Russia Agrees to Close Reactors, End Production of Plutonium

Russia has agreed to shut down three nuclear reactors still producing weapons-grade plutonium, Russian and U.S. officials announced Wednesday, making Russia the last of the world’s five declared nuclear nations to stop producing fissile material for warheads.

When the last plutonium is extracted from the irradiated uranium fuel rods at the Russian plants, in Tomsk and Krasnoyarsk, it will mark the first time since the beginning of the atomic age 50 years ago that none of the five major nuclear powers will be producing the basic building block of nuclear arms.

While full implementation of the agreement is several years away, “Both our governments recognize that ongoing production of these reactors makes little sense in this day and age,” said U.S. Energy Secretary Hazel O’Leary.

“Eight years ago in my most fantastic dreams I would never have imagined” that Russia would stop producing plutonium for its nuclear arsenal, said Russian Atomic Energy Minister Viktor Mikhailov, appearing at a news conference with O’Leary.

Russia, like the United States, has a surplus of plutonium recovered from dismantled warheads. Its continued production of the material has been a source of concern to the Clinton Administration and the arms control community.

In three days of talks, Mikhailov and O’Leary concluded a deal under which Russia will shut down the reactors as soon as alternative sources of heat for their communities are available, and the United States will help Russia find the money to pay for the new heating plants.

In a related accord announced Tuesday night, the two countries have also agreed to permit inspections of each other’s plutonium storage facilities.

Plutonium is a byproduct of the irradiation of uranium fuel rods in nuclear reactors.