Americans Given Rare Access To Russian Nuclear Warehouse

Tumbleweed · Black Ops Joined: 02 Jul 2007 Posts: 3687 votes: 3

They spend their money on weapons and we foot the bill for their nuclear material disposal. Laughing

Lugar, Nunn First to Visit $309 Million Facility Paid for by U.S.

By David E. Hoffman
Washington Post Foreign Service

Quote:

YEKATERINBURG, Russia, Aug. 31 -- For the first time in 3 1/2 years, Russia on Friday allowed visiting American officials to look inside the world's largest fortified warehouse for nuclear materials, a graveyard for plutonium that Russia has tried to keep closed.

The Fissile Material Storage Facility, a hulking fortress with walls 23 feet thick that are designed to withstand earthquakes and airplane crashes, was built by the United States at a cost of $309 million at the Mayak nuclear plant at Ozersk, about 80 miles from here. Since it was finished in December 2003 and turned over to Russia, U.S. officials have been kept in the dark about what was happening inside.

Russia has balked at signing an agreement, which Congress has mandated, that would allow U.S. officials to conduct measurements of the plutonium held in special containers inside the colossal vault, larger than a football field.

"There is a disagreement over the amount of information we require and what they are prepared to give," said Sen. Richard G. Lugar (Ind.), ranking Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Lugar and former senator Sam Nunn (D-Ga.), authors of legislation to secure dangerous materials left behind by the Cold War, were permitted a rare visit to the facility Friday.

Up to 100 tons of plutonium or 400 tons of highly enriched uranium could eventually be stored in the facility, but Lugar and Nunn were told that only about a sixth of the space is being loaded with material so far. Russian officials said they would probably fill only about a quarter of it. Since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, Russia has struggled to find a place for the fissile material from nuclear bombs that are being disassembled.

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