Fact Sheet: Funds Sought for Nonproliferation Program with Russia

(Department of Energy seeks $100 million in new budget) (890)

The following fact sheet concerning President Clinton's Expanded
Threat Reduction Initiative for $100 million in fiscal year (FY) 2001
money to reduce Russian nuclear proliferation challenges was issued by
the Department of Energy (DOE) on February 11:

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LONG-TERM NONPROLIFERATION PROGRAM FOR RUSSIA

As part of the President's FY 2001 Expanded Threat Reduction
Initiative, the Department of Energy is launching a $100 million
collaborative program with Russia to reduce the proliferation
challenges posed by Russian nuclear facilities and weapons-usable
nuclear material, especially separated plutonium from the civilian
nuclear power sector.

This new initiative is a key element in a broad U.S. effort in Russia
to end the production of fissile materials and reduce existing
stockpiles, an effort that includes the Plutonium Disposition Program,
the HEU (Highly Enriched Uranium) Purchase Agreement, the Plutonium
Production Reactor Agreement, and the Core Conversion Agreement. All
of these activities, as well as the hundreds of millions of dollars we
are spending to improve fissile material security in Russia and other
countries of the former Soviet Union, reflect our deep concerns over
the risks of theft and diversion of nuclear materials in the unique
circumstances of the post-Cold War environment.

Nonproliferation and the Nuclear Fuel Cycle ($70 Million)

Since 1992, the United States has invested substantial resources to
collaborate with Russia to secure and eliminate weapons-grade nuclear
materials from Russia's military nuclear program.

Key aspects of this new initiative include strengthening security and
accounting for existing civil plutonium stockpiles; preventing the
further accumulation of separated plutonium in the U.S. and Russia
from spent fuel produced by civil nuclear power production; and the
possible misuse of civil nuclear technologies to further weapons
programs.

Key collaborative programs in FY 2001 will include:

-- Preventing further accumulation of separated plutonium. Each year
tons of plutonium are separated from spent fuel from nuclear power
plants. The administration proposes a U.S.-Russian moratorium on
increasing the stockpile of separated plutonium by the suspension of
spent fuel reprocessing. To support this moratorium it will be
necessary to design, license, and construct a dry storage facility in
Russia for civil reactor spent fuel. In addition, funds will also
support accelerated completion of material control and accounting work
on tens of tons of civil plutonium currently stored at the Mayak site.
In the long term, the utilization and disposition of the plutonium and
spent fuel will be determined by each party according to the status of
fuel cycle development. ($45 million)

-- Enhancing the proliferation resistance of reactors and nuclear fuel
cycles. A collaborative research and development effort will focus on
developing nuclear fuel cycle options that maximize technological
barriers to proliferation. The stages of collaboration include
refining nonproliferation performance metrics for fuel cycle
technologies, evaluating specific technologies against those metrics,
and development of the most promising technology options,
incorporating safety, environmental and economic considerations as
well as nonproliferation. ($20 million.)

-- Spent fuel and nuclear waste collaboration. The United States and
Russia will increase research collaboration on long term solutions
that address the world-wide accumulations of plutonium-bearing nuclear
spent fuel. This will include further developing the science
underlying repositories, exploring other possibilities to manage spent
fuel and high-level radioactive waste, and researching the issues
involved in spent fuel storage, specifically including environmental
and safety issues. ($5 million.)

Implementation of these programs is conditioned on Russia fulfilling
its commitment to curtail nuclear cooperation with Iran. Restrictions
will continue on Russian nuclear entities that engage in nuclear
assistance to Iran.

The new U.S. initiative regarding the civilian nuclear fuel cycle is
focused exclusively on Russia and is not intended to address civilian
fuel cycle activities elsewhere. Specifically, the new initiative will
not in any way affect U.S. undertakings in 1993 and thereafter to
maintain existing commitments regarding the use of plutonium in civil
nuclear programs in Western Europe and Japan.

Nonproliferation and the Russian Nuclear Infrastructure ($30 million)

Funds will support new initiatives for securing weapons-usable nuclear
materials in Russia, accelerate the closure of Russian nuclear weapons
assembly ("serial production") facilities, support the Russian
Ministry of Atomic Energy Situation Crisis Center, and initiate a
program to repatriate to Russia weapons-usable research reactor fuel
from Soviet-supplied research reactors outside that country.

-- Materials Protection, Control, and Accounting (MPC & A). Additional
funds will help to implement new efforts to consolidate nuclear
materials to fewer sites and fewer buildings and to expand DOE MPC & A
activities into a new category of Russian facilities: highly sensitive
Russian Navy nuclear sites. ($15 million.)

-- Accelerated Closure of Serial Production Facilities. New funds will
help to implement strategic plans for the closure of nuclear warhead
production capabilities at Avangard and Penza-19, including financing
for non-military projects to support displaced warhead production
workers. ($10 million.)

-- Situation Crisis Center; Russian Research Reactor Spent Fuel
Acceptance Program. Funds will support expansion of emergency
management and response cooperation to permit networking of Russian
nuclear complex facilities and the Ministry of Atomic Energy Situation
Crisis Center ($2 million) and will facilitate negotiations on an
internationally funded initiative to cooperate with Russia on
repatriating weapons-usable nuclear materials from Soviet-supplied
research reactors abroad. ($3 million.)

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(Distributed by the Office of International Information Programs, U.S.
Department of State.)