US-Russia Plutonium Disposal Talks Expected 'At Some Point'
23:22 21.04.2016(updated 23:42 21.04.2016)
US Assistant Secretary of State for Nonproliferation Thomas Countryman said that the United States will eventually discuss Russian concerns over the Plutonium Management and Disposition Agreement regarding changes in the means of plutonium disposal.
WASHINGTON (Sputnik) – The United States will eventually discuss Russian concerns over the Plutonium Management and Disposition Agreement (PMDA) regarding changes in the means of plutonium disposal, US Assistant Secretary of State for Nonproliferation Thomas Countryman told Sputnik.
"We have an agreement in place [with Russia] that says we can each change the means of disposal by agreement. So I expect at some point we will discuss that," Countryman said on Thursday.
Under the US-Russian PMDA, originally signed in 2000, both parties agreed to dispose of at least 34 metric tons of weapons grade plutonium, enough to produce 17,000 nuclear bombs.
In signing the updated PDMA in 2010, the United States agreed to convert its plutonium into a mixed oxide (MOX) fuel at a reprocessing facility in the state of North Carolina.
As a result of major cost overruns, in 2015 the United States abandoned its MOX facility, opting instead for a less expensive process of diluting and storing the plutonium at a site in the state of New Mexico.
Prior to the Nuclear Security Summit in Washington, DC, earlier in April, Russian President Vladimir Putin objected to the changes the US made to its disposal program, arguing it was not the means agreed to under the PDMA.
© Sputnik
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