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Weapons plutonium for USA and Russia’s fast neutron reactors

US, Russia, Sign Protocol to Dispose of 17 Thousand Weapons’ Worth of Plutonium,  Political Punch April 13, 2010 As the first Nuclear Security Summit began coming to a close, Secretary o f State Hillary Clinton and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov agreed that their countries would each dispose up at least 34 metric tons of excess weapon-grade plutonium – 68 metric tons total — enough material for approximately 17,000 nuclear weapons.The agreement came in the form of an updated version of the Plutonium Management and Disposition Agreement first agreed to by both countries ten years ago.

Both countries will use civil nuclear reactors to dispose of the material, with verification measures in place so each country can show the other that it is abiding by the agreement…….

Weapon grade uranium can be blended with other chemicals so as to render it unusable in weapons. But that is not the case with weapon grade plutonium. It can, however, be fabricated into a kind of fuel and irradiated in civil nuclear power reactors to produce electricity. The 68 metric tons of weapon-grade plutonium will be irradiated in the US at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site, which is scheduled to begin operation in 2016, and in the Russian Federation at fast-neutron reactors operating under specific non-proliferation conditions. US, Russia, Sign Protocol to Dispose of 17 Thousand Weapons’ Worth of Plutonium – Political Punch

April 14, 2010 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | Russia, technology, USA | antinuclear, enriched, fast breeder, nuclear, nuclear costs, nuclear renaissance, nuclear secrecy, nuclear spin, nuclear technology, nuclear weapons, radioactive, reactors, uranium