Tuesday August 28, 2001 |

MOSCOW - A long-discussed U.S.-Russian plan to stop production of weapons-grade plutonium in Russia has been stalled by funding shortages, and the government said yesterday that it wants the United States to agree to postpone its implementation.

The agreement, signed in September 1997 by Vice President Al Gore and Russian Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin, was hailed at the time as a historic event and a big step in U.S. efforts to ensure that Moscow safeguards and reduces its vast nuclear stockpile.

But it has already been delayed by disagreements over audits meant to ensure U.S. money would be spent properly. Now Russia wants to push back the schedule of the project to convert three plutonium-making reactors to production of uranium for civilian power plants.

As it stands, the plan calls for two nuclear reactors in the Siberian city of Seversk, once a closed city known as Tomsk-7, to stop producing plutonium in 2002 and 2003, the ITAR-Tass news agency reported.

A third reactor in Zheleznogorsk - another formerly top-secret Siberian city, called Krasnoyarsk-26 in Soviet times - was to stop in 2004.

But amid persistent funding problems, Russian Cabinet's information department said Monday that Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov has ordered the Nuclear Power Ministry to negotiate an amendment to the deal with U.S. officials.

It said the Seversk reactors would keep working through 2005, and the one in Zheleznogorsk until the end of 2006.

In addition to producing plutonium, the reactors also provide electricity and heat for residents of the cities, and the U.S.-Russian deal called for the two countries to share the costs of building replacement power facilities.

The proposed amendment, authorized by Kasyanov, also included a stipulation that the United States would help modify reactors or build alternative power facilities if funds are available. The government statement didn't say when the amendment was expected to be signed.

Officials at the U.S. embassy in Moscow declined to comment.

Also yesterday, Sen. Richard Lugar - a chief architect of deals to reduce and safeguard nuclear stockpiles following the 1991 Soviet collapse - was visiting Severodvinsk, a naval port on Russia's northern coast that is the focus of efforts to dismantle scores of aging nuclear submarines with the help of U.S. funding.

The Indiana Republican, who arrived in Russia on Sunday, has complained of massive cuts in the programs designed to help Russia secure its vast cache of nuclear weapons and material, which environmental groups have said pose a major threat to the surrounding area.

He was inspecting a maintenance plant, U.S.-financed disposal projects and a shipyard before heading back to Moscow. He planned to visit the Volga River cities of Nizhny Novgorod and Kazan before leaving for neighboring Ukraine later this week, the U.S. Embassy said.