Head of the Russian Federal Atomic Energy Agency Sergey Kirienko
Photo: Dmitry Dukhanin
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Russia and U.S. Sign Plutonium Agreement
Russia and the United States have reached an agreement on the disposal of Russian plutonium. Rosatom head Sergey Kirienko and U.S. Secretary of Energy Samuel Bodman signed the corresponding document in Washington. The U.S. will help Russia reprocess 34 tons of weapons-grade plutonium into mixed oxide fuel that will be used in the fast neutron reactors at Beloyarsk. Washington is prepared to pay $400 million for that purpose.
Bodman characterized the agreement as “significant progress.” The U.S. and Russia reached an agreement on plutonium disposal in 2000, when each country committed itself to disposing of 34 tons of the substance. That agreement was never carried out.
Kirienko stated in September of this year that Russia was ready was ready to sign an agreement with the U.S. on the peaceful use of atomic energy before the end of the year. “We are ready to sign it even tomorrow,” he claimed, saying that the procedure of the signing of agreements is more complex in the U.S.
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