U.S., Russia Reach Liability Agreement on MOX Plan

The United States and Russia have resolved a major kink in an agreement to dispose of tons of weapon-grade plutonium, the U.S. Department of Energy announced Friday (see GSN, July 14).

The two nations negotiated an agreement in 2000 to convert 34 metric tons of plutonium each into a mixed-oxide (MOX) nuclear fuel that once irradiated in nuclear power reactors would be no longer be usable in weapons.

The program, however, has been severely hampered since 2003 by a legal issue. Progress on the plan suffered significant delays as the two nations walked through torturous negotiations over the liability of U.S. workers involved in construction of the Russian facilities to convert and burn the plutonium.

The agreement signed last week “formally resolves the issue of what liability framework would apply for cooperation between the two countries to eliminate this dangerous material from Russian and U.S. stocks,” National Nuclear Security Administration Administrator Linton Brooks said in a statement  (Energy Department release, Sept. 15).

Still, other issues remain to be worked out, including what form of reactor the Russians will use to burn the MOX fuel.  Recently, Moscow has said it would only contribute financially to the project if it is permitted to burn the excess plutonium in an existing fast-neutron reactor and build an additional fast-neutron reactor (see GSN, Aug. 11).

Critics of that demand say using fast-neutron reactors could actually lead to the production of more weapon-grade plutonium, effectively eliminating any nonproliferation gains of the original agreement.

In addition, delays in the MOX program and difficult negotiations with Moscow have led to frustrations in Congress and a significant question about funding for the coming fiscal year.

A House version of the energy appropriations bill strips the program’s entire $368 million budget. The Senate version of the same legislation pulls U.S. financing for the Russian component but remains committed to full funding for a MOX production facility in Aiken, S.C. (see GSN, June 28).

The different versions have yet to be resolved in conference (Jon Fox, Global Security Newswire, Sept. 18).

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