President Putin suspends Plutonium deal with US
Q. President Putin suspended a deal with the United States on disposal of weapons grade substance. Which is it?- Published on 04 Oct 16a. Radium
b. Uranium
c. Plutonium
d. None of the above
ANSWER: Plutonium
President Vladimir Putin on 3rd Oct 2016 suspended the deal with the US on the disposal of weapons grade plutonium a symbol of US-Russia rapprochement fallen amidst tensions in Syria, Ukraine and other disputes
- Strain in the ties between former Cold war rivals escalated in recent weeks following the collapse of the Syrian truce
- The US State Dept also said it was suspending bilateral contact with Russia over Syria
- Putin’s decree cited the reason for Moscow’s move to be the US unfriendly action
- Russia will keep the weapons grade plutonium covered under the agreement away from weapons program
- As per this agreement signed in 2000 and expanded in 2006 and 2010, Russia and the US were set to dispose 34 metric tons of plutonium enough material for 17,000 nuclear warheads
- Russia indicated that it started up a plant that mixes side commercial nuclear reactor fuel known as MOX from weapons grade plutonium
- Construction of the similar plant in the US has run into trouble
- Putin argued that the policy change and failure to meet the MOX deal gave the US “Sreturn potential” or the chance to recycle the material into weapons grade plutonium
- While MOX makes sure that weapons-grade plutonium can't be used for any military purposes, the U.S. intention to dilute and stockpile the material means "it could be dug up again,” says Russia
- Moscow was suspending the deal though not annulling it and ready to restore it if the US took Russian concerns into account
