The Obama Administration is expected to announce plans for removal of plutonium from Japan and special nuclear materials from several European countries at the Nuclear Security Summit taking place today and tomorrow in the Netherlands. The Administration has urged Japan to commit to returning 300 kilograms of largely weapons-grade plutonium to the United States, according to a January report in Kyodo News. Announcements are also expected in connection with material in the Netherlands and Belgium. Additionally, at the previous meeting in 2012 both Belgium and Italy committed to removing highly enriched uranium and plutonium to the United States by the 2014 summit. The NNSA declined to comment last week on possible removal of material from those countries.
The most likely place for storage of the plutonium would be the Savannah River Site in South Carolina. The state last week sued the Department of Energy for its decision to shut down the Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility due to a promise that it would be a pathway for U.S. weapons-grade plutonium to leave the state. It’s unclear how the state would react to incoming shipments of additional plutonium. The South Carolina Attorney General’s Office did not respond to a request for comment Friday.