INTERNATIONAL PLUTONIUM MANAGEMENT

During the past two years there has been renewed interest in international management of Plutonium. This is largely due to the surplus of plutonium from dismantled weapons and the accumulation of separated civilian plutonium--now slightly more than 100 metric tonnes and increasing at a rate of about 15 metric tonnes per year. A balance between the production and use of plutonium is not projected to occur until the year 2000 with a peak accumulation of about 150 metric tonnes. These growing stockpiles of separated plutonium pose a variety of proliferation risks. The issues that have arisen in international plutonium management discussions include limiting accumulated stocks of separated civil plutonium, monitoring excess weapons plutonium, transparency through confidence building measures, and the role of the IAEA. The U.S. has proposed, in addition to transparency, that there is a need to (1) balance supply and demand and (2) reduce and ultimately eliminate excess separated plutonium to have an effective IPM regime.