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June 4, 2000

FACT SHEET

                              THE WHITE HOUSE



                       Office of the Press Secretary

                             (Moscow, Russia)

For Immediate Release                                   June 4, 2000



                                FACT SHEET



    United States - Russian Federation Plutonium Disposition Agreement



President Clinton and President Putin today announced that the United

States and the Russian Federation have completed a key arms control and

nonproliferation agreement providing for the safe, transparent and

irreversible disposition of 68 metric tons of weapons-grade plutonium --

enough plutonium to make thousands of nuclear weapons.



The United States and Russia have already agreed to nuclear arms reductions

that have led to the removal of weapons-grade plutonium from their military

programs.  This new agreement details the goals, schedules, monitoring

principles and conditions for the irreversible disposition of that

plutonium.



Unlike weapons-grade uranium, which is being blended down for use as

nuclear power fuel both in the United States and in Russia, plutonium

cannot be blended with other materials to make it unusable in weapons.

Under the agreement, each Party must dispose of at least 34 metric tons of

weapons-grade plutonium by irradiating it as fuel in reactors or by

immobilizing it with high-level radioactive waste, rendering it suitable

for geologic disposal.  The United States intends to use 25.5 tons as fuel

and to immobilize 8.5 tons; the Russian Federation intends to use 34 tons

as fuel.



Both Russia and the United States will accelerate their work leading toward

construction of new industrial-scale facilities for conversion of the

plutonium and its fabrication into fuel.  The Agreement requires each Party

to seek to begin operation of such industrial-scale facilities by 2007, to

achieve a disposition rate of at least 2 metric tons of weapons-grade

plutonium per year and, working with other countries, to identify

additional capacities at least to double that disposition rate.



The agreement establishes certain rights, obligations and principles for

monitoring and inspecting the disposition and the end products to ensure

the plutonium can never again be used for nuclear weapons or any other

military purposes. The agreement bans reprocessing of this plutonium until

the entire 34 metric tons have been disposed.  After that, any reprocessing

of this plutonium must be done under effective, mutually agreed monitoring

measures.



The agreement also anticipates that any additional plutonium designated in

the future as excess to defense needs can be disposed under these same

terms and conditions.



The Russian program is estimated to cost over $1.7 billion over twenty

years. The U.S. program, which includes immobilization facilities as well

as conversion and fuel fabrication facilities, is estimated to cost $4

billion.



The agreement recognizes the need for international financing and

assistance for the Russian Federation to fulfill the obligations of the

agreement. There is strong international support, particularly among G-8

nations, for the initiation and implementation of plutonium disposition.

The United States and the Russian Federation will work with other countries

to develop an international financing plan for the Russian program and

multilateral arrangements to integrate and coordinate this extensive

cooperation with Russia.  This will be on the agenda for the G-8 Summit in

Okinawa in July.



The U.S. Congress has already appropriated $200 million for plutonium

disposition in Russia, which will now be used for pre-construction design

work for industrial-scale facilities in Russia. Today's agreement will also

accelerate research, development and demonstrations under the 1998

technical agreement for plutonium disposition between the United States and

Russian Federation.



The agreement is a critical, indispensable step toward the goal of ensuring

proper disposition of this plutonium from weapons programs. Next steps

include negotiating multilateral cooperation arrangements, establishing

international financing, and developing plans to accelerate plutonium

disposition.



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