Russia suspends weapons disposal programme

Moscow -- Moscow has suspended the implementation of the Russia-US agreement on weapon-grade plutonium because of serious financial problems, an Atomic Energy Ministry spokesman said recently.

He said Atomic Energy Minister Aleksandr Rumyantsev had discussed the bilateral agreement on the disposal of 34 tonnes of weapon-grade plutonium during a visit to the United States. The visit is still under way.

The project's cost for Russia is 2bn dollars, the source said.

"The country will have to build a factory for the disposal of weapon- grade plutonium at a cost of nearly 400m dollars, modernize power units, and so on," the source added.

The United States has assigned 200m dollars for the programme, and a similar allocation will be made in the future, but the money is not enough to launch the project.

It was planned to use the weapon-grade plutonium in the production of MOX fuel for nuclear power plants. "But Russia has no technologies for the industrial production of MOX fuel from weapon- grade plutonium," the source said.

"It is now cheaper and simpler to produce nuclear fuel from uranium."

Interfax-AVN