Global plutonium management: A security option
The US surplus plutonium disposition program was created to reduce the proliferation risk posed by the fissile material from thousands of retired nuclear weapons. The Department of Energy has decided to process its Put into a form as secure as Pu in civilian spent fuel. While implementation issues have been considered, a major one (Russian reciprocity) remains unresolved. Russia has made disposition action conditional on extracting the fuel value of its Pu but lacks the infrastructure to do so. Assistance in the construction of the required facilities would conflict with official US policy opposing the development of a Pu fuel cycle. The resulting stagnation provides impetus for a reevaluation of US nonproliferation objectives and Pu disposition options. A strategy for satisfying Russian fuel value concerns and reducing the proliferation risk posed by surplus weapons-grade plutonium (WGPu) is proposed. The effectiveness of material alteration (e.g., isotopic, chemical, etc.{hor_ellipsis}) at reducing the desire, ability and opportunity for proliferation is assessed. Virtually all the security benefits attainable by material processing can be obtained by immobilizing Pu in large unit size/mass monoliths without a radiation barrier. Russia would be allowed to extract the Pu at a future date for use as fuel in a verifiable manner. Remote tracking capability, if proven feasible, would further improve safeguarding capability. As an alternate approach, the US could compensate Russia for its Pu, allowing it to be disposed of or processed elsewhere. A market based method for pricing Pu is proposed. Surplus Pu could represent access to nuclear fuel at a fixed price at a future date. This position can be replicated in the uranium market and priced using derivative theory. The proposed strategy attempts to meet nonproliferation objectives by recognizing technical limitations and satisfying political constraints.
- Research Organization:
- Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE, Washington, DC (US)
- DOE Contract Number:
- W-7405-ENG-36
- OSTI ID:
- 350848
- Report Number(s):
- LA-UR-98-3617; CONF-9809131-; ON: DE99002605; TRN: US0301420
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: American Political Science Association annual meeting, Boston, MA (US), 09/03/1998--09/06/1998; Other Information: Supercedes report DE99002605; PBD: [1998]; PBD: 31 Dec 1998
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Report by a special panel of the American Nuclear Society: Protection and management of plutonium
Related Subjects
21 SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS
45 MILITARY TECHNOLOGY, WEAPONRY, AND NATIONAL DEFENSE
98 NUCLEAR DISARMAMENT, SAFEGUARDS, AND PHYSICAL PROTECTION
CONSTRUCTION
FISSILE MATERIALS
FUEL CYCLE
IMPLEMENTATION
NUCLEAR FUELS
NUCLEAR WEAPONS
PLUTONIUM
PROCESSING
PROLIFERATION
RADIATIONS
SECURITY
SPENT FUELS
STAGNATION
URANIUM