Year
2009
Abstract
The U.S. Department of Energy is working with Russia’s Federal Atomic Energy Agency (Rosatom) to restructure Russia’s plutonium disposition program in support of Russia’s commitment under the 2000 Plutonium Management and Disposition Agreement (PMDA) to dispose of 34 metric tons of its surplus weapon-grade plutonium. In February 2008, the United States launched negotiations to amend the PMDA to formalize mutual understandings set forth in a November 2007 DOE-Rosatom Joint Statement and an associated September 2007 technical report that outlined a revised Russian disposition plan. The first round of meetings took place in May 2008. The new plan meshes with Russia’s nuclear energy strategy by use of fast reactors with certain nonproliferation conditions and is no longer conditioned on further international assistance. This paper will outline the current status of DOE’s support to the Russian plutonium disposition program.