Russia is prepared to accept a revised U.S. plan for disposal of surplus weapon-usable plutonium, provided it is assured the process could not be reversed, a Russian expert said Wednesday.
The United States and Russia in 2000 agreed to each dispose of 34 metric tons of excess plutonium via conversion into mixed-oxide (MOX) fuel for nuclear reactors. The Obama administration, though, in its fiscal 2017 budget request said it intended to cancel the MOX project in favor of a downblending method that it says would save years of work and billions of dollars. This processed material would end up at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico.
However, changing the disposal method would require an amendment to the Plutonium Management and Disposition (PMD) Agreement.
“In order to make progress in implementing the PMD Agreement, the United States, from my point of view, will have to draft a long-term strategy of weapon-grade plutonium disposition. That strategy must make sure that the process first is irreversible and sustainable regardless of budgetary and presidential cycles,” Anton Khlopkov, founding director of the Russian nongovernmental Center for Energy and Security Studies, said at an NGO conference on nuclear security one day before the Obama administration’s fourth and last Nuclear Security Summit. “In my personal opinion, if these two conditions are met, all the other PMD-related issues, including those that may require amendments to the agreement, can be resolved through bilateral consultations.”
Khlopkov said Russia is prepared to begin disposal of its plutonium via the MOX method “soon,” but did not discuss a specific timeline. “The next step must be made by the United States,” he said.
Russia is not participating in the Nuclear Security Summit.
