American and Russian officials have reached an agreement on how to safely dispose of 34 metric tons of Russian weapons-grade plutonium, overcoming a major hurdle in a joint nuclear nonproliferation effort that at times has been close to falling apart.
The two countries, in a joint statement to be issued later Monday, outline a plan where Russia agrees to modify its fast-neutron reactors so that they can burn the plutonium, yet ensure that additional plutonium will not be produced.
In turn, the United States, which also will dispose of 34 tons of excess plutonium from its weapons program, will continue to help Russia pay for construction of a plant in Russia to turn the plutonium into a mixed oxide fuel for the reactors and in research of a more advanced reactor that could speed up the disposal process.
The two countries tentatively agreed to the plutonium disposal program seven years ago when 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.
A joint statement being issued by Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman and Sergey Kiriyenko, director of Russia`s Atomic Energy Agency, Rosatom, outlines a "mutual understanding" as to how Russia`s plutonium would be disposed of and reiterates both countries` commitment to the program, officials said.
The statement was being released in both Moscow and Washington.
William Tobey, deputy administrator at DOE`s National Nuclear Security Administration, said in an interview that the agreement should resolve some of the key concerns in Congress and keep the U.S. program on track.
"We nailed down some important details," said Tobey.
Among them, he said, was assurance from the Russians that the reactors used to dispose of the plutonium will be modified to burn more than they produce, that the plutonium they produce will not be weapons grade, and that the U.S. contribution will be capped at $400 million.
While viewed as 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.
The agreement calls for 34 metric tons of Russia`s excess plutonium to be turned into a mixed oxide, or MOX, fuel and then burned in its existing BN600 fast-neutron reactor and in a larger version, the BN800, which has yet to be built. It also calls for continued U.S. help for Russian development of a more advanced gas-turbine reactor that could be used to speed up the plutonium disposition.
In recent years the nonproliferation effort, launched by the two countries in 2000, has been stymied by Russia`s insistence that the plutonium program mesh with the country`s overall plan to expand civilian nuclear energy programs.
"Rosatom plans to implement the Russian program for plutonium disposition within the framework of the strategy for developing Russian nuclear energy" by burning the weapons-usable material in the two fast reactors, says the joint statement.
Disposal would begin in the BN600 reactor in 2012, three years before the United States is scheduled to begin processing plutonium into MOX for use in a commercial reactor. Construction of the $4 billion MOX processing facility is expected to begin next year at the Savannah River nuclear facility in South Carolina where design work already has begun.
The U.S. plutonium, considered excess to weapons needs, comes from the so-called "pits" - or cores - of dismantled nuclear warheads and a pit disassembly facility also will be built at Savannah River.
The announcement Monday anticipates 1.5 metric tons of Russian plutonium being burned a year once both of Russia`s reactors are operating. The smaller BN600 reactor, now operating, is capable of handling less than a half ton a year, and the larger reactor has yet to be built.
The disposal is expected to take at least 22 years, once begun using the two reactors.
Russian News
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