About Plutonium Management and Disposition Agreement (PMDA):
- It is an agreement between the United States and Russia signed in 2000.
- It came into force in 2011.
- It aimed at reducing vast stockpiles of weapons-grade plutonium left over from thousands of Cold War nuclear warheads.
- After dismantling thousands of warheads after the Cold War, both Moscow and Washington were left with huge stockpiles of weapons-grade plutonium which was costly to store and posed a potential proliferation risk.
- The aim of the PMDA was to dispose of the weapons-grade plutonium, by converting it into safer forms - such as mixed oxide (MOX) fuel or by irradiating plutonium in fast-neutron reactors for electricity production.
- It committed both the United States and Russia to dispose of at least 34 tonnes of weapons-grade plutonium each.
- Russia in 2016 suspended implementation of the agreement, citing U.S. sanctions and what it cast as unfriendly actions against Russia, NATO enlargement, and changes to the way the United States was disposing of its plutonium.
- Russia said at the time that the United States had not abided by the agreement after Washington moved, without Russian approval, to simply dilute the plutonium and dispose of it.
