U.S. to remove plutonium from 1,000 old atom bombs

Posted 09 18 2007 1:17PM

VIENNA (Reuters) - The United States will remove frommilitary stockpiles nine tonnes of plutonium, enough for morethan 1,000 atom bombs, to demonstrate its commitment tonon-proliferation, the U.S. energy secretary said on Monday.

The excess plutonium will be taken out of retired nuclearweapons in coming decades and turned into mixed-oxide fuelburnable in commercial nuclear reactors providing electricity,Samuel Bodman said during a U.N. nuclear watchdog meeting.

"As the United States continues to reduce the size of itsnuclear weapons stockpile, we will be able to dispose of evenmore nuclear material while increasing energy and nationalsecurity," he told a press briefing.

The step reflected an accord between the United States andRussia in 2000 under which each was to make 34 tonnes of excessplutonium unusable for nuclear weapons, with the possibility ofconverting it into a proliferation-proof civilian energysource.

Peace activists say Washington, Moscow and the other earlynuclear weapons powers -- Britain, France and China -- havefallen far short of disarmament targets foreseen in a 1990sextension of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

Some 27,000 nuclear weapons remain in big-power arsenals.

On Sunday, 16 nations signed a U.S.-initiated pact to helpmeet soaring world energy demand over the coming decades bydeveloping nuclear technology less prone to diversion intoatomic bomb-making.