Global Security Newswire

The fiscal 2005 Omnibus Appropriations bill approved by Congress on Saturday includes $300 million for construction of a facility to convert weapon-grade plutonium into mixed-oxide (MOX) fuel for use by U.S. nuclear power plants, the Associated Press reported (see GSN, Oct. 13).

Work on the plant at the Savannah River Site nuclear facility in South Carolina was expected to begin last spring, but has been delayed.

The United States and Russia agreed in 1998 to each eliminate 34 metric tons of plutonium. Agreements to build conversion plants in both countries expired last year, and Moscow is still looking for the United States to assume liability for the Russian plant, AP reported.

U.S. lawmakers hold out hope for an agreement with Russia, according to AP.

“The Bush administration understands how important it is we get this project moving so we can take this material off the market and terrorists cannot get their hands on it,” Senator Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said in a statement.

The appropriations bill does not include funds for the planned Savannah River National Laboratory, while legislators will decide whether to fund the $4 billion modern pit facility in the next fiscal year, AP reported (Associated Press/The State, Nov. 23).