Russia is willing to reconsider its 2016 decision to suspend participation in its agreement with the United States to dispose of a combined 68 metric tons of weapons-usable plutonium – but only if the U.S. moves forward with its current method to eliminate the material, according to the Russian Foreign Ministry.
Under the 2000 Plutonium Management and Disposition Agreement (PMDA), the two nations would each dispose of 34 metric tons of plutonium – enough to produce 17,000 nuclear weapons. The U.S. would achieve this goal by converting the material into commercial nuclear fuel using the Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility (MFFF),which is under construction at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina.
The Obama administration proposed to nix the U.S. MOX program in the fiscal 2017 budget proposal released in February 2016. Originally expected to cost $17 billion, the U.S. Energy Department estimates the program will cost three times that amount, prompting the federal government to recommend an alternative method it said would be far cheaper and faster.
The Trump administration has not stated its intentions on MOX, though it could do so this month in its full budget request for fiscal 2018. In the meantime, the congressional budget omnibus plan released this week would provide $335 million for MOX construction in the current fiscal year, but also $15 million for planning and design operations for the plutonium dilution and disposal alternative.
Russian President Vladimir Putin decried Washington’s move away from MOX more than a year ago, and his government announced in October that it was suspending its role in the agreement, stating that the U.S. displayed an “inability” to hold up its end of the bargain.
Now, in a brief statement released on Saturday, the Russian Foreign Ministry said it “is ready to consider the possibility of reactivation of the PMDA if the U.S. side eliminates the causes that led to a radical change of conditions that were in effect at the moment, when the agreement came into force.” The statement added Russia will reconsider if “the United States will adhere to the agreed method of disposal.”
