William Hartung: Hopefully, the most absurd of these initiatives -- like "missile defense, Jersey Shore edition" -- will collapse under their own weight. But that doesn't mean they shouldn't be vigorously opposed. Stranger things have happened. | But the worst idea of all may be the most arcane -- restoring funding for a facility known as the Chemical and Metallurgy Research Replacement Facility (CMRR).
Rep. Turner also introduced amendment #141, which was approved, on the strategic force posture of the United States. This amendment is apparently identical to H.R. 4178, a resolution he introduced in March.
The vast majority of the radioactive plutonium on the planet is man-made€”roughly 500 metric tons, or enough to make 100,000 nuclear weapons by the calculations of the International Panel on Fissile Materials. | Much of it is the legacy of the nuclear arms race between the U.S. and Russia in the latter decades of the 20th century but, more and more, it is also the legacy of nuclear power.
Plutonium can be used to make nuclear bombs. But it can also be recycled and used as a fuel in nuclear reactors. According to the authors of a Nature editorial, the UK€”which has the largest civilian stockpile of plutonium, around 90 tons€”should skip recycling and stockpiling plutonium and simply bury it. They argue that recycling is simply too expensive and risky.