President of Russia Vladimir Putin on Monday signed a decree halting his nation’s participation in a bilateral agreement with the United States through which each country would dispose of 34 metric tons of nuclear weapon-usable plutonium, a move the White House condemned.
The Kremlin cited hostile U.S. actions and failure to dispose of its own excess plutonium as reasons for suspension of the U.S.-Russian Plutonium Management and Disposition Agreement, a nonproliferation deal signed in 2000 to eliminate enough material for roughly 17,000 nuclear weapons.
Putin has submitted a bill to the Russian parliament offering conditions to restore the agreement, namely a drawdown of U.S. troops in NATO countries.
“The decision by the Russians to unilaterally withdraw from this commitment is disappointing,” White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said Monday. “The United States has been steadfast since 2011 in implementing our side of the bargain and we would like to see the Russians continue to do the same.”
Earnest said Putin’s decision has “deepened Russia’s isolation in the international community” and called on the Kremlin to follow through on its commitment. Asked if the U.S. would continue to implement its side of the agreement, Earnest said, “I don’t have any changes to our posture to announce at this point.”
The Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility currently under construction at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina is intended to dispose of the U.S. plutonium. The Obama administration wants to kill the project in favor of another means of processing the plutonium it says is far cheaper and faster. It has run into opposition from Congress, particularly the South Carolina delegation.
Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz recently called the MOX approach a “practically speaking impossible task” due to the time and cost involved; DOE MOX life cycle projections put the price tag at $50 billion to $60 billion, though the program’s supporters dispute that forecast. DOE and its semiautonomous National Nuclear Security Administration declined to comment on Russia’s decision.
“Today’s news of Russia abandoning one of the most important underpinnings of our non-proliferation regime is just another example of how President Obama will be leaving office with the world a much more dangerous place than it was when he was elected,” Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said in a statement.
“President Obama and his Department of Energy’s deliberate assault on the MOX program and South Carolina need to stop immediately. As it is, our next president will inherit a mess,” he added.
Rep. Joe Wilson (R-S.C.) said recent statements from Russia indicate that suspension of the agreement “is a direct result of this Administration’s mishandling of the MOX project.”
“Time and time again, President Obama has tried to close the facility for political, inaccurate reasons, without any concern for what the implications would be for the international community,” Wilson said in prepared comments, calling it one of the president’s “failed nuclear policies.”
