Russia suspends Plutonium Deal with US
In another jolt to US-Russia relations, President Vladimir Putin has suspended a deal on disposal of weapons-grade plutonium based on accusations that US is creating an atmosphere of posing a threat to strategic stability and has not been able to honour its obligations to use surplus weapons grade Plutonium. Russia has based its step as a measure to protect the security and interests of Russian Federation. White House has expressed disappointment over the developments as it reiterated the fact that it has kept all its undertakings and stands to see Russian side deliver on its obligations. Russia and US stand at loggerheads due to Russian annexation of Crimea in 2014.
Plutonium Management and Disposition Agreement (PMDA)
PMDA was signed between Government of United States of America and Government of Russian Federation on August 29, 2000 to manage and dispose the Plutonium designated as No Longer Required for Defense Purposes and Related Cooperation. The quintessential terms of the agreement included irreversibility of converting disposition plutonium to forms which cannot be used to manufacture nuclear weapons and parity between Russian and US programs to undertake such steps. Both sides were to dispose 34 metric tonnes of weapon-grade plutonium and in turn convert it into fuel for light-water reactors i.e. isotopic ration of plutonium 240 to plutonium 239 should not be less than 0.1. The agreement also covered the possibility of disposing any further plutonium which is removed from nuclear weapons program in the future. Furthermore, transparency has to be maintained for the international community via shared monitoring and inspection of disposition plutonium, fuel that has been spent and all the required production units.
The current refusal to further honor the Agreement can spell more chaos in US-Russian relations. It will be a big jolt to the international efforts to foster the non-proliferation regime. The Agreement was assumed to take atleast two decades to be able to convert only a small portion of the weapons-grade plutonium possessed by both the nations. US has about 100 metric tonnes of weapons-grade plutonium and Russia has about 140 metric tonnes.
Russia has outlined a number of tough conditions for US to resume the accord. These include reducing presence of American military in NATO nations near Russian borders, calling off all sanctions against Russia and compensation of Moscow for the losses incurred by it due to economic sanctions and calling off of Magnitsky Act which enables US to punish Russians who have violate human rights. This is being seen as a symbolic and strategic move by Russian regime as the agreement was the hallmark of US-Russian relationship. It has come at a time when US-Russian relations are at an all time low after the Cold War.
The suspension of the agreement has once again brought to fore the dwindling relations between the two nations. It has highlighted the fact that US sanctions have crippled Russian economy vastly. Although Russia has affirmed building a plant to convert weapons grade plutonium into fuel called MOX which is used as in commercial reactors. There has been no such step taken by US where the ways of disposal stand mired in delays and cost overruns.
