Good Riddance To Plutonium

The United States and Russia have signed an agreement to begin disposing of 34 tons of weapons-grade plutonium each - enough for thousands of nuclear weapons.

Vice President Al Gore signed at his residence here on Friday, while Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov signed the document in Moscow. The arms control agreement was reached in Moscow in June by President Clinton and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

It demonstrates a joint commitment to reduce nuclear dangers despite occasional blips in relations between the two countries.

However, Paul Levanthal, president of the nonprofit Nuclear Control Institute, said the agreement does not deal with very important problems associated with processing plutonium for nuclear power reactor fuel.

He said there remains no agreement on who would be held responsible if another severe Chernobyl-like accident occurred in Russia. And he said it is a mistake to let Russia use plutonium as fuel rather than dispose of it as waste.

New facilities will be built beginning in 2007 to convert some of the plutonium into fuel. The rest will be buried.

The process will be monitored by the International Atomic Energy Agency.

Congress has approved providing Russia with $200 million to help carry out its side of the agreement.

Gore's signed in private at his official residence on Massachusetts Avenue. The event was off-limits to the media.

President Clinton's meeting in Moscow with Putin was their first. They are due to meet again next week in New York while attending the Millennium summit.

The two leaders also agreed in Moscow to set up a joint center to monitor missile launches.

President Clinton called the two developments "major steps to reduce the nuclear danger."

Disposing of the plutonium will cost an estimated $5.75 billion - $4 billion in the United States and $1.75 billion in Russia. Other countries will be asked to contribute.

The Russian plutonium is to be converted for use in civilian nuclear power reactors. Some of the U.S. material will be used for reactors, the rest will be buried.

The main points of the agreement:

• Each country agreed to dispose of and remove from circulation 34 tons of weapons-grade plutonium, enough to make thousands of nuclear weapons.
• The new pact expands on an agreement in principle dating from 1998. It details goals, schedules, monitoring principles and conditions for the irreversible disposal of the plutonium.
• Each country must either irradiate the plutonium as fuel in reactors or immobilize it with high-level radioactive waste to render it suitable for geological disposal. The United States plans to use 25.5 tons as fuel and to immobilize 8.5 tons; Russia will use all 34 tons as fuel.
• Each country must construct industrial-scale facilities to convert the plutonium into fuel. The facilities must begin operation by 2007, dispose of at leastwo tons of weapons-grade plutonium per year and seek additional capacity in other countries to at least double that rate.
• The agreement establishes rights, obligations and principles of monitoring and inspection of the disposal process to ensure the plutonium can never again be used for nuclear weapons or any other military purposes.
• The Russian program is estimated to cost over $1.7 billion and take 20 years to implement. The U.S. program is projected to cost $4 billion.
• The United States and Russia will work to develop an international financing plan for the Russian program.
• None of the fuel produced by the plutonium may leave Russia without the prior written consent of the United States.