US Assistant Secretary of State for Nonproliferation Thomas Countryman said that the United States will eventually discuss Russian concerns over the Plutonium Management and Disposition Agreement regarding changes in the means of plutonium disposal.

The United States will eventually discuss Russian concerns over the Plutonium Management and Disposition Agreement (PMDA) regarding changes in the means of plutonium disposal, US Assistant Secretary of State for Nonproliferation Thomas Countryman told Sputnik.

"We have an agreement in place [with Russia] that says we can each change the means of disposal by agreement. So I expect at some point we will discuss that," Countryman said on Thursday.

Under the US-Russian PMDA, originally signed in 2000, both parties agreed to dispose of at least 34 metric tons of weapons grade plutonium, enough to produce 17,000 nuclear bombs.

In signing the updated PDMA in 2010, the United States agreed to convert its plutonium into a mixed oxide (MOX) fuel at a reprocessing facility in the state of North Carolina.

As a result of major cost overruns, in 2015 the United States abandoned its MOX facility, opting instead for a less expensive process of diluting and storing the plutonium at a site in the state of New Mexico.

Prior to the Nuclear Security Summit in Washington, DC, earlier in April, Russian President Vladimir Putin objected to the changes the US made to its disposal program, arguing it was not the means agreed to under the PDMA.

Russia to Join Nuclear Management Academy
The National Research Nuclear University MEPhI (Moscow Engineering Physics Institute) will become the first Russian university to launch a MA program meeting IAEA standards in the area of nuclear management technologies.

Russia will launch a MA program meeting IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) standards in the area of nuclear management technologies for the first time. The first students will enroll in August and join the program at MEPhI on September 1.

Earlier, Mikhail Strikhanov, rector of the National Research Nuclear University MEPhI, and Nikolai Geraskin, head of the Physical Engineering Education Center, signed an agreement with IAEA. According to its provisions, MEPhI will become an official member of IAEA's International Nuclear Management Academy.

MEPhI graduate Mikhail Chudakov, now an IAEA Deputy Director General, told RIA Novosti that the academy's educational framework had been drafted.

"IAEA experts visit universities wishing to join the academy," he said. "This is needed to graduate high-class experts boasting a certain range of nuclear technology expertise in line with a standard format."

The University of Manchester was the first to join this process, and MEPhI is next. According to Chudakov, Tokyo University will be the third to offer the program.

Chudakov believes that the nuclear sector's sustained high level of safety and security depends on skillful decisions and the effective management of INMA-monitored processes.

Source: Sputnik News