Bill Richardson's Presentation at the Woodrow Wilson Center - 06/13/00
Energy Secretary Bill Richardson on U.S.-Russian Nuclear Security Cooperation
Woodrow Wilson Center June 13, 2000 Prepared by Mark C. Sesso, RANSAC Intern
Following a warm welcome by Lee Hamilton, president ofthe Woodrow Wilson Center, Energy Secretary Bill Richardson gave a tenminute address on the recent summit between President Clinton and PresidentPutin, highlighting achievements in arms control, nonproliferation, andthreat reduction areas. The following summarizes the key points madeby Richardson in each issue area.
Arms Control:
Arms control is essential to global security and the agreements that havebeen implemented by the Clinton Administration have led to verifiable constraintson Russian strategic nuclear forces.
President Clinton and President Putin signed a statement dedicating bothsides to follow agreed principles of strategic stability.
Both leaders agreed to continue talks on a possible START III and ABM Treatymodifications over the summer.
Nonproliferation and threat reduction:
The Clinton Administration is dedicated to continuing joint nonproliferationprograms with Russia. President Clinton’s Expanded Threat ReductionInitiative (ETRI) is a pillar of U.S. national security.
At last week’s summit, the United States and Russia announced conclusionof an agreement to dispose of 34 tons of plutonium each from their retirednuclear weapons.
This amount of plutonium represents thousands of nuclear weapons. The Plutonium Disposition Agreement builds on approaches agreed to at the1996 Nuclear Safety and Security Summit.
It will take 20 years and billions of dollars to dispose of the 68 tonsof plutonium.
Further discussions on financing the plutonium disposition program willoccur at next month’s G-8 summit in Okinawa.
The U.S. is also continuing its discussion with Russia to end Russia’scivil reprocessing program. The U.S. and Russia are working to finalizean agreement which would: (1) halt the separation of plutonium fromRussia’s commercial spent fuel for 20 years; (2) construct a storage facilityfor spent fuel in Russia; (3) cooperate with Russia in developing a geologicrepository for disposal of nuclear waste; and (4) pursue joint researchand development on proliferation-resistant fuel cycles and technologies.
On June 3, Richardson and Russian Atomic Energy Minister Adamov agreedto extend an agreement on joint cooperation in nuclear warhead safety andsecurity. This agreement provides the legal underpinnings to protect andsecure Russian nuclear warheads during transportation and storage.
Richardson will visit Russia next month. During his trip, he will: (1) participate in the commissioning of a Russian highly-enriched uraniumfuel storage site in the Russian Far East; and (2) visit the Avangard Plantin Sarov, where the fence was recently moved making over 500,000 squarefeet available for civilian activities.
In closing, Richardson remarked that Russia has become more receptive toallowing outside observers in its facilities to promote nuclear safetyand security work. In order to attain peace, the United States needsto embrace change and work with Russia in the efforts to promote and implementnonproliferation programs.
The meeting adjourned without Richardson taking questions from theaudience, though he held a short meeting with members of the media in thehallway after his remarks.
