MOSCOW. March 13 (Interfax-AVN) - The Russian Atomic Energy Ministry plans to stop all reactors making weapons-grade plutonium, the press service of the ministry told Interfax- Military News Agency Thursday.
"Atomic Energy Minister Alexander Rumyantsev is in Vienna, Austria, at a conference on secure storage and transportation of nuclear materials. He has held talks there with U.S. Secretary of Energy Spencer Abraham on Russia's stopping reactors making weapons-grade plutonium," the press service said.
The press service recalled that Russian and the U.S. had signed an September 23, 1997 an agreement on both countries' stopping all reactors making weapons-grade plutonium.
"On the basis of these agreements, all American and almost all Russian such reactors have been stopped. Russia has not stopped the ADE-3 and ADE-5 in Seversk, Tomsk region, and the ADE- 2 in Zheleznogorsk, Krasnoyarsk region, because they put out heat and electric power for these regions. During the current Vienna conference, Rumyantsev and Abraham have signed documents on full implementation of the agreement banning the production of weapons- grade plutonium. In accordance with these papers, the U.S. Department of Energy will aid Russia in replacing the reactors making weapons-grade plutonium by organic-fuelled thermal power stations," the press service said.
The international conference in Vienna is to be closed on Thursday.