This week, it was reported that the DOE has selected five companies to enter into “advanced negotiations regarding the potential allocation of surplus plutonium materials” sourced from dismantled Cold War-era nuclear warheads, which will be converted into fuel for advanced reactors. If finalized, it would be the first time the US government has made weapons-grade plutonium available to private companies. The companies named in the negotiations were Oklo, Exodys Energy, SHINE Technologies, Standard Nuclear, and Flibe Energy.
The plan stems from an executive order calling for a pause to an existing program diluting and disposing of surplus plutonium from dismantled warheads to instead repurpose about 20 metric tonnes of the material as fuel for advanced nuclear technologies. The plan has drawn opposition from Senator Edward Markey of Massachusetts and Representatives Don Beyer of Virginia and John Garamendi of California, who claim that 20 metric tonnes of weapons-usable plutonium is enough for approximately 2K nuclear bombs and have asked the agency to cancel the plan. Scott Roecker of the Nuclear Threat Initiative, meanwhile, pointed out that other countries had concluded that this type of plutonium was a liability that should be permanently disposed of rather than used as fuel.
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