Cold War plutonium could power US reactors under Trump’s new energy plan Exclusive by Reuters

The Trump administration is preparing a plan to release roughly 20 metric tons of Cold War-era plutonium from dismantled nuclear warheads for potential use as reactor fuel by U.S. power companies, according to a source familiar with the discussions and a draft policy memo obtained by Reuters.

While plutonium has previously been tested in commercial reactors only on a limited basis, the proposal would mark the first significant effort to integrate the material into the U.S. energy market.

The move stems from a directive signed by President Donald Trump in May, which instructed federal agencies to scale back a long-running program aimed at diluting and disposing of surplus plutonium, instead prioritising its use in advanced nuclear technologies.

According to the source, who requested anonymity because the plan has not been finalized, the Department of Energy (DOE) is expected to solicit proposals from industry within days. The source cautioned that key provisions could still change before a formal announcement.

The plan envisions offering the plutonium to companies at little or no cost. In return, utilities would assume full financial responsibility for transporting the material and building, operating, and eventually decommissioning government-approved facilities to process it into reactor-ready fuel.

The 20 metric tons represent a portion of a 34-metric-ton stockpile of weapons-grade plutonium that Washington pledged to eliminate under a 2000 non-proliferation agreement with Moscow. Specific details about the proposed allocation, industry responsibilities, and the timing of the rollout had not been previously disclosed.

The DOE, while not confirming the draft plan, said in a brief statement that it is “evaluating a variety of strategies to build and strengthen domestic supply chains for nuclear fuel, including plutonium,” in line with Trump’s directive.

The policy shift comes as the administration seeks to bolster the domestic energy sector, with electricity demand climbing for the first time in two decades due largely to the surge in data centers driven by artificial intelligence technologies.

Still, the idea of recycling surplus plutonium has drawn scepticism from nuclear safety experts. A similar program to convert the material into mixed-oxide (MOX) reactor fuel collapsed in 2018 when the Trump administration terminated a costly project that was expected to exceed $50 billion.

Currently, surplus plutonium is stored at high-security facilities such as the Savannah River Site in South Carolina, the Pantex Plant in Texas, and Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico. With a half-life of 24,000 years, the material requires strict safety protocols and specialised equipment for handling.

Until Trump’s order in May, the U.S. disposal strategy involved blending the plutonium with inert materials and burying it at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP), an underground repository in New Mexico—a process the DOE estimated would cost around $20 billion.

Critics argue the administration is repeating past mistakes. “Trying to convert this material into reactor fuel is insanity,” said Edwin Lyman, a nuclear physicist at the Union of Concerned Scientists. “It would entail trying to repeat the disastrous MOX fuel program and hoping for a different result. The excess plutonium is a dangerous waste product, and DOE should stick to the safer, more secure, and far cheaper plan to dilute and directly dispose of it in WIPP.”

By Tamilla Hasanova