The producers and users of plutonium for civil purposes (the UK, Belgium, China, France, Germany, Japan, Russia, Switzerland, and the United States) agreed in November 1997 to provide an internationally accepted framework for the management of plutonium. Their agreement was published in the following document: International guidelines for the management of civil plutonium.
The main features of the guidelines were:
- a reaffirmation of existing obligations, commitments and standards in the fields of non-proliferation, safety and physical protection
- a renewed commitment to the strategic management of holdings of plutonium, and agreement on a number of factors to be taken into account in formulating national strategies
- provisions on the control of international transfers
- a new commitment to transparency.
The countries involved agreed to publish periodic statements explaining their national strategies for nuclear power and the nuclear fuel cycle, and their general plans for managing national holdings of plutonium.
The nine countries concerned meet annually to see that the guidelines are seen through in a timely and efficient manner, and to exchange experiences. Individual countries take responsibility for supplying information, although the guidelines include a standard format for this. Regular circulars on this are published on the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) website.
Below you can find a summary and a transcript of the Long term management of the UK's separted civil plutonium DECC workshop which was held on 21 May 2009 in Manchester:
Long term management of the UK’s civil plutonium accumulation
The development of proposals for plutonium management is planned with the launch of a public consultation. Ahead of this, DECC have prepared two pre-consultation discussion papers for comment. The first considers the factors which could be important when judging one potential option for long term plutonium management against another.
The second considers the decision-making methodology and issues around when is the right time to make a decision on selecting a preferred option.
Comments received on these papers will help us to determine the form of the consultation.