Russia suspends weapons disposal programme

He said Atomic Energy Minister Aleksandr Rumyantsev had discussed the bilateral agreement on the disposal of 34 tonnes of weapon-grade plutonium during a visit to the United States. The visit is still under way.

The project's cost for Russia is 2bn dollars, the source said.

"The country will have to build a factory for the disposal of weapon- grade plutonium at a cost of nearly 400m dollars, modernize power units, and so on," the source added.

The United States has assigned 200m dollars for the programme, and a similar allocation will be made in the future, but the money is not enough to launch the project.

It was planned to use the weapon-grade plutonium in the production of MOX fuel for nuclear power plants. "But Russia has no technologies for the industrial production of MOX fuel from weapon- grade plutonium," the source said.

"It is now cheaper and simpler to produce nuclear fuel from uranium."