undefined U.S. Plans to Transfer Plutonium to Energy Companies
U.S. President Trump’s administration is planning on giving five America-based energy companies access to plutonium from dismantled Cold-War nuclear warheads. The companies will use the plutonium to power nuclear reactors and to serve as bridge fuel.
The Energy Department was originally planning on diluting and burying the leftover plutonium from nuclear energy programs. According to the New York Times, the U.S. energy department and the five energy companies—Oklo, Standard Nuclear, Exodys Energy, SHINE Technologies, and Flibe Energy—are currently negotiating the details of the transfer of plutonium.
The five energy companies are hoping to receive the plutonium through the Surplus Plutonium Utilization Program, which was made in 2025. A spokesperson for the Department of Nuclear Energy stated that the program was made “to help companies unlock the next level of private funding to broaden domestic nuclear fuel supplies, spur innovation on American recycling technologies, and unlock private sector funding to fuel the nation’s nuclear renaissance.”
According to the New York Times article, plutonium is “a byproduct of nuclear fission, the process that powers nuclear reactors.” It is also much more dangerous to handle compared to uranium, which is what is normally used to fuel nuclear reactors.
Ben Dietderich, Energy Department’s spokesperson said that any usage of the plutonium would be “subject to rigorous safety, security, and nonproliferation requirements.”
U.S. democratic Sen. Ed Markey, believes that the transfer of plutonium will not bring benefits. In a letter that Markey wrote to President Donald Trump and shared with CNN, he stated that “using surplus plutonium to produce energy would be significantly more expensive than diluting and disposing of it.”
Markey also noted that the original plan would cost $29 billion less than repurposing it. He also wrote that “commercial nuclear energy does not require separated plutonium, and today there is no global demand for plutonium to make civilian nuclear reactor fuel.”
Around the world countries have attempted to repurpose plutonium but did not succeed. Vice president at the Nuclear Threat Initiative, Scott Roecker, also agrees with disposing of the plutonium. Past efforts to use plutonium for nuclear reactors resulted in technical difficulties and higher costs than predicted.
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