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Belgium seeks more info on US plutonium request
BRUSSELS, Belgium (Reuters) - Belgium said Tuesday it needed more
information before deciding whether it would accede to a U.S. request to recycle
weapons-grade plutonium from an arms reduction deal with Russia. Prime Minister
Guy Verhofstadt said his cabinet would not debate the U.S. request before
additional information is made available. "The prime minister wishes to evaluate
how much this recycling project will contribute to helping to speed up nuclear
disarmament," Verhofstadt's office said in a statement. The Bush administration
has asked Belgium to recycle 176 pounds of the highly fissile material into
low-grade nuclear fuel under a deal with Russia to reduce each side's deployed
strategic nuclear warheads to between 1,700 and 2,200 from about 6,000. Belgium
and France have the technology to convert nuclear weapons-grade material into
MOX fuel that can be used in civilian nuclear power plants, while the United
States does not. A U.S. embassy spokesman said last week that Washington planned
to license the technology to build two similar plants in the United States, but
it first wanted to ship a small amount of plutonium to Belgium or France to
simulate the procedure in a test facility. The Greens, the junior group in
Verhofstadt's three-party coalition, has opposed the U.S. plan on grounds that
it could pose risks to the environment. 07/16/02 13:39 ET Copyright 2002 Reuters
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