The Energy Department has selected five companies to possibly convert government stockpiles of weapons-grade plutonium for a new generation of advanced nuclear reactors, a department spokesperson said Tuesday.
The agreement, if made final, would allocate surplus plutonium from the Cold War era to private companies in a move that proponents said could provide a safe use for the radioactive material but critics have called unsafe and too expensive. POLITICO first reported last year on a July DOE memo prepared by a senior department official that recommended delivering 25 metric tons of plutonium from government stockpiles to the nuclear power industry.
“The Surplus Plutonium Utilization Program is anticipated 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,” a spokesperson for the Office of Nuclear Energy said Tuesday.
Democrats have lambasted transferring government-owned plutonium as being against long-standing, bipartisan U.S. nuclear security policy.
