U.S., Russia Sign Deal to Cut Plutonium Stocks

[steven johnson]

Source: Reuters

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States and Russia on Tuesday signed a deal to dispose of tons of weapons-grade plutonium, a sign of increased cooperation between the two former Cold War foes towards their joint goal of nuclear non-proliferation.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov signed the agreement, which calls on each side to dispose of 34 metric tons of plutonium by burning it in nuclear reactors.

Lavrov said Russia would spend about $2.5 billion on the program, with the United States contributing some $400 million to help permanently destroy the material.

"Together that is enough material for nearly 17,000 nuclear weapons and we will put in place the framework and infrastructure needed to dispose of even more plutonium from defence programs in the future," Clinton said at the signing ceremony, held on the sidelines of a global nuclear security summit convened by President Barack Obama in Washington.


Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2010/04/13/world/international-uk-nuclear-summit-russia-plutonium.html?ref=world

[SpartanDem]

1. K&R

[samsingh]

2. good

freepers probably can't understand the importance of this achievement

[SkyDaddy7]

4. Republicans are going to block all this progress!

They do not want Obama to do anything respectable. I swear if Reagan were alive he would called a RHINO! They all worship Reagan but even Reagan was not as far to the right as the current Republicans are!

[FailureToCommunicate]

3. People may dismiss this, but sometimes thawing hard frozen things takes time. Besides

let nuke clutter lying around means less temping material for sale for dirty bombs