailed down some important details," Tobey said.
Among them, he said, was assurance from the Russians that the reactors used to dispose of the plutonium would be modified to burn more than they produce, that the plutonium they produce would not be weapons-grade, and that the U.S. contribution would be capped at $400 million.
While viewed as a major nonproliferation effort, the plutonium disposition is expected to take several decades and cover only a fraction of the weapons-grade plutonium both countries possess.
The United States is believed to have about 100 metric tons of weapons-grade plutonium and Russia about 140 metric tons.