While neither the United States nor Russia met a nonbinding target to start disposing of tons of plutonium this year, neither country has actually violated the agreement to get rid of the nuclear material, the U.S. State Department said in a recent report.
The Plutonium Management and Disposition Agreement (PMDA), negotiation of which began in 2000 and concluded in 2010, calls for the United States and Russia to each dispose of 34 metric tons of surplus weapon-usable plutonium.
Originally, the parties proposed turning the plutonium from Cold War nuclear weapons programs into non weapon-grade fuel for commercial reactors. Both nations have backed away from that approach, with the United States proposing in 2016 to scrap a planned conversion program it deemed unaffordable and instead dilute its surplus plutonium for burial underground.
The same year, Russia claimed the new U.S. plan violated the terms of the PMDA. In retaliation, Moscow said it was “suspending” its participation in the agreement, but would still dispose of its share of surplus plutonium.
Despite these developments, “neither side is in violation of the PMDA,” the State Department wrote in its April 17 “2018 Report on Adherence to and Compliance With Arms Control, Nonproliferation, and Disarmament Agreements and Commitments.”
“The United States has raised our concerns about Russia’s purported suspension with the Russian government,” State said, adding that the details of those communications are part of a classified version of the 2018 report. “The United States remains committed to fulfilling its plutonium-disposition obligations.”
The 34 metric tons of U.S. plutonium covered by the PMDA were to be converted into reactor fuel for power plants in the Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility CB&I AREVA MOX Services is building for the Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina.
The NNSA proposed canceling that facility during the Barack Obama administration, and the Donald Trump administration has gone along with that plan. Congress, though, has continued to fund the MOX project.
