Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a law on Monday terminating the non-implemented agreement with the United States to reduce plutonium stockpiles. Its goal was to prevent the production of a larger number of nuclear weapons. TASR informs about it according to the AFP agency.
- Vladimir Putin signed a law terminating the plutonium agreement with the US.
- The PMDA agreement was supposed to eliminate excess plutonium stocks starting in 2011.
- The collapse of the agreement occurs in the context of tense relations between Russia and the US.
- Russia suspended the deal in 2016 due to sanctions and disputes.
- The US and Russia still possess a large number of nuclear warheads.
The resignation comes at a time when relations between Putin and the US president have cooled. Trump has recently expressed growing disappointment over the Russian leader’s unwillingness to negotiate peace in Ukraine, and last week announced the cancellation of a planned summit with Putin. According to him, such negotiations will not take place until it is clear that the head of the Kremlin wants to conclude an agreement.
After the dismantling of thousands of warheads after the Cold War, Moscow and Washington were left with huge stockpiles of weapons-grade plutonium. Its storage is expensive and also poses a potential risk for nuclear proliferation.
The Plutonium Management and Disposal Agreement (PMDA) entered into force in 2011. It obliged both countries to get rid of at least 34 tons of plutonium each. According to American officials, this amount would be enough to produce up to 17,000 nuclear warheads.
The PMDA’s goal was to convert this plutonium into safer forms, such as MOX nuclear fuel, or to use it to generate electricity by irradiating plutonium in reactors. Russia suspended the agreement in 2016 due to sanctions and other allegedly hostile actions by the US, NATO expansion and changes in plutonium disposal in the United States.
Russia and the US are by far the largest nuclear powers and together have approximately 8,000 nuclear warheads. According to data from the Federation of American Scientists, in 1986 there were roughly 73,000 of them.
