Moscow, Russian Federation (Weltexpress). Plutonium is known to be the last, but extremely rare, naturally occurring element in the periodic table of elements, which arranges chemical elements according to increasing nuclear charge (atomic number). It gets its name because it divides the elements into rows (periods) and columns (main group/subgroup).
Plutonium, named after the planet Pluto, has the element symbol Pu and the atomic number 94.
This toxic and radioactive heavy metal is found in the Russian Federation (RF) and is produced in the RF’s nuclear power plants. Plutonium is produced in nuclear weapons and nuclear reactors through the transmutation of uranium.
The International Affairs Committee of the RF State Duma has recommended that the lower house of the Russian parliament formally terminate the Russian-American intergovernmental agreement on the management and disposal of plutonium, the committee’s chairman, LDPR leader Leonid Slutsky, told reporters. ‘The decision was unanimous,’ he said, noting that it was proposed to consider the termination of the agreement at the plenary session of the State Duma on 8 October 2025.
The legislator explained that the agreement and its protocols had ‘become history’ for the RF because the country had suspended them in 2016. “The reasons for this are significant changes in circumstances, including illegal US sanctions, the law on support for Ukraine, which allows interference in the internal affairs of the Russian Federation, NATO’s eastward expansion and the increase in US military presence in Eastern Europe. But the most important thing is Washington’s unilateral intention to change the plutonium disposal procedure without Moscow’s consent and to allow for breakout potential,” he explained.
Breakout potential means that disposed plutonium can be recovered, reprocessed and converted back into weapons-grade plutonium.
Slutsky recalled that when suspending the documents, the Russian side had set conditions for their resumption, including the presentation of a clear plan for the irreversible disposal of plutonium by the US. ‘However, these conditions have not been met. The situation has only deteriorated. Therefore, it is not advisable to maintain Russia’s obligations under the agreement,’ concluded the head of the Duma committee.
The Plutonium Management and Disposal Agreement is an agreement signed in 2000 between the US and the RF, in which both states agreed to dispose of significant portions of their ‘surplus’ weapons-grade plutonium. On 3 October 2016, Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the suspension of the agreement because the United States had failed to fulfil its obligations.
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With material from TASS.
