The lower house of the Russian Parliament approved on Wednesday a proposal to withdraw from the agreement with the United States to reduce large stocks of plutonium usable for the production of weapons. Both countries remained plutonium from thousands of nuclear heads from the Cold War. Reuters informed about it, writes TASR.
- The Lower Chamber of Russia approved the withdrawal from the plutonium agreement.
- The 2011 agreement concerned a reduction in arms plutonium.
- The US and Russia have large supplies of nuclear material.
- The aim of the agreement was to turn the plutonium into safe forms.
- Russia suspended the agreement in 2016.
The Plutonium and its disposal (PMDA) Agreement entered into force in 2011 and undertakes to the US and Russia to get rid of at least 34 tons of plutonia. According to US officials, this amount would be enough to produce up to 17,000 nuclear heads.
“The United States has taken a number of new anti -Russian steps that are fundamentally changing the strategic balance that existed at the time of this Agreement, creating additional threats to strategic stability,” It is stated in the Russian announcement of the bill.
After dismantling thousands of combat heads after the Cold War Moscow and Washington remained huge supplies of weapon plutonia. Its storage is expensive and also poses a potential risk to the spread of nuclear weapons.
The aim of PMDA was turn this plutonium into safer forms such as MOX nuclear fuel, or use it to produce electricity by radiation plutonia in reactors. In 2016, Russia suspended the fulfillment of this agreement, justified by sanctions and other enemy steps of the US, the expansion of NATO and changes in the disposal of plutonium in the United States.
Russia and the US are far from the biggest nuclear powers. Together they have approximately 8,000 nuclear warheads, which is much less than 73,000 of 1986, according to data from the US scientist federation.
